قَالَ بَلْ سَوَّلَتْ لَكُمْ أَنفُسُكُمْ أَمْرًا فَصَبْرٌ جَمِيلٌ عَسَى ٱللَّهُ أَن يَأْتِيَنِى بِهِمْ جَمِيعًا إِنَّهُۥ هُوَ ٱلْعَلِيمُ ٱلْحَكِيمُ
"He said: 'No; your souls have made an affair seem fair to you. So what remains for me is a beautiful patience. It may be that God will bring them all to me. He is indeed the Knowing, the Wise.'"
And this is one of the most remarkable repetitions of the sūra: the first two clauses of the verse are word for word the same as verse 18.
| Verse | Expression | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 18 | Bal sawwalat lakum anfusukum amrā · Fa-ṣabrun jamīl | The first loss — the well |
| 83 | Bal sawwalat lakum anfusukum amrā · Fa-ṣabrun jamīl | The second loss — the affair of the cup |
This is a countable repetition within the sūra, and these two verses were tabulated together at Muḥammad 47/2.
| Verse | What follows |
|---|---|
| 18 | Wa'llāhu'l-mustaʿānu ʿalā mā taṣifūn — a plea for help |
| 83 | ʿAsa'llāhu an yaʾtiyanī bihim jamīʿā — a hope |
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the comparison of the two verses: at the first loss the answer ended with a plea for help; at the second with an expectation. And the scope of the expectation is worth noting: bihim jamīʿā — "all of them together".
That is, at the moment of the second loss the first loss too is taken into the expectation. The text does not say this outright; but the word jamīʿā contains it, because those lost are not two but three (Joseph, his brother, and the eldest brother who stayed behind). I give this as a reading.
عَسَىٰ — in Arabic a verb conveying hope and expectation. The word conveys no certainty. The same pattern was treated at al-Qaṣaṣ 28/22-28 (ʿasā rabbī an yahdiyanī sawāʾa's-sabīl).