father, the measuring [of corn] is denied us if thou send not our brother unto him; therefore send with us our brother, that we may obtain measure; and we will surely take care of him. He said, Shall I intrust you with him otherwise than as I intrusted you with his brother Joseph before? But God is the best guardian, and He is the most merciful of those who show mercy.And when they opened their goods, they found their money had been returned unto them. They said, O our father, what desire we of the generosity of the king greater than this? This our money hath been returned unto us; and we will provide corn for our family, and will take care of our brother, and shall receive a camel-load more, for our brother. This is a quantity easy unto the king, by reason of his munificence.-He said, I will by no means send him with you until ye give me a solemn promise by God that ye will assuredly bring him back unto me unless an inevitable and insuperable impediment encompass you. And they complied with this his desire. And when they had given him their solemn promise, he said, God is witness of what we say. And he sent him with them; and he said, O my sons, enter not the city of Misr by one gate; but enter by different gates; lest the [evil] eye fall upon you. But I shall not avert from you, by my saying this, anything decreed to befall you from God: I only say this from a feeling of compassion. Judgment belongeth not [unto any] save unto God alone. On Him do I rely, and on Him let those rely who rely.

1

And when they entered as their father had commanded them, separately, it did not avert from them anything decreed to befall them from God, but [only satisfied] a desire in the soul of Jacob, which he accomplished; that is, the

1 The belief in the influence of the evil eye prevails among all the Muslims, even the most religious and learned; for their prophet said, 'The eye hath a complete influence; because verily, if there were a thing to over

come fate, it most certainly would be a malignant eye.' Hence he permitted charms (which he disallowed in almost every other case) to be employed for the purpose of counteracting its influence.

desire of averting the [evil] eye, arising from a feeling of compassion and he was endowed with knowledge, because We had taught him: but the greater number of men, namely the unbelievers, know not God's inspiration of His saints. And when they went in unto Joseph, he received unto him (or pressed unto him) his brother. He said, Verily I am thy brother; therefore be not sorrowful for that which they did from envy to us. And he commanded him that he should not inform them, and agree with him that he should employ a stratagem to retain him with him. And when he had furnished them with their provision, he put the cup, which was a measure made of gold set with jewels,2 in the sack of his brother Benjamin. Then a crier cried, after they had gone forth from the chamber of Joseph, O company of travellers, ye are surely thieves. They said (and turned unto them), What is it that ye miss? They answered, We miss the king's measure; and to him who shall bring it [shall be given] a camel-load of corn, and I am surety for it, namely the load. They replied, By God! ye well know that we have not come to act corruptly in the land, and we have not been thieves. The crier and his companions said, Then what shall be the recompense of him who hath stolen it, if ye be liars in your saying, We have not been thieves,—and it be found among you? They answered, His recompense [shall be that] he in whose sack it shall be found shall be made a slave: he, the thief, shall be compensation for it; namely, for the

1 It is related that Joseph, having invited his brethren to an entertainment, ordered them to be placed two and two together; by which means, Benjamin, the eleventh, was obliged to sit alone, and, bursting into tears, said, If my brother Joseph were alive, he would have sat with me. Whereupon Joseph ordered him to be seated at the same table with himself, and when the entertainment was over, dismissed the rest, ordering that they should be lodged two and two in a

house, but kept Benjamin in his own apartment, where he passed the night. The next day, Joseph asked him whether he would accept of himself for his brother, in the room of him whom he had lost; to which Benjamin replied, "Who can find a brother comparable unto thee? Yet thou art not the son of Jacob and Rachel.' And upon this, Joseph discovered himself to him.-S. (B.).

2 Some, however, are of opinion that it was a drinking-cup.

thing stolen. Such was the usage of the family of Jaocb. Thus do We recompense the offenders who are guilty of theft. So they turned towards Joseph, that he might search their sacks. And he began with their sacks, and searched them before the sack of his brother [Benjamin], lest he should be suspected. Then he took it forth (namely, the measure) from the sack of his brother. Thus, saith God, did We contrive a stratagem for Joseph. It was not [lawful] for him to take his brother as a slave for theft by the law of the king of Egypt (for his recompense by his law was beating, and a fine of twice the value of the thing stolen; not the being made a slave), unless God had pleased, by inspiring him to inquire of his brethren and inspiring them to reply according to their usage. We exalt unto degrees [of knowledge and honour] whom We please, as Joseph; and [there is who is] knowing above every one [else] endowed with knowledge. They said, If he steal, a brother of his hath stolen before; namely, Joseph ;1 for he stole an idol of gold belonging to the father of his mother, and broke it, that he might not worship it. And Joseph concealed it in his mind, and did not discover it to them. He said within himself, Ye are in a worse condition than Joseph and his brother, by reason of your having stolen your brother from your father and your having treated him unjustly; and God well knoweth what ye state concerning him. They said, O prince, verily he hath a father, a very old man, who loveth him more than us, and consoleth him

1 The occasion of this suspicion, it is said, was that Joseph having been brought up by his father's sister, she became so fond of him, that when he grew up and Jacob designed to take him from her she contrived the following stratagem to keep him. Having a girdle which had once belonged to Abraham, she girt it about the child, and then pretending she had lost it, caused strict search to be made for it; and it being at length

found on Joseph, he was adjudged, according to the above-mentioned law of the family, to be delivered to her as her property. Some, however, say that Joseph actually stole an idol of gold, which belonged to his mother's father, and destroyed it; a story probably taken from Rachel's stealing the images of Laban: and others tell us that he once stole a goat or a hen, to give to a poor man.-S.

self by him for the loss of his son who hath perished, and the separation of him grieveth him; therefore take one of us as a slave in his stead; for we see thee [to be one] of the beneficent. He replied, God preserve us from taking [any] save him in whose possession we found our property; for then (if we took another), we [should be] unjust.

And when they despaired of [obtaining] him, they retired to confer privately together. The chief of them in age (namely, Reuben, or in judgment, namely, Judah), said, Do ye not know that your father hath obtained of you a solemn promise in the name of God, with respect of your brother, and how ye formerly failed of your duty with respect to Joseph? Therefore I will by no means depart from the land of Egypt until my father give me permission to return to him, or God decide for me by the delivery of my brother; and He is the best, the most just, of those who decide. Return ye to your father, and say, O our father, verily thy son hath committed theft, and we bore not testimony against him save according to that which we knew of a certainty, by our seeing the cup in his sack; and we were not acquainted with what was unseen by us when we gave the solemn promise: had we known that he would commit theft, we had not taken him. And send thou, and ask the people of the city in which we have been (namely, Misr)1 and the company of travellers with whom we have arrived (who were a people of Canaan): and we are surely speakers of truth. So they returned to him, and said unto him those words. He replied, Nay, your minds have made a thing seem pleasant unto you, and ye have done it (he suspected them, on account of their former conduct in the case of Joseph); but patience is seemly: peradventure God will bring them back (namely, Joseph and his brother) unto me, together; for He is the Knowing with respect to my case, the Wise in His

1 Migr is the name both of Egypt and its capital.

acts. And he turned from them, and said, O! my sorrow for Joseph! And his eyes became white in consequence of mourning, and he was oppressed with silent grief. They said, By God, thou wilt not cease to think upon Joseph until thou be at the point of death, or be of [the number of] the dead. He replied, I only complain of my great and unconcealable grief and my sorrow unto God; not unto any beside Him; for He it is unto whom complaint is made with advantage; and I know [by revelation] from God what ye know not; namely, that the dream of Joseph was true, and that he is living. Then he said, O my sons, go and seek news of Joseph and his brother; and despair not of the mercy of God; for none despaireth of the mercy of God except the unbelieving people.

So they departed towards Egypt, unto Joseph; and when they went in unto him, they said, O Prince, distress (that is, hunger) hath affected us and our family, and we have come with paltry money (it was base money, or some other sort): yet give us full measure, and be charitable to us, by excusing the badness of our money; for God recompenseth those who act charitably. And he had pity upon them, and compassion affected him, and he lifted up the curtain that was between him and them: then he said unto them in reproach, Do ye know what ye did unto Joseph, in beating and selling and other actions, and his brother, by your injurious conduct to him after the separation of his brother, when ye were ignorant of what would be the result of the case of Joseph ?1 They replied, after they had recognised him (desiring confirmation), Art thou indeed Joseph? He answered, I am Joseph, and this is my brother. God hath

1 The injury they did Benjamin was the separating him from his brother, after which they kept him in so great subjection that he durst not speak to them but with the utmost submission. Some say that these words were occasioned by a letter which Joseph's brethren delivered to him from their father,

requesting the releasement of Benjamin, and by their representing his extreme affliction at the loss of him and his brother. The commentators observe that Joseph, to excuse his brethren's behaviour towards him, attributes it to their ignorance and the heat of youth.-S. (B.)