Surah Yusuf Ayat 99 (12:99 Quran) With Tafsir

Ala-Maududi

(12:99) And when they went to Joseph,^[68] he took his parents aside and said (to the members of his family): “Enter the city now, and if Allah wills, you shall be secure.”

68. It is worthwhile to take notice of the total number of Prophet Jacob’s family members that migrated to Egypt with him, for it is closely connected with the problem that is raised concerning the total number of the Israelites who emigrated from there some five hundred years after this. According to the Bible, the total number of the family members was 70, including Prophet Joseph and his two sons, and excluding those daughters-in-law who did not belong to the family of Prophet Jacob. But according to the census figures given in Numbers, their number was about two million when they were counted in the wilderness of Sinai in the second year, after they come out of the land of Egypt. The problem is this: how is it possible that these three score and ten souls of his house had multiplied into two million souls during five hundred years or so?

It is obvious that no family can multiply to such a large number in five hundred years merely by the generative process. Thus the only other way in which their number could have been increased was proselytism. And there are sound reasons to believe that this must have been so. The Israelites were the descendants of Prophets. They had migrated to Egypt because of the power Prophet Joseph enjoyed there. And we have seen that he made full use of every opportunity he got for carrying out the work of the mission of Prophethood. Therefore it may reasonably be expected that the Israelites would have done their very best to convert the Egyptians to their faith of Islam during the five centuries of their power in Egypt. As a result of this the Egyptian converts to Islam would not only have changed their religion but also their culture so as to make them look quite different from the other Egyptians and look like the Israelites. Naturally the non Muslim Egyptians would have declared them to be foreigners just as the Hindus treat the Indian Muslims of today. By and by they themselves would have accepted this position and become members of the Israelite nationality. Afterwards, when the Egyptian nationalists began to persecute the alien Israelites, the Muslim Egyptians were also made a target of their tyranny. So when the Israelites migrated from Egypt, they, too, left their country along with them and began to be counted among them.

The above mentioned explanation is confirmed by the Bible also. For instance, it says “that when they left Egypt, the children of Israel journeyed from Remases to Suceoth….and a mixed multitude went up also with them….” (Exodus 12: 37-38) and “the mix multitude that was among them fell a lusting”. (Numbers 11: 4). Then by and by these non-Israelite converts to Islam began to be called the stranger. “One ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation, and also for the stranger that sojourneth with you, an ordinance forever in your generations: as ye are, so shall the stranger be before the Lord. One law and the one manner shall be for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you.” (Numbers 15: 15-16). “And I charged your judges at that time, saying: Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him.” (Deut. 1: 16). Now it is not an easy thing to find out the exact term which was applied in the original Scriptures to the Egyptian converts to Islam, and which was afterwards changed into the stranger by the translators.

Ibn-Kathir

99. Then, when they came in before Yusuf, he took his parents to himself and said: “Enter Egypt, if Allah wills, in security.” 100. And he raised his parents to the `Arsh and they fell down before him prostrate. And he said: “O my father! This is the interpretation of my dream aforetime! My Lord has made it come true! He was indeed good to me, when He took me out of the prison, and brought you (all here) out of the bedouin life, after Shaytan had sown enmity between me and my brothers. Certainly, my Lord is the Most Courteous and Kind unto whom He wills. Truly, He! Only He is the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.

Allah states that Ya`qub went to Yusuf in Egypt. Yusuf had asked his brothers to bring all of their family, and they all departed their area and left Kana`an to Egypt. When Yusuf received news of their approach to Egypt, he went out to receive them. The king ordered the princes and notable people to go out in the receiving party with Yusuf to meet Allah’s Prophet Ya`qub, peace be upon him. It is said that the king also went out with them to meet Ya`qub. Yusuf said to his family, after they entered unto him and he took them to himself,

(and said: “Enter Egypt, if Allah wills, in security.”) He said to them, `enter Egypt’, meaning, `reside in Egypt’, and added, `if Allah wills, in security’, in reference to the hardship and famine that they suffered. Allah said next,

(and he took his parents to himself) As-Suddi and `Abdur-Rahman bin Zayd bin Aslam said that his parents were his father and maternal aunt, as his mother had died long ago. Muhammad bin Ishaq and Ibn Jarir At-Tabari said, “His father and mother were both alive.” Ibn Jarir added, “There is no evidence that his mother had died before then. Rather, the apparent words of the Qur’an testify that she was alive.” This opinion has the apparent and suitable meaning that this story testifies to. Allah said next,

(And he raised his parents to Al-‘Arsh) he raised them to his bedstead where he sat, according to Ibn `Abbas, Mujahid and several others. Allah said,

(and they fell down before him prostrate.) Yusuf’s parents and brothers prostrated before him, and they were eleven men,

(And he said: “O my father! This is the Ta’wil (interpretation) of my dream aforetime…”), in reference to the dream that he narrated to his father before,

(I saw (in a dream) eleven stars…) In the laws of these and previous Prophets, it was allowed for the people to prostrate before the men of authority, when they met them. This practice was allowed in the law of Adam until the law of `Isa, peace be upon them, but was later prohibited in our law. Islam made prostration exclusively for Allah Alone, the Exalted and Most Honored. The implication of this statement was collected from Qatadah and other scholars. When Mu`adh bin Jabal visited the Sham area, he found them prostrating before their priests. When he returned (to Al-Madinah), he prostrated before the Messenger of Allah , who asked him,

(What is this, O, Mu`adh) Mu`adh said, “I saw that they prostrate before their priests. However, you, O Messenger of Allah, deserve more to be prostrated before.” The Messenger said,

(If I were to order anyone to prostrate before anyone else (among the creation), I would have ordered the wife to prostrate before her husband because of the enormity of his right on her.) Therefore, this practice was allowed in previous laws, as we stated. This is why they (Ya`qub and his wife and eleven sons) prostrated before Yusuf, who said at that time,

(O my father! This is the Ta’wil of my dream aforetime! My Lord has made it come true!) using the word, `Ta’wil’, to describe what became of the matter, later on. Allah said in another Ayah,

(Await they just for its Ta’wil On the Day the event is finally fulfilled…), meaning, on the Day of Judgement what they were promised of good or evil will surely come to them. Yusuf said,

(My Lord has made it come true!) mentioning that Allah blessed him by making his dream come true,

(He was indeed good to me, when He took me out of the prison, and brought you (all here) out of the bedouin life,) out of the desert, for they lived a bedouin life and raised cattle, according to Ibn Jurayj and others. He also said that they used to live in the Arava, Ghur area of Palestine, in Greater Syria. Yusuf said next,

(after Shaytan had sown enmity between me and my brothers. Certainly, my Lord is the Most Courteous and Kind unto whom He wills.) for when Allah wills something, He brings forth its reasons and elements of existence, then wills it into existence and makes it easy to attain,

(Truly, He! Only He is the All-Knowing.) what benefits His servants,

(the All-Wise.) in His statements, actions, decrees, preordain- ment and what He chooses and wills.