And he turned away from them and showed aversion to what they brought. O my sorrow! He added sorrow, which is the greatest sadness and regret, to himself. The 'alif' is a substitute for the 'ya' of possession. The similarity between the words 'sorrow' and 'Yusuf' occurs naturally and creatively. An example of this is 'You have become heavy to the earth; are you pleased?' And they forbid him and distance themselves from him. They think they are doing good, from Saba' with news. And about the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him: 'No nation has been given - indeed, we belong to Allah and to Him we shall return - at the time of calamity except the nation of Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him.' [This was narrated by Al-Thalabi from the hadith of Muhammad ibn Sa'id Al-Hadi from Ishaq ibn Al-Rabi' ibn Sufyan ibn Ziyad Al-Mu'safri from Sa'id ibn Jubair from Ibn Abbas, with this being raised, and it was narrated by Al-Tabarani in Al-Du'a from another chain from Sufyan ibn Ziyad. And it was narrated by Abdul Razzaq from the path of Al-Tabari from Al-Thawri from Sufyan from Ziyad Al-Mu'safri from Sa'id ibn Jubair. I say, and likewise it was narrated by Al-Bayhaqi in Al-Shu'ab from the narration of Abu 'Amir from Al-Thawri, and some weak narrators raised it, but it is not significant.] Do you not see Jacob when he was afflicted with what he was afflicted with, he did not express impatience? He only said, 'O my sorrow!' If you say: How could he grieve for Yusuf and not for his brother or the third one, and the recent loss is more severe on the soul and has a more apparent effect? I say: This indicates the persistence of his sorrow for Yusuf, and that the loss did not diminish in his eyes, and that the calamity, despite the long time that had passed, was still fresh and tender to him.

And I have not forgotten the greatest calamities after him. [I was consoled about Awfa by the death of Ghaylan after him... A consolation and my eyelid is full and overflowing.

I have not forgotten the greatest calamities after him... But the wound upon the wound is more painful.

This is for Hisham ibn 'Aqbah Al-'Udhri, mourning his brother Dhū al-Rumah, whose name was Ghaylan ibn 'Aqbah. And he mourns Awfa ibn Dalham. It is said: he mourns his two brothers.

He says: I was consoled, meaning I was comforted about Awfa by the death of Ghaylan after him, meaning something has replaced the first forgetfulness, and I have not forgotten it, while my eyelid is full of tears. Or the meaning is: I attempted to console myself but could not. It is said: 'to overflow' refers to filling a basin with water, and 'to overflow' is an emphasis. And it is permissible to liken the eyelid to a basin in a figurative manner, and 'overflowing' is imaginative. So, I have not forgotten Awfa in the calamities that struck me after him, the death of my brother Ghaylan, but it increased my sadness upon my sadness. And 'the wound' refers to the injury when it has healed and its covering has dried. And 'the nika' refers to the act of scraping that covering. And it is narrated: 'But the nika' with the 'nun' being emphasized. And 'the nika' is that from which the weight of striking is derived, so it likens the state of his first calamity that was followed by another, increasing it with the state of that wound as a representation, meaning: but the nika of the wound was more painful to him than the first state. And the implied place is made clear to show the pain and grief. Or the meaning is: but the nika of the first wound with the wound of another was more painful for the person than it was before, so 'the wound' is related to 'more painful,' or to 'the nika.']

And because the calamity in Yusuf was the foundation of his calamities that followed in his children, his sorrow for him was sorrow for those who followed him. And his eyes turned white when he became excessively weeping; the tears erased the blackness of the eye and turned it to a pale white. It was said: He became blind. And it was said: He had a weak perception. It is read: 'from sadness.'

And 'from sadness,' sadness was the cause of the weeping that resulted in the whiteness, as if it occurred from sadness. It was said that Jacob's eyes did not dry from the time of separation from Yusuf until the time of meeting him for eighty years, and there was no one on the face of the earth more honored by Allah than Jacob. And about the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, he asked Gabriel, peace be upon him: What was the extent of Jacob's grief for Yusuf? [I have not found it raised, and Al-Tabari narrated it from the narration of 'Isa ibn Yazid from Al-Hasan Al-Basri, who said: It was said to him: What was the extent... and he mentioned it.]? He said: He grieved as if he had lost seventy children. He said: What reward did he receive? He said: The reward of one hundred martyrs, and he never had a bad opinion of Allah even for a moment. If you say: How could it be permissible for the Prophet of Allah to reach such a level of despair?

I said: Man is created in such a way that he cannot control himself in times of distress from sadness. Therefore, he is praised for his patience and for controlling himself so that he does not resort to what is not good. The Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, wept over his son Ibrahim and said: "The heart is distressed, and the eye sheds tears, but we do not say what angers the Lord. Indeed, we are saddened by you, O Ibrahim." [Agreed upon from the narration of Anas.] The blameworthy distress is that which occurs from the ignorant, such as shouting and wailing, striking the chests and faces, and tearing the garments. And it is reported from the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, that he wept over the child of one of his daughters while he was passing away. It was said: O Messenger of Allah, do you weep while you have forbidden us from weeping? He said: I did not forbid you from weeping; rather, I forbade you from two foolish sounds: a sound of joy and a sound of mourning. [The narrator said: Al-Tibi attributed it to the two Sahihs, but he was mistaken. This was not reported about the child of one of his daughters; rather, it was reported about his son Ibrahim, as narrated by Al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Abi Shaybah, Ishaq, Abdul Ibn Hamid, and others from the narration of Jabir. Al-Hakim narrated it from the narration of Abdul Rahman Ibn Awf similarly. What was reported about some of his daughters is agreed upon from the narration of Usamah, and in it, "His eyes overflowed with tears, and Sa'd said to him: What is this, O Messenger of Allah? He said: This is a mercy that Allah has placed in the hearts of His servants." I said, and the first narration is in the wording: "Abdul Rahman Ibn Awf said: Do you weep, or did you not forbid us from weeping? He said: No, but I forbade you from two foolish sounds: a sound at a calamity, and striking the faces, and the wailing of a devil, and tearing the garments. And a sound of music and play and the flutes of the devil." ] And from Al-Hasan, he wept over a child or another, and it was said to him about that. He said: I did not see that Allah made sadness a disgrace upon Yaqub, for he was full of anger, and he does not show what grieves them. The term 'full' here means filled, as indicated by His saying: "and he is filled with anger" from the meaning of 'kathm' when one tightens it to its fullness. And 'kathm' with a فتح الظاء (dhad) means the exit of breath. It is said: He took by his 'akdham'.