إِذْ قَالُوا۟ لَيُوسُفُ وَأَخُوهُ أَحَبُّ إِلَىٰٓ أَبِينَا مِنَّا وَنَحْنُ عُصْبَةٌ · ٱقْتُلُوا۟ يُوسُفَ أَوِ ٱطْرَحُوهُ أَرْضًا · قَالَ قَآئِلٌ مِّنْهُمْ لَا تَقْتُلُوا۟ يُوسُفَ وَأَلْقُوهُ فِى غَيَٰبَتِ ٱلْجُبِّ
Idh qālū la-Yūsufu wa-akhūhu aḥabbu ilā abīnā minnā wa-naḥnu ʿuṣbatun inna abānā la-fī ḍalālin mubīn · Uqtulū Yūsufa awi'ṭraḥūhu arḍan yakhlu lakum wajhu abīkum wa-takūnū min baʿdihi qawman ṣāliḥīn · Qāla qāʾilun minhum lā taqtulū Yūsufa wa-alqūhu fī ghayābati'l-jubbi yaltaqiṭhu baʿḍu's-sayyārati in kuntum fāʿilīn
"When they said: 'Joseph and his brother are dearer to our father than we are, though we are a band. Our father is truly in manifest error. — Kill Joseph, or cast him away in some land, so that your father's face may be free for you; and after that you will be a righteous people.' One of them said: 'Do not kill Joseph; drop him into the bottom of the well, and some caravan will pick him up — if you must act.'"
The brothers' sentence was treated in al-Falaq in the section on envy. What was recorded there:
"When they said: Joseph and his brother are dearer to our father than we are, though we are a band" (Yūsuf 12/8). Here the word for envy does not occur, but the structure is the same: a favour (the father's love) is with the other, and this becomes unbearable through the comparison "we are more and we are stronger". The outcome is the well.
عُصْبَة — root ع-ص-ب: to bind a thing tightly, to tie it. ʿAṣaba — he bound, he tied. ʿAṣab — sinew, tendon. From this comes ʿuṣba: a group bound together, standing by one another.
And the choice of the word is worth recording: the brothers describe themselves not by number but by bond. Naḥnu ʿuṣba — "we are an interlocking". And this gives the logic of the objection: the strength is there, while the love is with the other.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the sense of "binding" in the root of the word: the sentence does not claim that the love is undeserved — it disputes the measure of its distribution. And the measure proposed is strength and number.
The word was cited in al-Ḍuḥā where the uses of the root ḍalāl in the Qurʾān were listed, and precisely this distinction was recorded there: ḍalāl here is not an imputation of unbelief but means "a mistaken assessment, a going astray". I rely on that treatment. The same root will occur again in verse 95, from the same mouths: innaka la-fī ḍalālika'l-qadīm.
| Proposal | Verb | What it conveys |
|---|---|---|
| The first | Uqtulū | Kill — a definitive outcome |
| The second | Iṭraḥūhu arḍan | Cast him away in some land — an unspecified place (arḍan indefinite: "in any land at all") |
| The third (the objection) | Alqūhu fī ghayābati'l-jubb | Drop him into the bottom of the well — a specified place |
And the difference among the three proposals is worth recording: the first two aim at the outcome, the third settles the means. The third proposal removes the killing and puts a possibility in its place: yaltaqiṭhu baʿḍu's-sayyāra — "some caravan will pick him up".
The image in the idiom must be recorded: yakhlu — root خ-ل-و: to become empty, to be left alone. The sentence does not say "let your father love you": it says "let your father's face be left empty for you".
I record this as an observation: what is wanted is not love — it is the absence of a rival. And this must be read together with the second half of the ninth verse: wa-takūnū min baʿdihi qawman ṣāliḥīn — "and after that you will be a righteous people."
The construction of the sentence is worth noting, and I give this as my own reading: while the wrong is being planned, the setting right afterwards is folded into the plan as well. That is, the act presents itself as a passing stage.
غَيَٰبَة — root غ-ي-ب: to become invisible, to disappear. The word was analysed at al-Infiṭār 82/16 and this very verse was cited as an example:
The concrete origin of the word rests on an image: الغَابَة (ghāba) — dense forest; whoever enters it becomes invisible. From the same root comes ghayāba — the bottom of the well in the story of Joseph: "Drop him into the bottom of the well." (Yūsuf 12/10, 15). The depth that is not seen.
The same verse was cited at al-Muzzammil 73/5 as well (alqūhu fī ghayābati'l-jubb). I rely on that treatment.
جُبّ — an open well, not lined with stone. The lexicographers record the difference between biʾr and jubb thus: biʾr is the general word for a well, jubb the one whose mouth is unlined.
And the work this word does in the sūra is worth recording: the well is the first place in the sūra that stands for invisibility — the prison will be the second. The story advances twice by an emergence from an enclosed place.