Tafsir for verses: 12:16, 12:17
وَجَآءُوٓ أَبَاهُمۡ عِشَآءٗ يَبۡكُونَ ١٦ ﴿16 قَالُواْ يَٰٓأَبَانَآ إِنَّا ذَهَبۡنَا نَسۡتَبِقُ وَتَرَكۡنَا يُوسُفَ عِندَ مَتَٰعِنَا فَأَكَلَهُ ٱلذِّئۡبُۖ وَمَآ أَنتَ بِمُؤۡمِنٖ لَّنَا وَلَوۡ كُنَّا صَٰدِقِينَ ١٧ ﴿17
16And at nightfall, they came to their father weeping. 17They said, “Father, we went racing with one another, and left Yūsuf with our belongings, and the wolf ate him up. You will never believe us, howsoever truthful we may be.”
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Commentary

And from Al-Hasan: 'In the evening,' in a diminutive form of 'عشىّ'. It is said: 'I met him in the evening and at night.' [The saying 'It is said: I met him in the evening and at night' means that if its nun is removed, it becomes 'عشيا', as per Al-Hasan's reading.] And 'أصيلا' and 'أصيلاناً' and Ibn Jinni narrated: 'عشى', with a dammah on the 'ع' and it is short. And it was said: 'They cried from weeping.' It was narrated that a woman brought a case to Shuraih and cried. Al-Shabi said to him: 'O Abu Umayyah, do you not see her weeping?' He said: 'The brothers of Yusuf came weeping while they were wrongdoers. No one should judge except by what he has been commanded to judge by from the acceptable Sunnah.' It was narrated that when he heard their voices, [Mawlid said: 'It was narrated that when he heard their voices, he said: O my sons, has anything happened to your sheep? They said: No... etc.' Ahmad said: 'He strengthened the accusation against them that they claimed the specific face which Yaqub feared for his destruction because of it.'] The wolf ate him, so he accused them of having taken the excuse from his words to them: 'And I fear that the wolf will eat him.' And many times false excuses arise from anxiety in the one addressed by the excuse, to the extent that some of the leaders of the believers would teach the thief to deny. Then he was alarmed and said: 'What is wrong with you, O my sons? Has anything happened to your sheep?' They said: 'No.' He said: 'Then what is wrong with you and where is Yusuf?' They said: 'O our father, we went to race.' The forms of 'افتعال' and 'تفاعل' share like 'انتضال' and 'تناضل': and 'الارتماء' and 'ترامي', and others. The meaning is: 'We race in running or in throwing.' And it came in the tafsir: 'We compete with a believer for us, a confirmer for us, and if we were truthful with you, as you have great love for Yusuf, how could it be while you have a bad opinion of us, not trusting our words?'

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