Yūsuf

وَاسْأَلِ الْقَرْيَةَ الَّتِي كُنَّا فِيهَا وَالْعِيرَ الَّتِي أَقْبَلْنَا فِيهَا وإِنَّا لَصَادِقُونَ

82. “And ask at the town in which we were and the caravan with which we travelled hither, and verily we are indeed truthful.”

The Arabic term /qaryah/ does not only mean ‘village ’, but it also means ‘a meeting place’ and ‘a residential area’ as well, whether be it a town or a village. Yusuf’s brothers did not have any evidence to prove that he was killed by a wolf when they described the event for their father, but they provided two proofs to support their story in this situation. Firstly they had witnesses in the town, and secondly, they had witnesses in the caravan among which they were.

Besides that, in the former description they said: “…even though we be truthful”¹ where the Arabic word /lau/ is a sign of doubt, weakness, and anxiety, while here, in this verse, they say: “…verily we are indeed truthful” that, with the application of ‘verily’ and ‘indeed’, they claimed that they were really truthful. Then, in order to make clear their father from any suspicion and to make him sure that the fact had been exactly that very thing they explained, they said:

“And ask at the town in which we were and the caravan with which we travelled hither...”

This statement means that there were naturally some people from Kan‘an among them whom Jacob knew and he could ask the true affair from them so that, however, he would become certain that they were telling nothing but the truth. It says:

“…and verily we are indeed truthful.”

They were very confident in their position, they were sure that if the father were to investigate he would find that they were indeed telling the truth. From the verse, we can also deduce that the news that Benjamin had stolen the king’s cup spread around the town and among the caravan.

Footnotes

1. 1. The current Surah, verse 17