Yūsuf

قَالُوا وَأَقْبَلُوا عَلَيْهِم مَّاذَا تَفْقِدُونَ

قَالُوا نَفْقِدُ صُوَاعَ الْمَلِكِ وَلِمَن جَآءَ بِهِ حِمْلُ بَعِيرٍ وَأَنَاْ بِهِ زَعِيمٌ

71. “They said, while turning to them: ‘What is it that you have lost?’”
72. “They said: ‘We have lost the king’s cup, and whoever brings it shall receive (the reward of) a camel-load, and I guarantee it’.”

The Arabic terms /suwa‘/ and /siqayah/ are often used with same sense, meaning a vessel out of which water was drunk and which was also used to measure out quantities of wheat.⁵ This term illustrates the efficiency, and enjoyment of a single device that encompasses a wide range of functions. The Arabic word /himl/ means a load while /haml/ means a load that is hidden, such as rain which is hidden within the clouds or the child in its mother’s womb.

The Qur’anic sentence saying: ‘whoever brings it shall receive (the reward of) a camel’s load’, in the literature of Islamic jurisprudence, is known as /ju‘alah/ or /ji‘alah/ (wage) which has precedence in terms of legal credibility. It says:

“They said, while turning to them: ‘What is it that you have lost?’”

“They said: ‘We have lost the king’s cup, and whoever brings it shall receive (the reward of) a camel-load...”

The speaker of this statement, for a more emphasis, said:

“…and I guarantee it’.”

Footnotes

1. 5. In Tafsir Atyab-ul-Bayan, it is asserted that it is a container the volume of which is equal to about 3 kg of wheat.