And they sold him for a low price, a price that is clearly deficient in comparison to the Day of Resurrection, or a counterfeit of lesser weight, dirhams not counted, few. [Mawlood said: "The counted is a metaphor for the few..." Ahmad said: "And from the expression of fewness by number is the supplication reported against the disbelievers: 'O Allah, count them, and eradicate them, and do not leave any of them.' The supplication, even though it appears to be counting them by number, is not intended because Allah, the Exalted, has counted everything by number and encompassed it with knowledge. There must be an intention behind that, which is the necessary aspect of number, which is that fewness. So, since every few is counted and every many is not counted, he supplicated against them with fewness and expressed it by its necessary aspect, which is counting. And Allah knows best.] They are counted and not weighed, because they would only weigh what reached the weight of forty, and they would count what was below that. It was said that the few is counted because the many cannot be counted due to its abundance. And from Ibn Abbas: it was twenty dirhams. And from Al-Suddi: twenty-two. And they were among those who were ascetic, who preferred what was in their hands and sold it for a lesser price. [The saying 'and sold it for a lesser price' means little. In the dictionaries: it means small or few.] Because they picked it up, and the one who picks something up is careless about it and does not care what he sells it for, and he fears that a rightful owner may come and take it from him, so he sells it to the first buyer for the lowest price. It is also possible that the meaning of 'and they sold him' refers to the group of his brothers, and they were among those who were ascetic because they thought he was a runaway, so they feared that they would be caught with what they had in him. It is reported that his brothers followed them saying: 'Secure him, lest he runs away.' And the saying 'in him' is not a connection to 'the ascetics' because the connection does not precede the connected. Do you not see that you do not say: 'And they were Zayd among the strikers'? Rather, it is an explanation, as if it were said: 'In what did they show asceticism?' It was said: 'They showed asceticism in him.'