They said, “O our father, indeed we went racing each other and left Yûsuf with our possessions, and a wolf ate him. But you would not believe us, even if we were truthful.”
Surah Yusuf
TAFSEER
They said, “Oh our father, we went racing one another, and we left Yusuf with our belongings (food, vessels, containers, meat) and all that we came to have the picnic with because he was the youngest.
We are the elders and were playing (some type of race or hide-and-seek) and had to leave the youngest one. We left Yusuf with our belongings.
You are the wise man and gave us what we needed. This is what happened, but we know that you are never going to believe the story even if we were telling the truth. We know that you will never have iman in us.”
Iman means to believe in something that is unseen. Iman means believing in something that you cannot prove, which is why it is called faith. They are saying,
“You will never have iman in us, even if we are telling the truth.” What they are trying to say is that they know the story is so preposterous and far-fetched, and even if they were telling the truth they know that he would not believe them, so why would they lie?
Deep down inside they know that what they are saying is a lie and they know that their father will never believe them. So before Yaqoob (AS) actually tells them that he is not going to believe them, they themselves admit this.
This once again goes to show us that the deceiver will never be successful. In one way or another, his deception will be discovered. It could even be that he himself will admit to his deception as the brothers of Yusuf implicitly did here by telling their father that he would never believe them.
Of course, here they only add one more imaginative idea: why would Yusuf be left alone. What is the excuse? This is the lie that they invent that they went racing one another and left Yusuf all alone.
Tradition about lie:
There are numerous Islamic traditions about lying, a few of which are listed below:
1) Imam Rida (as) said:
“Keep away from major sins, which consist of: Killing someone the shedding of whose blood is forbidden, fornication, theft, lying, arrogance and extravagance.”
2) It is narrated from Allah’s Prophet (S) who said:
“Abstain from lying for it seduces (man) to commit sins which in turn lead him to Hellfire.”
3) Imam Hasan ‘Askari (as) has been quoted to have said:
“All corruptions are assembled in one house, the key of which is lying”
That is, man’s lying leads him to commit other sins.
4)Imam Sadiq (as) has been narrated who said:
“Allah’s Prophet (S) said: ‘The worst type of quotation is quoting a lie’.”
5)Ali (as) has said:
“The end of telling a lie is self–blame and feeling sorry for oneself.”
6) The sublime Prophet (S) said to Ali (as):
“O Ali! Abstain from lying, for it brings shame. Then one would be reported as a liar to Allah.”
7) The holy Prophet (S) remarked:
“He who bears false witness against a Muslim or the person sheltered by Islam, or an individual in the society, would be hanged by his tongue on the Day of Resurrection, and would be cast along with the hypocrites into the lowest level of Hell.”
8) Ali (as) said:
“The consequence of lying is meanness in this world and torment in the Hereafter.”
9)The sublime Prophet (S) said:
“Lying is one of the gateways to hypocrisy.”
LESSON
The importance of being cautious of the evil results of sins, because one sin often leads to many others. For the brothers of Yusuf tried varying plots when they wanted to separate him from his father; they lied many times, they falsified the blood on the shirt, they came at night pretending to cry, and all of this is as a result of one sin, one thing leading to a next.
Repentance before committing a sin is not true repentance. “They said we will become righteous people after it( killing Yûsuf)”
When someone has their mind set on a particular evil, then they would not stop until that evil is accomplished. So we should always ask Allah (
The guilt of people will manifest itself in one way or another. No matter how much people try to hide the evil that they have done, it will always show in one way or another. So we should realize that any path that we take where we turn away from Allah (
So we all go on continually, unaware of what lies before us. We spend today in gladness—not knowing that tomorrow will bring us tears. We move on through the flowers, heedless of danger—not suspecting that at our next step we may fall into some hidden pit. We set out on the happy journey, without thought of the possible accident on the way—which may leave us crippled or dead.
It’s easy to say; it’s okay. Everything will turn out all right in the end. But look at the immediate pain that flowed from a family eaten up with hate. The brothers lied to their father, but never escaped their personal guilt. It’s probably true that how we handle success says as much if not more about us