His saying, exalted and majestic is He:

﴿And a caravan came, and they sent their water drawer, and he let down his bucket. He said, 'O good news! This is a boy.' And they concealed him as merchandise. And Allah is Knowing of what they do.﴾ ﴿And they sold him for a cheap price, a few dirhams, and they were, in him, of the disinterested.﴾

It is said that the caravan came on the second day of his being thrown into the well. The caravan is the plural of sayyar, as they say: baghal and baghalah. This is contrary to tamrah and tamr. The caravan is a form of exaggeration for those who frequently travel the roads. It has been narrated that this caravan was a group from the people of Madyan, and it was said they were Bedouins. The water drawer is the one who comes to the water to give drink to his group. It is narrated that the one who let down the bucket was named Malik ibn Dhuhar. The term water drawer here can refer to an individual or a group. It is narrated that this well was in Jordan, three farsakhs from the dwelling of Yaqub. It is said: he let down the bucket if he cast it into the well to draw water, and dalahu yadluhu: if he drew it from the well. In the speech here, there is an omission which can be understood as: Yusuf held onto the rope, and when the water drawer saw him, he said: 'O good news!' It is narrated that Yusuf was at that time seven years old. This supports the term 'boy,' for he is between the age of two and puberty. If it is said in reference to someone older than that, it is based on a specific condition and a concession. It is said he was seventeen years old, and this is far-fetched.

Ibn Kathir, Nafi, Abu Amr, and Ibn Amir read: 'O good news!' with the good news being attributed to the speaker and with the opening of the 'ya' as if he is saying: 'Come, this is your time.' This is similar to his saying: ﴿O regret for the servants!﴾ [Ya-Sin: 30]. Warsh narrated from Nafi: 'O good news!' with the 'ya' being silent. Abu Ali said: In it is a combination of two silent letters like the word dabbah and shabbah. The reason for this is that it is permissible for the alif to be specific to it due to the lengthening in it compared to the lengthening in its two sisters, just as it is specific in rhymes to the establishment, and it is specific in the lightening of the hamzah like habaat. There is nothing of that in the 'ya' and 'wa'. Abu al-Tufail, al-Jahdari, Ibn Abu Ishaq, and al-Hasan read: 'O good news!' where the alif is turned into a ya and then merged into the ya of the addition. This is a common dialect. Among that is the saying of Abu Dhuhayyib:

They preceded my love and they bowed to their desire, So they fell, and for every side is a downfall.

And Abu al-Fath and others recited regarding that:

He circles me like a servant in Mudar, And he stabs with a spear in my back.

If you do not avenge me in Mudar, Then what have you ever quenched my thirst?

He meant: my love, my back, and my echo. Hamzah and al-Kisai read: 'O good news!' with a slight elongation, and they lean and do not add. And Asim read likewise except that he opens the ra and does not lean. There was a difference in the interpretation of this reading - as al-Suddi said: There was among the companions of this water drawer a man named Bushra, so he called him and informed him about the boy. It was said: it is in calling out to the good news as we have mentioned.

The pronoun in "And they concealed him" is evidently referring to the water carriers, as Mujahid said. He said that they feared that the merchants of the caravan - if they said, 'We found him' - would share with them in the existing boy, if they were sinful, or would prevent them from owning him if they were believers. So they secretly agreed among themselves to say: 'He is merchandise.' This is what some of the people of the land meant.

And "merchandise" is a state, and merchandise is a piece of wealth that is traded without a share in the profit. It is derived from their saying: 'He cut,' meaning: 'He divided.' It is said that they secretly intended among themselves to take him as merchandise for themselves, meaning as a trade, and they did not fear anything from the caravan people. Then the pronoun in His saying, "And they sold him," also refers to them, meaning: they sold him for a low price, as they did not recognize his right or value. Rather, they were indifferent to him. It has been narrated - based on this - that they sold him to a merchant. Mujahid said that the pronoun in "And they concealed him" refers to the owners of the bucket, and in "And they sold him" it refers to the eleven brothers of Yusuf. Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: Rather, the pronoun in "And they concealed him" and "And they sold him" refers to the brothers of Yusuf.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

This is because it has been narrated that when his brothers returned to their father and informed him, some of them returned to the well to verify the matter of Yusuf and to ascertain the truth of his loss. When they learned that the water carriers had taken him, they came to them and said: 'This is a slave who ran away from our mother, and she has gifted him to us, and we are selling him to you.' Yusuf agreed to this statement out of fear of them and to fulfill the decree of Allah. At that time, his brothers concealed his brotherhood when they denied it. So they concealed it and took him as merchandise, meaning as a trade for them and a source of income, and they also sold him for a meager price, meaning they sold him.

And His saying, "And Allah is All-Knowing of what they do," if the pronouns refer to the brothers of Yusuf, then there is a threat in that. And if the pronouns refer to the water carriers, then there is a warning regarding the will of Allah, glorified and exalted is He, for Yusuf, and the unfolding of events according to the state of his condition. So at that time, it is in the meaning of the saying of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him: "The son of Adam plans, and the decree laughs." And in the verse, there is also consolation for the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, regarding what is happening to him from the Quraysh, meaning: the outcome that is for the righteous is the consideration and the awaited.

And "And they sold him" here means they sold him, and it may be said: 'He bought' in the sense of 'he purchased.' From the first, the saying of Yazid ibn Mufarrigh al-Himyari:

And I bought a cloak, I wish I had ∗∗∗ ∗∗∗ after the cloak I was enamored with.

And "cloak" is the name of a boy who regretted selling him, and the pronoun can bear both of the previous meanings.

And "meager" is a source described by the price, and it means deficiency. This is the most famous of its meanings, as if it is the little deficient. This is the saying of al-Sha'bi. And Qatadah said: The meager here means injustice, and al-Zajjaj favored this because a free man cannot be sold. And al-Dahhak said: It also means forbidden, and this also means that it is not permissible to sell him.

And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿drahim ma'dudah﴾ is an expression of the low price because they are dirhams that did not reach the point of being weighed due to their scarcity. This is because they did not weigh anything less than an uqiyyah, which is forty dirhams. There is a difference of opinion regarding the amount for which Yusuf, peace be upon him, was sold. It was said: they sold him for ten dirhams. Ibn Mas'ud said: for twenty. Mujahid said: for twenty-two. His brothers took him for two dirhams, and 'Ikrimah said: for forty dirhams, which were paid as deficient, and this was a low price for him.

And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿wa kanu fihi min al-zahidin﴾ is a description that applies to those who come to the water, meaning: they did not recognize its value. Therefore, their enjoyment of it is little. However, this was more applicable to the brothers of Yusuf, as the true essence of zuhd (asceticism) in something is to remove the love of it from the heart and to reject it from the hand. This was the state of the brothers of Yusuf concerning Yusuf. As for those who come to the water, their attachment to it and their drawing from it contradicts their zuhd, except in a figurative sense. And His saying: 'in it' is not a connection to 'the zahidin,' as stated by Al-Zajjaj, and there is a consideration in this, as it necessitates describing them with zuhd in general, which is not the intent of the verse. Rather, its intent is the specific zuhd regarding Yusuf, and the circumstances allow for a precedence that is not permissible in other connections. The discussion regarding the return of the pronoun of the group in His saying: 'and they sold him' has already been mentioned.