'And when that happened, the soul longed to know what would occur between him and his children in that matter. So he relieved it of this burden by saying: ﴿They said, O our father﴾, calling out with the tool that indicates great concern for what follows, due to its significant impact: ﴿Ask forgiveness﴾, meaning, request from Allah that He forgive ﴿us our sins﴾. And he returned each pronoun from these pronouns to its owner with utmost clarity, and for that reason he did not specify the owner.

And when they asked him for forgiveness for their sins, they justified it by acknowledging their sin, because acknowledgment is a condition of repentance - as he ﷺ said: 'Indeed, when a servant acknowledges his sin and then repents, Allah repents upon him.' So they said, affirming their sincerity in repentance: ﴿Indeed, we were wrongdoers﴾, meaning, deliberately committing sin by what we perpetrated in the matter of Yusuf, blessings and peace be upon him;