قالوا يا أَبانا إِنّا ذَهَبنا نَستَبِقُ وَتَرَكنا يوسُفَ عِندَ مَتاعِنا فَأَكَلَهُ الذِّئبُ ۖ وَما أَنتَ بِمُؤمِنٍ لَنا وَلَو كُنّا صادِقينَ
They said: ‘Father! We had gone racing and left Joseph with our things, whereat the wolf ate him. But you will not believe us even if we spoke truly.’
EXEGESIS
Nastabiqu (racing) comes from sabq, which originally means to overtake someone in moving.[1] As istibāq it has the same meaning as tasābuq and means to race with one another; it is used again later in the surah, They raced to the door (verse 25).[2]
Matāʿ (things) is any beneficial thing which either gives enjoyment or is necessary for certain needs.[3] Here it refers to the provisions and gear that they took with them for their outing.
EXPOSITION
The ten teary-eyed brothers then began to weave their deceitful tale, thinking they could fool their father.
They said: ‘Father!’: literally, this would translate as ‘our father’ (abānā), and the expression is meant to try to appeal to Prophet Jacob’s (a) fatherly love for them.[4]
We had gone racing and left Joseph with our things: they claimed that they had decided to race one another, leaving behind the young Joseph (a) to safeguard their belongings, because he would not be able to keep up with his older brothers.
There is symbolism here related to the brothers being engaged in play, which distracts them from their duty of looking after their brother. Too often the diversions offered by worldly life distract man from that which is important and requires his attention.
They then claimed that after they had lost sight of him when racing one another, the wolf ate him. Although some have claimed that they mean that the wolf ate all of him so that nothing remained to be buried,[5] that is not a very convincing understanding. Rather what is apparent is that they claimed that a wolf killed him and dragged his body away, leaving behind only a bloody and torn shirt.
But you will not believe us even if we spoke truly: by choosing to make their lie about what their father had previously indicated was his worry, the brothers hoped that it would make it more believable. As if to say that ‘if we were to lie, would we have not come up with a less obvious lie?’ This was their attempt at being clever and to outsmart their father, who was nevertheless not the least bit fooled. Another aspect of them trying to be clever with this lie is that they chose a lie which made them look bad (instead of for example claiming Prophet Joseph (a) was disobedient and ran off even though we told him not to). They had previously exclaimed that they will indeed be losers (verse 14) if they let a wolf eat their brother. They thought that by choosing a lie that made them look bad it would make the lie more believable, because after all, a person would not generally lie to make themselves appear bad. Finally, there is also a flavour of them trying to guilt their father here, by playing into the emotional aspect of his love and their claim that he somehow did not like them and was negatively predisposed to them. It is akin to saying: ‘You never trust us, and even before we left you already were unjustly accusing us.’ By doing this, they were trying to pin him into a corner so that he would feel bad about accusing them.
[1] Raghib, p. 395, s-b-q.
[2] For a more detailed discussion see Mizan, 11/101-102.
[3] Tahqiq, 11/13, m-t-ʿ.
[4] Nemuneh, 11/140.
[5] Tantawi, 7/329.