“They said: ‘By Allah! You know well (that) we have not come to make mischief in the land, and we are not thieves’.”
The brothers, disturbed by these words, were not aware of the roots of the problem. In their reply, they seem certain that the Egyptian authorities knew that they were not the type to steal.
*Tafseer*
“They said, ‘We swear by Allah, you yourselves know that we didn’t come to cause any evil in this earth and we are not of those who steal.’”
Tallahi is one of the ways to give an oath (qasm) in Arabic. You say: wallahi, billahi, tallahi. These are all ways to swear and give an oath in the Arabic language.
They are laying the burden of guilt on the very crier and crowd and around them and saying,
“Look, we have been here before, and you have seen our mannerisms.”
Once again, this shows us that in their stay in Egypt in Memphis, they have shown their morals and their ethics and manners.
They are now invoking their own character and saying,
“Look, you know. We don’t have to tell you this. We have been here.”
You can imagine that when you go from that far away that you would stay for ten or fifteen days to finish your transaction and to do other things.
They established a reputation the first time, and this is the second time they are coming.
Some of the references that the scholars give of their honesty are that the brothers would put muzzles on the mouths of their camels so that the camels would not eat food from the streets because they were so conscious to have no evil sin ascribed to them.
They say, “Look, you know that we didn’t come to cause any evil. You know our reputation and we are not of those who steal.”
They call stealing fasaad, and fasaad is corruption,
which shows us that stealing is one of the worst types of corruption on earth.
*Hadith related*;
Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam) said in a hadith in Abu Dawud, “Allah’s curse is on the one who steals.”
The Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam) is saying, “Allah’s la‘na is on the one who steals.”
What does this mean?
Allah’s la‘na means that this person has removed himself from the Mercy of Allah. La‘na simply means you have removed yourself from the Mercy of Allah.
Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam) said, “He steals a cheap item and because of it, his hand is cut off.”
As you know, the punishment for stealing is to have your hand cut off, meaning what ‘izzah, what karamah, what nobility does he have?
In the Eyes of Allah, when he stole an item, his hand is worthy of being disconnected from him. It shows you the punishment and the despicable nature of the thief.
The thief has no honor in the Eyes of Allah, which is why the punishment is so severe for the thief.
*Reflection* :
They said, “By Allah , you have certainly known that we did not come to cause corruption in the land, and we have not been thieves.”
‣ They say “Surely you know we didn’t come here to cause mischief
‣ In Arabic, there’s walahi and talahi when you swear
• You say walahi when you want to emphasize a point
• When you ask a question, you say bilahi
• Talahi is emphasizing but there’s a probability
– The brothers don’t know for sure that these people actually know that they didn’t come to cause mischief
*Lesson*;
Take time to plan all of your endeavors well and execute in the best way possible.
We cannot simply play everything by ear and then hope for all things to turn out for the best.
Our Lord gave us minds for a reason. It is so that we would have excellence in everything.
It is so that we would do everything that we do in the best way possible.
The success of any endeavor comes from good planning.
Why would Allah (swt) allow any endeavor to succeed if the ones who carried it out were too lazy to plan it properly?
So in your dawah, in your studies, in your work, and in your life, plan out everything properly.
Realize that even the effort that you put into such planning is part of your striving to please your Lord.
Of course, we always have trust in Allah (swt), but at the same time we also plan to the best of our ability as Allah (swt) had commanded to.