قَالُوا۟ يَٰٓأَبَانَا مُنِعَ مِنَّا ٱلْكَيْلُ فَأَرْسِلْ مَعَنَآ أَخَانَا نَكْتَلْ · قَالَ هَلْ ءَامَنُكُمْ عَلَيْهِ إِلَّا كَمَآ أَمِنتُكُمْ عَلَىٰٓ أَخِيهِ مِن قَبْلُ فَٱللَّهُ خَيْرٌ حَٰفِظًا وَهُوَ أَرْحَمُ ٱلرَّٰحِمِينَ
"They said: 'Our father! Measure has been withheld from us; send our brother with us and we shall get our measure. We will certainly keep him safe.' He said: 'Shall I entrust him to you as I entrusted his brother to you before? God is the best of keepers, and He is the most merciful of the merciful.' When they opened their loads they found their trading-goods returned to them… He said: 'I will not send him with you until you give me a solemn pledge before God that you will surely bring him back to me, unless you are encompassed.' When they had given their pledge he said: 'God is guarantor over what we say.'"
And verse 64 is the answer to verse 11, and I tabulated the two verses in the section on 11-14. Here its ground is seen:
| Verse | Expression | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | Mā laka lā taʾmannā ʿalā Yūsuf | That day — the brothers ask |
| 64 | Hal āmanukum ʿalayhi illā kamā amintukum ʿalā akhīhi min qabl | Years later — the father answers |
And the form of the answer must be recorded: it is in the form of a question, and it is comparative. The father does not say "no"; he recalls the previous experience.
فَٱللَّهُ خَيْرٌ حَٰفِظًا — a note on the variant readings: the word has been read in two forms, ḥāfiẓan (as tamyīz) and ḥifẓan (as a verbal noun). On both readings the meaning comes to the same place: the work of keeping is left to God.
And a link with the axis of al-Ḥujurāt can be made; but the real link is in verse 12: there the brothers had said wa-innā lahu la-ḥāfiẓūn; here they use the same word again (wa-innā lahu la-ḥāfiẓūn, 63). The father, however, turns the same root towards God: fa'llāhu khayrun ḥāfiẓā.
| Verse | Expression | Who |
|---|---|---|
| 12 | Wa-innā lahu la-ḥāfiẓūn | The brothers — about Joseph |
| 63 | Wa-innā lahu la-ḥāfiẓūn | The brothers — about the other brother |
| 64 | Fa'llāhu khayrun ḥāfiẓā | The father — a correction |
The same word three times, ascribed to two different places. This is a weave verifiable within the sūra.
| Reading | Sense |
|---|---|
| 1 | Mā as an interrogative: "What more could we want?" — conveying sufficiency |
| 2 | Mā as a negation: "We seek no wrong" — from the root of baghy (overstepping) |
نَمِيرُ أَهْلَنَا — root م-ي-ر: to bring provisions to one's family. Mīra — food fetched from afar. The word occurs in the Qurʾān only here and is a term of trade and provisioning.
The root و-ث-ق: to bind firmly, to trust. Wathīqa — a document; mīthāq — a compact. The root was treated at al-Aḥzāb 33/7-8 (mīthāqan ghalīẓā).
And the exception to the condition is worth recording: illā an yuḥāṭa bikum — "unless you are encompassed".
The root ح-و-ط: to surround on every side. This root was treated at al-Kahf 18/60-70 (wa-kayfa taṣbiru ʿalā mā lam tuḥiṭ bihi khubrā) as the key to that sūra.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the same root in the two sūras: in al-Kahf iḥāṭa conveyed the limit of knowledge; here the limit of power. The two sūras use the same root for two different limits — and the exception to the pledge given is exactly this: the case that passes out of one's hands.