“They said, ‘We are missing the king’s cup.’”
As we explained, most likely this is a national icon and a symbol of the wealth of Egypt.
“We are missing the measuring cup of the king.” The word suwaa‘ literally means a vessel, and it can be used for a drinking cup and a measuring cup. When we give Eid Al-Fitr, we give a sa‘, which is similar phrasing from this.
The mu’adhdhin says,
“We are missing the suwaa‘ (measuring cup) of the king.”
“‘Whoever manages to find this will get an entire camel’s worth of grain.’”
In this day and age, and in the time of drought, they don’t care about money. They want food.
The prize money and the reward will be an entire camel’s worth of food. The crier is saying,
“‘I will guarantee this that for sure whoever finds it will get the grain.’”
Here we have a little bit of fiqh here. As we already mentioned before, in Surah Yusuf, there are certain fiqh transactions that we can derive that are permissible in Islam.
All of these transactions have other evidences, but we also find one evidence in Surah Yusuf.
There is no problem using Surah Yusuf as evidence because there is a rule in Usul’l-fiqh that the Shari‘ah of the people before us is also our Shari‘ah as long as we
don’t have specific evidence to abrogate it.
Let me repeat that: the Shari‘ah of the people before us is also our Shari‘ah unless there is a specific evidence that shows that it is not allowed.
This is exactly what this incident tells us.
A cup has gone missing, and whoever finds it will get a camel’s load of food.
If you find it accidentally, you will get the camel load of food, and if you go hunting for it and after one month don’t find anything, you will not be paid anything because you didn’t do the deed.
Here, the man is saying, “I will guarantee, no matter what happens on top and if the king takes his promise back.
I will guarantee it that no matter what happens, it is my responsibility.” This is something that i
*Lesson*
Of the benefits of this sūrah is wisdom in *planning*. Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) has planted the cup in the sack of his brother, and now he wants to open up those sacks.
He begins with the sacks of the older brothers and works his way to the younger one.
This shows us the believer, once again, is not naïve. He knows that if he were to go straight to the sack of Binyamin, people are going to say, “Wait, hold on a second.
How did you know it was in that sack? He is planning things through and has foresight. These days we have a whole science called management.
Yūsuf demonstrates that and thinks things through. In our times, the chess player thinks ten steps ahead.
Yūsuf is thinking. This is a sign of īmān. The mu’min is not foolish. The mu’min is a wise person. Yūsuf (‘alayhi’l-salām) demonstrates this.