“Go back to your father and say: ‘O’ father! Verily your son has committed theft, and we did not bear witness except to what we knew, and we were not guardians of the Unseen’.”
Tafseer
In this ayah as well we find pearls of wisdom come from the tongue of this ‘big’ brother.
This shows us how much he has changed.
He has changed from a selfish and jealous boy who only cared for himself to a man who now realized the purpose of his existence.
See here how Allah can guide even the darkest of hearts?
First, he reminds his siblings to return to their father – return to where they came from.
We can take a lesson from this for our lives as well.
We too should return home in times of difficulty and trial. When matters become difficult, we should always go back to where we came from.
At home, there is solace. At home there is peace. At home, there is the support of the family.
At home, there is a chance to regroup and rejuvenate.
Then tell your father that his son has surely committed theft.
The word “surely” is for emphasis and certainty. Of course, Yaqoob (AS) would find it hard to believe that his son is a thief.
This brother witnessed with his own eyes the cup being pulled out of Binyamin’s bag.
So the evidence that he had witnessed clearly indicate that Binyamin was a thief.
He tells his father here that he does not know anything more than that.
Allah Knows best if Binyamin is truly a thief or not.
He only knows what he has seen with his eyes.
It is as if he is saying “o my father, I know that you find it hard to believe that Binyamin is a thief. All that I am telling you is what I saw. Allah Knows best”.
Reflection
Scholars have said “wa ma shadidna”
• What got them into the problem from the beginning?
– The ruling
• We didn’t know that Ben Yamin was the one who was going to steal
• We just testified according to the ruling
Lesson
- All parents always think the best of their children. They find it hard to believe that their children would ever do anything. Of course, we should always think the best of our children, and we should always pray that they be righteous, but at the same time, we should remember that they are human and it is the nature of the human to sin. We must keep in mind that our child is human and humans can sin.
- Knowledge is gained by studying the world around us. Any thought or any idea that we adopt has to be based on what we sense.
If we have not sensed something then it just imagination. - When we believe something that someone else tells us we have to believe it on how likely it is that such a person is speaking the truth and how much we trust that person.
Based on the kind of person who they are and whether or not they are known for speaking the truth, we must make the judgment.