فَلَمَّا ٱسْتَيْـَٔسُوا۟ مِنْهُ خَلَصُوا۟ نَجِيًّۭا ۖ قَالَ كَبِيرُهُمْ أَلَمْ تَعْلَمُوٓا۟ أَنَّ أَبَاكُمْ قَدْ أَخَذَ عَلَيْكُم مَّوْثِقًۭا مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ وَمِن قَبْلُ مَا فَرَّطتُمْ فِى يُوسُفَ ۖ فَلَنْ أَبْرَحَ ٱلْأَرْضَ حَتَّىٰ يَأْذَنَ لِىٓ أَبِىٓ أَوْ يَحْكُمَ ٱللَّهُ لِى ۖ وَهُوَ خَيْرُ ٱلْحَٰكِمِينَ
When they had despaired of [moving] him, they withdrew to confer privately. The eldest of them said, ‘Don’t you know that your father has taken a [solemn] pledge from you by Allah, and earlier you have neglected your duty in regard to Joseph? So I will never leave this land until my father permits me, or Allah passes a judgement for me, and He is the best of judges.
ٱرْجِعُوٓا۟ إِلَىٰٓ أَبِيكُمْ فَقُولُوا۟ يَٰٓأَبَانَآ إِنَّ ٱبْنَكَ سَرَقَ وَمَا شَهِدْنَآ إِلَّا بِمَا عَلِمْنَا وَمَا كُنَّا لِلْغَيْبِ حَٰفِظِينَ
Go back to your father, and say, ‘‘Father! Your son has indeed committed theft, and we testified only to what we knew, and we could not have forestalled the unseen.
وَسْـَٔلِ ٱلْقَرْيَةَ ٱلَّتِى كُنَّا فِيهَا وَٱلْعِيرَ ٱلَّتِىٓ أَقْبَلْنَا فِيهَا ۖ وَإِنَّا لَصَٰدِقُونَ
Ask [the people of] the town we were in, and the caravan with which we came. We indeed speak the truth.’’ ’
قَالَ بَلْ سَوَّلَتْ لَكُمْ أَنفُسُكُمْ أَمْرًۭا ۖ فَصَبْرٌۭ جَمِيلٌ ۖ عَسَى ٱللَّهُ أَن يَأْتِيَنِى بِهِمْ جَمِيعًا ۚ إِنَّهُۥ هُوَ ٱلْعَلِيمُ ٱلْحَكِيمُ
He said, ‘No, your souls have made a matter seem decorous to you. Yet patience is graceful. Maybe Allah will bring them all [back] to me. Indeed He is the All-knowing, the All-wise.’
وَتَوَلَّىٰ عَنْهُمْ وَقَالَ يَٰٓأَسَفَىٰ عَلَىٰ يُوسُفَ وَٱبْيَضَّتْ عَيْنَاهُ مِنَ ٱلْحُزْنِ فَهُوَ كَظِيمٌۭ
He turned away from them and said, ‘Alas for Joseph!’ His eyes had turned white with grief, and he choked with suppressed agony.
قَالُوا۟ تَٱللَّهِ تَفْتَؤُا۟ تَذْكُرُ يُوسُفَ حَتَّىٰ تَكُونَ حَرَضًا أَوْ تَكُونَ مِنَ ٱلْهَٰلِكِينَ
They said, ‘By Allah! You will go on remembering Joseph until you wreck your health or perish.’
قَالَ إِنَّمَآ أَشْكُوا۟ بَثِّى وَحُزْنِىٓ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ وَأَعْلَمُ مِنَ ٱللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ
He said, ‘I complain of my anguish and grief only to Allah. I know from Allah what you do not know.’
يَٰبَنِىَّ ٱذْهَبُوا۟ فَتَحَسَّسُوا۟ مِن يُوسُفَ وَأَخِيهِ وَلَا تَا۟يْـَٔسُوا۟ مِن رَّوْحِ ٱللَّهِ ۖ إِنَّهُۥ لَا يَا۟يْـَٔسُ مِن رَّوْحِ ٱللَّهِ إِلَّا ٱلْقَوْمُ ٱلْكَٰفِرُونَ
‘Go, my sons, and look for Joseph and his brother, and do not despair of Allah’s mercy. Indeed no one despairs of Allah’s mercy except the faithless lot.’
فَلَمَّا دَخَلُوا۟ عَلَيْهِ قَالُوا۟ يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلْعَزِيزُ مَسَّنَا وَأَهْلَنَا ٱلضُّرُّ وَجِئْنَا بِبِضَٰعَةٍۢ مُّزْجَىٰةٍۢ فَأَوْفِ لَنَا ٱلْكَيْلَ وَتَصَدَّقْ عَلَيْنَآ ۖ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَجْزِى ٱلْمُتَصَدِّقِينَ
Then, when they entered into his presence, they said, ‘O emir! Distress has befallen us and our family, and we have brought [just] a meagre sum. Yet grant us the full measure, and be charitable to us! Indeed Allah rewards the charitable.’
قَالَ هَلْ عَلِمْتُم مَّا فَعَلْتُم بِيُوسُفَ وَأَخِيهِ إِذْ أَنتُمْ جَٰهِلُونَ
He said, ‘Have you realized what you did to Joseph and his brother, when you were senseless?’
قَالُوٓا۟ أَءِنَّكَ لَأَنتَ يُوسُفُ ۖ قَالَ أَنَا۠ يُوسُفُ وَهَٰذَآ أَخِى ۖ قَدْ مَنَّ ٱللَّهُ عَلَيْنَآ ۖ إِنَّهُۥ مَن يَتَّقِ وَيَصْبِرْ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يُضِيعُ أَجْرَ ٱلْمُحْسِنِينَ
They said, ‘Are you really Joseph?!’ He said, ‘I am Joseph, and this is my brother. Certainly Allah has shown us favour. Indeed if one is Godwary and patient Allah does not waste the reward of the virtuous.’
قَالُوا۟ تَٱللَّهِ لَقَدْ ءَاثَرَكَ ٱللَّهُ عَلَيْنَا وَإِن كُنَّا لَخَٰطِـِٔينَ
They said, ‘By Allah, Allah has certainly preferred you over us, and we have indeed been erring.’
قَالَ لَا تَثْرِيبَ عَلَيْكُمُ ٱلْيَوْمَ ۖ يَغْفِرُ ٱللَّهُ لَكُمْ ۖ وَهُوَ أَرْحَمُ ٱلرَّٰحِمِينَ
He said, ‘There shall be no reproach on you today. Allah will forgive you, and He is the most merciful of the merciful.
ٱذْهَبُوا۟ بِقَمِيصِى هَٰذَا فَأَلْقُوهُ عَلَىٰ وَجْهِ أَبِى يَأْتِ بَصِيرًۭا وَأْتُونِى بِأَهْلِكُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ
Take this shirt of mine, and cast it upon my father’s face; he will regain his sight, and bring me all your folks.’
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
What the passage says. The brothers return without Benjamin; the eldest stays behind in Egypt. Told the news, Yaʿqūb answers with "a beautiful patience," weeps until his sight fails, yet insists he "knows from Allah what you do not know" and sends them to seek Yūsuf. When they come again pleading, Yūsuf at last discloses himself, forgives them, and sends his shirt to restore his father's sight.
Beautiful patience, and hidden knowledge. All the sources take Yaʿqūb's "rather your souls have enticed you… a beautiful patience" not as calling his sons liars but, in al-Mīzān's words, as a reading by "divine discernment" that this loss, like Yūsuf's, springs from their own soul-prompting — hence "perhaps Allah will bring them all to me," joining Yūsuf, Benjamin and the detained brother. On "his eyes whitened from sorrow," Ṭabarsī, Ṭūsī, al-Qummī and al-Baḥrānī agree he was blinded by weeping, and Ṭūsī defends that a prophet may weep so, since only wailing and impious acts are forbidden. The measure of his grief — "seventy bereaved mothers" (al-Ṣādiq, ʿa) — and the reason Yaʿqūb knew Yūsuf lived recur across the Imāmī sources: al-Qummī and al-Baḥrānī relate that he questioned the Angel of Death, who had not taken Yūsuf's soul. On "I complain only to Allah," al-Baḥrānī preserves the monk narration (from al-Bāqir, ʿa) in which Yaʿqūb, rebuked for once complaining to a creature, never did so again. The published Enlightening Commentary likewise reads the scene as patience that never crosses into despair — "do not despair of Allah's mercy."
The disclosure and its mercy. When the brothers return in need with "scant goods," Yūsuf's "Do you know what you did to Yūsuf and his brother when you were ignorant?" is read by Ṭūsī and Ṭabarsī as reproach softened into excuse — the "ignorance of childhood" — the very summit of nobility, Ṭabarsī says, since he furnishes them their own defense. al-Qummī and al-Baḥrānī frame the moment with the letters between the ʿAzīz and Yaʿqūb, which Yūsuf kissed and wept over. At their recognition — "Are you indeed Yūsuf?" — his "I am Yūsuf, and this is my brother; Allah has been gracious to us" and his verdict "No reproach upon you today; Allah will forgive you" are taken by every source as the pattern of prophetic forgiveness; and their "Allah has preferred you over us, and we were sinners" marks, all agree, their genuine repentance.
The shirt. On "cast it upon my father's face; he will regain sight," the sources concur this was a miracle known only by revelation. Ṭabarsī and al-Qummī (and al-Baḥrānī's reunion narrations) identify it as the very shirt from Paradise that Jibrīl brought Ibrāhīm in the fire, passed down through Isḥāq and Yaʿqūb — al-Qummī adding "and we, Ahl al-Bayt, are its heirs." al-Mīzān gathers the whole into its governing theme: the shirt that once, dipped in false blood, blinded the father with grief now restores his sight — for God overturned every cause that sought to abase Yūsuf, "and Allah prevails over His affair."