Yūsuf 12:76

"He began with their bags before his brother's bag; then he brought it out of his brother's bag. Thus did We contrive for Joseph. He could not have taken his brother under the king's law — unless God so willed. We raise in degrees whom We will. And above every possessor of knowledge there is one who knows."

The word was treated at al-Inshiqāq 84/22-23 and at al-Ḥāqqa 69/12:

The concrete centre of the root is an object: وِعَاء — a vessel, a sack, something a thing is put into. At Yūsuf 12/76 the word is plainly a load-sack. "He began with their bags (awʿiyatihim) before his brother's bag (wiʿāʾi akhīhi)." (Yūsuf 12/76)

I rely on that treatment.

And the order of the search is worth recording: fa-badaʾa bi-awʿiyatihim qabla wiʿāʾi akhīh.

I record this as an observation: where the vessel is, is known. The others are nevertheless searched first — because going straight to the target would have broken the plan. Had the text not given this detail the scene would have been incomplete.

And this is one of the places where the Qurʾān ascribes the root kayd to God.

The question was treated at al-Ṭāriq 86/15-16 (wa-akīdu kaydā) and in al-Fīl. What was recorded there:

The general view is this: the word is used as the name of a requital. That is, the kayd ascribed to God is not an ill-intentioned trick; it is the requital that turns a snare back on the one who set it. At Yūsuf 12/76 kayd is ascribed to God and carries no negative sense there.

And the same note was entered at al-Qalam 68/44-47:

In Arabic kayd is not necessarily evil. The Qurʾān shows this plainly: in the story of Joseph the plan laid in order to detain his brother is called kayd, and this plan is one God taught.

I rely on that treatment.

And the particle li- must be recorded: kidnā li-Yūsuf — "for Joseph". In Arabic kāda ʿalā conveys a contrivance against, kāda li one in favour of. That is, the particle determines the direction of the word.

This must be compared with verse 5 of the sūra: there it was said fa-yakīdū laka kaydā — there too the particle li/laka is present, but the context conveys harm. The direction is therefore determined not by the particle alone but by the sentence as a whole. I give this as a note.

And here is one of the densest sentences of the sūra. The construction of the sentence must be recorded:

This is the difference in Arabic between dhū ʿilm and ʿalīm: the first conveys possessing a thing, the second possessing a quality. That is, the sentence builds a hierarchy out of grammar.

The lexicographers differ over whom the sentence means:

Both readings are found in the classical commentaries and they do not exclude one another; I do not impose a preference.

And the link with the axis of al-Kahf must be made here. I record this as my own reading:

Al-Kahf had treated the limit of knowledge across four stories — wa-lam tuḥiṭ bihi khubrā (18/68), qul rabbī aʿlamu bi-ʿiddatihim (18/22). Sūrat Yūsuf gathers the same matter into a single sentence and sets it in the middle of a sūra, immediately after a scene of contrivance.

And the place of its setting is meaningful: the sentence comes at the moment knowledge attains its success. The plan has worked, the brother has been detained. At precisely that point one is reminded that knowledge has something above it.

And at the end of the sūra the same man will say this with his own mouth: wa-ʿallamtanī min taʾwīli'l-aḥādīth (101) — "You taught me a portion of it."