ROOT ب ض ع

1523

Commentary:

It is noteworthy how God takes care of His faithful servants. Joseph’s brothers cast him into a deep well in the wilderness but God so arranged that immediately afterwards a caravan arrived there. A man sent to fetch water from a well happened to go to the very well into which Joseph had been cast and this led to his being taken out alive.

The words, And they concealed him as a piece of merchandise, show that the members of the caravan looked upon Joseph as treasure and saw in him a youth of promise.

1546

Important Words:

بضع (some) is derived from بضع (bad‘a). They say بضعه i.e. he cut it; or he cut it into pieces. بضع means, a part or portion of the night; a time thereof. The word denotes a variety of numbers but is generally understood to mean from three to nine. بضع رجال means, from three to nine men. The expression فلبث فی السجن بضع سنن means, and he remained in the prison from three to nine years (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

When this prisoner busied himself with the satanic occupation of preparing wine for and offering it to his master, the purifying influence of Joseph’s holy company was gone and he forgot to speak of him to the King.

1564

Commentary:

Although Joseph exercised great patience and self-control and did not exhibit any such feeling or emotion as must have risen in his compassionate heart on seeing his brothers, his natural affection for them did make him return to them the money they had paid as the price of the grain. This does not mean that by doing so he defrauded the public treasury, for he could easily pay so small an amount to the treasury from his own pocket.

The words, that they may recognize it, mean that his brothers might appreciate the favour that was shown to them and might thereby be induced to return.

Here we have another point of resemblance between Joseph and the Holy Prophet. Just as these verses throw light on the great love of Joseph for his brothers so that, notwithstanding their cruel treatment of him, he was kind to them and desired their return, so the Holy Prophet, notwithstanding the deep-rooted enmity of the Meccans against him, always wished them well. How great was the Prophet’s love for his people and how great his anxiety that they might see the truth and accept it, it may be judged from the following words of the Quran: Haply, thou wilt kill thyself by over exertion in thy work because they believe not (26:4).

1567

Important Words:

نمیر (we shall bring provision) is derived from مار. They say مار اھله i.e. he brought or conveyed wheat or other corn or provision of any kind to or for his family or his household (Lane).

یسیر (easy to obtain) is derived from یسر (yassara) which is again derived from یسر (yasara) which means, he was or became gentle, tractable, submissive, manageable or easy. یسرہ means, he made it easy; he facilitated it. یسر means, little or small in quantity; petty; paltry; of no weight or worth; easy to get; easy and gentle in tractableness, submissiveness or manageableness (Lane). See also 2:220.

Commentary:

Although the Quran does not clearly mention what conveyance was used by Joseph’s brethren in their journey; the words, the measure of a camel-load, used here as well as in 12:73 apparently lead to the inference that they made their journey on camels. But the Bible says that the journey was made on asses; for we read in Gen. 43:24, "And he gave their asses provender." The question which of the two statements is correct can best be answered by finding out which conveyance the Prophet Jacob and his family generally used on their journeys. The Bible itself tells us that the animal which they usually used was the camel (Gen. 31:17).

Moreover, the long and difficult nature of the journey also favours the inference that it was performed on camels. It must, however, be noted that the words "a camel-load" may not necessarily mean a load put on a camel’s back, but may denote only the load which a camel can ordinarily carry, though it may be loaded on asses. In this case the difference between the statements of the Bible and the Quran about the form of conveyance disappears.

1588

Commentary:

The Arabic word عزیز (meaning, an honourable or exalted one) does not seem to be a specific title, though in later times i.e. after the advent of Islam, the Kings of Egypt came to be known by this title. The ancient Egyptians did not speak Arabic and therefore we cannot think that the Ministers of Egypt were known by this title. So in the verse under comment the word has been used only in the sense of a chief or an exalted person. In this sense also Potiphar has been called عزیز in v. 52.

The conduct of Joseph’s brothers on this occasion seems to be inexplicable. Either they had morally sunk so low that, ignoring the real purpose of their present visit to Egypt, which was to make a search for Joseph, Benjamin and Judah, they began to beg for corn, or, perhaps fearing lest they should be taken for spies, they begged for corn to hide the real purpose of their visit.

2991

Important Words:

بضع (a few) is derived from بضع (bada‘a). They say بضعه i.e. he cut it; he cut it into pieces; he cut it length-wise. بضعmeans, a part or portion of the night; a time thereof. They say مضی بضع من اللیل i.e. a part of the night passed. The word also denotes a variety of numbers such as five, seven, ten, etc., but is generally understood to mean from three to nine. بضع رجال means from three to nine men. بضع سنین means, from three to nine years (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

In order fully to appreciate the significance of this and the preceding two verses it is necessary to cast a cursory glance over the political conditions that obtained in the two great Empires that lay on the borders of Arabia—the Persian and the Roman Empires—shortly before the advent of the Holy Prophet of Islam. They were at war with each other. The first round had gone in favour of the Persians whose tide of conquest began in 602 A.D., when in order to avenge the death of Maurice, his patron and benefactor, at the hands of Phocas, Chosroes II started the war with Rome. For twenty years the Roman Empire was overrun by Persian armies as it had never been before. The Persian armies plundered Syria and Asia Minor and in 608 A.D. advanced to Chalcedon. Damascus was taken in 613. The surrounding country on which no Persian had ever set foot since the founding of the Empire was utterly and completely laid waste. In June 614 Jerusalem was also captured. The whole of Christendom was horrified by the news that together with the Patriarch the Persians had carried off the cross of Christ. Christianity had been humbled in the dust. The flood of Persian conquest, however, did not stop with the capture of Jerusalem. Egypt was next conquered, Asia Minor again overrun, and the Persian armies were knocking at the very gates of Constantinople. The Romans could offer but little resistance as they were torn by internal dissensions. The humiliation of Heraclius was so complete that "Chosroes wanted to see him brought in chains to the foot of his throne and was not prepared to give him peace till he had abjured his crucified god and embraced the worship of the sun" (Historians’ History of the World, vol. 7, p. 159, vol. 8, pp. 94-95 & Enc. Brit. under "Chosroes" II & "Heraclius"). This state of affairs very much grieved the Muslims as they had much in common with the Romans who were the "People of the Book". But the Quraish of Mecca who, like the Persians, were idolaters, feigned to see in this discomfiture of Christian armies a happy augury for the overthrow and destruction of Islam. It was shortly after this complete debacle of Roman forces that in 616 A.D., came the revelation to the Holy Prophet which forms the subject-matter of the verse under comment and the two preceding verses. The verses possessed a twofold significance. They foretold, in circumstances then quite inconceivable, that the whole position would be completely reversed within the short space of eight or nine years and the erstwhile victorious Persian armies would suffer a crushing defeat at the hands of the utterly defeated, prostrated and humbled Romans. The Arabic word used in the verse to denote this period is بضع (bid‘un) which as shown under "Important Words," signifies a period from three to nine years. The significance of the prophecy embodied in the verses, however, lay in the fact that, within this short period, the foundations of the ultimate triumph of Islam and that of the defeat and discomfiture of the forces of disbelief and darkness would be firmly laid. The prophecy was fulfilled in circumstances beyond human calculation or comprehension. Regarding the extreme improbability of fulfilment of the prophecy under the prevailing circumstances, the following observation of Gibbon may be read with interest:

In the midst of the Persian triumphs he (the Holy Prophet) ventured to foretell that before many years should elapse victory would return to the banners of the Romans…At the time when this prediction is said to have been delivered, no prophecy could be more distant from its accomplishment, since the first twelve years of Heraclius announced the approaching dissolution of the Empire (Rise, Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 5, p. 74).

After licking his wounds for several years, Heraclius was at last able to take the field against the Persians in 622, the year of the Holy Prophet’s Migration to Medina. In 624 he advanced into northern Media, where he destroyed the great fire-temple of Gandzak (Gazaca) and thus avenged the destruction of Jerusalem. This happened exactly within nine years, the period foretold in the verse, and to add to its importance and significance it happened in the year when the power of the Quraish also suffered a very serious reverse in the Battle of Badr, which recalled a Biblical prophecy foretelling the fading of the glory of Kedar (Isa. 21:17). In 627, Heraclius defeated the Persian army at Nineveh and advanced towards Ctesiphon. Chosroes fled from his favourite residence Dastgerd (near Baghdad), and after dragging on an inglorious existence was murdered by his own son, Siroes, on 19th February, 628. A.D.; and thus the Persian Empire, from the apparent greatness which it had reached a few years earlier sank into hopeless anarchy (Enc. Brit.).

The fulfilment of the prophecy was so remarkable and unforeseen that prejudiced Christian writers have been hard pressed to explain it away. Rodwell says that the vowel points of the Arabic expression سیغلبون were left undecided so that it would read either way, i.e. sa-yaghlibun meaning, "they will be victorious" or as sa-yughlabun meaning, "they will be defeated." He even adds that the ambiguity was intentional. The Rev. gentleman pretends not to understand this simple fact that the vowels of an expression which had been recited hundreds of times in daily Prayers and otherwise could hardly be left undecided. Mr. Wherry goes a step further. He says: "Our daily newspapers constantly forecast political events of this kind." The less said about this futile attempt to explain away and belittle the importance of this mighty prophecy, the better. If in the circumstances when Christianity lay humbled in the dust and Persian armies were knocking at the very gates of Constantinople and Heraclius had in vain sued for peace, a person situated as the Holy Prophet was, could forecast that within the short space of only eight or nine years the victors would become vanquished and the forces of Chosroes would receive a crushing defeat at the hands of the same Heraclius who only a few years back had very humbly but unsuccessfully sued for peace and the proud and mighty Persians would lie prostrate and exhausted, the forecast must indeed be considered to have proceeded from a superhuman source. What added to the remarkable character of the prophecy was the fact that the news of the victory of the Romans over the Persians reached the Muslims exactly at the time when they were themselves rejoicing over their own victory in the Battle of Badr.

The words: "Allah’s is the command before and after that," mean that it is God’s eternal and unalterable decree that disbelief is always defeated and humbled, and truth triumphs and progresses.