The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 262
CH. 12 YUSUF PT. 13 tidings came, he laid it before فَلَمَّا أَنْ جَاءَ الْبَشِيرُ الْقُهُ عَلَى وَجْهِهِ And when the bearer of glad. 97 فَارْتَدَّ بَصِيرًا ۚ قَالَ اَلَمْ أَقُل لَّكُمْ إِنِّي. him and he became enlightened Then he said, 'Did I not say to you: I know from Allah what you know not?'1596 اَعْلَمُ مِنَ اللهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ 98. They said, 'O our father, askĻU ME forgiveness of our sins for us; we have indeed sinners. '1597 been difference between those who receive Divine revelation and those who do not. The certainty attained by one inspired by God is not vouchsafed to others. In spite of his emphatic assertion that he would soon meet Joseph, the members of Jacob's family refused to believe it possible and attributed Jacob's conviction to an error of judgement or his extreme love for Joseph. 1596. Commentary: If, as some commentators say, Jacob had really become blind and his blindness had been removed by the casting of Joseph's shirt at his face, he should have attributed the restoration of his sight to Joseph's shirt and would have declared it as a miracle. But he refers to no such unusual happening but only to the divine knowledge about Joseph's being alive, which he had long before imparted to his sons. Thus what the verse really means is that when Joseph's shirt was laid before Jacob, the conviction that Joseph was alive which, being based on revelation, was previously only a matter of faith, now 1470 became • كُنَّا خَطِينَ converted into factual knowledge. This is the meaning of the words, he became enlightened. In fact, the knowledge of God's Prophets is of two kinds: (a) spiritual knowledge which they get direct from God by means of revelation; (b) material or secular knowledge which they acquire through their physical senses and other material means. When spiritual knowledge becomes supplemented and supported by the testimony of physical senses, it becomes complete in every sense and no vestige of doubt or ambiguity remains. As long as knowledge gained through spiritual means remains a matter of faith and does not go beyond conviction, it is capable of various interpretations: but when it is reinforced and corroborated by physical facts, it becomes a certainty beyond the possibility of doubt or dispute. 1597. Commentary: One good action leads to another. When Joseph pardoned his brothers, the weight of sin to some extent became lifted from their hearts. They