“And they sold him for a small price, of a few
dirhams counted out, and inhim they had no interest.”
TAFSEER
“And they sold him for a miserable price.”
They sold him for a price that was far less than what he was worthy of. This has two meanings.
Firstly, Yusuf is invaluable, and no matter what price they had placed on him, it would not have been enough. Allah ‘azza wa jall is saying here they have a treasure, and no matter what they sold him for, it would not have been worth what Yusuf is worth.
Secondly, Allah is saying that what he would have gotten as a normal slave, they went far less than that anyway. They sold him for a miserable loss.
“Dirhams that you can count…”
To emphasize the point, Allah said, “Dirhams that you can count.” The fact that you can count them shows that it is not a lot of dirhams. If you have only a handful, then you can count them.
“And they were regarding him not very eager.”
They considered him to be insignificant. They did not consider him to be a great prize.
This ayah tells us a number of things.
First and foremost, there is a human psychology that when you get something for free, you do not value it. It is human nature that you trivialize what you get for free.
SubhanAllah the best example for this is our religion of Islam. We were born Muslim, and we do not value it. Those who convert to Islam have to search for it and find it. They value it.
Allah ‘azza wa jall is saying they didn’t consider him to be very significant because he was stolen merchandise. Also, Allah is saying that because Yusuf was stolen merchandise, they wanted to get him off of their chest as fast as possible. These people are guilty because they have captured an innocent boy who doesn’t deserve to be captured. They should have announced him in the marketplace and said, “We found a boy. Is there any boy missing?” but they stole him and kidnapped him, and when they got to Egypt, they sold him for a miserable price, a very paltry sum.
“They sold him.”
We say that the strongest opinion seems to be that they sold him, meaning Yusuf, in Egypt to the minister ‘Aziz. There is a fiqhi point to be made here: Yusuf is stolen merchandise, which means that he is illegal and not a legitimate item. How then can they sell the illegitimate item when they don’t own it?
The scholars say here that if somebody sells you an item and it appears that he owns the item, then your transaction with that man is valid.
Scholars say, and this is the general fiqh rule, that if a transaction is made and later on it turns out the person who sold you the item didn’t own it, you are scot free, and you don’t have to defend yourself, and you will get your money back because you didn’t do anything wrong. The one who did wrong was the one who cheated you and the one who did dhulm.
Reflection:
‣ The caravan was a mercy from Allah.
‣ The permissibility of announcing the good news.
‣ Thieves always want to get rid of the stolen goods.
‣ They insignificantly sold him for the lowest price.
‣ They treated the prophet of Allah as a commodity not as a dignified human.
‣ Shiraa (to buy) has two meanings in Arabic:
• To buy
• To sell
‣ The ruling of selling a free person as a slave.Lesson;
- There is no sin on a person that buys, sells, or uses anything that is considered as merchandise according to prevailing business practices. Nor is the one who is not aware how this merchandise was obtained guilty of any sin. For the brothers of Yusuf sold him, which was a haram, impermissible transaction, then he was found by a caravan of people who took him to Egypt and sold him there as a slave, and in spite of all this Allah referred to him as “merchandise.”
2. Whatever difficulty that you may be going through in your life at this moment, you have to realize that it is nothing compared to what this young child went through. If this young child can have patience with the Decree of Allah (swt) then so can you. So if you are a sincere believer in Allah (swt) and you try your best to please Him (swt) then realize that there is good in every calamity that befalls you.
3. So you should expect that at some moments of your life you will be pleased and other moments may be difficult. This life is nothing but being patient through the difficult moments and being thankful for the good ones. Patient and thankful only for Allah (swt).
4. Imagine how painful it must have been at age 7, not only to have been torn from his family and sold into slavery – but to have his family do it! How easy it would have been to become embittered and hate-filled like his brothers. But it didn’t happen to Yusuf. He didn’t mourn his disappointment but became useful where he was.