Yūsuf 12:77-79

"They said: 'If he has stolen, a brother of his stole before him.' Joseph kept this within himself and did not disclose it to them. Within himself he said: 'You are in a worse position. God knows best what you describe.' They said: 'O vizier! He has a very old father; take one of us in his place. We see that you are one of those who do good.' He said: 'God forbid that we should take any but the man with whom we found our property; we should then be wrongdoers.'"

The root س-ر-ر: to hide; and to gladden. Sirr is from the same root. That the verb here means "he kept it within himself" is plain.

And to what does the pronoun (hā) refer? The lexicographers differ: to the words spoken, or to the response given to those words? I transmit the disagreement; I do not impose a preference.

And the point of word order must be recorded: the verse writes both sides of the silence separately: fa-asarrahā (he kept it within) and wa-lam yubdihā lahum (he did not disclose it to them). The same thing twice, once with an affirmative and once with a negative sentence. In Arabic this conveys certainty and emphasis.

I give this as an observation: the text records what was not said as well. That is, the narrator gives the reader a sentence that is not heard in the scene — and this is a technique the sūra has used from the beginning (like the revelation in verse 15).

The grammatical point of this expression was treated at al-Falaq 113/2:

Sharr and khayr are used in Arabic both as nouns and as elatives (ism al-tafḍīl). Normally the afʿal pattern is required for comparison (akbar, aḥsan); these two words, however, convey comparison without changing pattern: "You are in a worse position" (Yūsuf 12/77).

I rely on that treatment.

مَّكَانًا — tamyīz: "in respect of position". The choice of the word is worth noting: it is not the persons themselves that are qualified but the place they stand in.

And for the first time the request is grounded on another person's condition.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the content of the plea: the brothers plead not for themselves but for the father. In the eighth verse that same father's love was the subject of a complaint. The same father is now a ground for mercy. This is a transformation verifiable within the sūra.

إِنَّا نَرَىٰكَ مِنَ ٱلْمُحْسِنِين — and the sentence is word for word the same as what the two young men in the prison said in verse 36.

This is a countable repetition within the sūra. And I add as my own reading: the same sentence is spoken of the man in his lowest and in his highest position. What does not change is the observation made about him.

And the expression comes for the second time after verse 23, and I tabulated it there.

In both places what is refused lies in the same place: a wrong. In the first a betrayal, in the second the holding of an innocent man. And in both the ground ends with the same root: lā yufliḥu'ẓ-ẓālimūn (23) — innā idhan la-ẓālimūn (79).

This is a weave verifiable within the sūra. And I add as my own reading: the same man refuses with the same two words both a proposal in his own favour and a proposal against it.