Al-Qur'an Surah Yusuf Verse 17

Mufti Taqi Usmani

They said, “Father, we went racing with one another, and left Yūsuf with our belongings, and the wolf ate him up. You will never believe us, howsoever truthful we may be.”

Dr. Mustafa Khattab, the Clear Quran

They cried, “Our father! We went racing and left Joseph with our belongings, and a wolf devoured him! But you will not believe us, no matter how truthful we are.”

Ruwwad Translation Center

They said, “O our father, we went off racing one another and left Joseph with our belongings, and a wolf ate him. But you will never believe us, no matter how truthful we may be.”

A. J. Arberry

They said, 'Father, we went running races, and left Joseph behind with our things; so the wolf ate him. But thou wouldst never believe us, though we spoke truly.'

Abdul Haleem

They said, ‘We went off racing one another, leaving Joseph behind with our things, and a wolf ate him. You will not believe us, though we are telling the truth!’

Abdul Majid Daryabadi

They said: our father! we went off competing, and left Yusuf by our stuff, so a wolf devoured him; and thou wilt put no credence in us, even though we are the truth-tellers.

Abdullah Yusuf Ali

They said; "O our father! We went racing with one another, and left Joseph with our things; and the wolf devoured him.... But thou wilt never believe us even though we tell the truth."

Abul Ala Maududi

and said: "Father! We went racing with one another and left Joseph behind with our things, and then a wolf came and ate him up. We know that you will not believe us howsoever truthful we might be."

Ahmed Ali

And said: "We went racing with one another and left Joseph to guard our things when a wolf devoured him. But you will not believe us even though we tell the truth."

Ahmed Raza Khan

Saying, “O our father! We went far ahead while racing, and left Yusuf near our resources – therefore the wolf devoured him; and you will not believe us although we may be truthful.”

Ali Quli Qarai

They said, ‘Father! We had gone racing and left Joseph with our things, whereat the wolf ate him. But you will not believe us even if we spoke truly.’

Ali Ünal

They said: "Our father! We went off racing with one another, and left Joseph behind by our things, then a wolf devoured him. But we know that you will not believe us, even though we speak the truth."

Amatul Rahman Omar

They said, `Our father! we went forth racing one with another and left Joseph (behind) with our belongings and the wolf devoured him. But you would never believe us though we be the truthful ones.´

English Literal

They said: "You our father, that we went/went away racing and we left Joseph at ourbelongings/effects/goods, so the wolf ate him, and you are not with believing to us, and even if we were truthful."

Faridul Haque

Saying, "O our father! We went far ahead while racing, and left Yusuf near our resources - therefore the wolf devoured him; and you will not believe us although we may be truthful."

Hamid S. Aziz

And they came to their father in the evening weeping.

Hilali & Khan

They said:"O our father! We went racing with one another, and left Yusuf (Joseph) by our belongings and a wolf devoured him; but you will never believe us even when we speak the truth."

Maulana Mohammad Ali

And they came to the father at nightfall, weeping.

Mohammad Habib Shakir

They said: O our father! surely we went off racing and left Yusuf by our goods, so the wolf devoured him, and you will not believe us though we are truthful.

Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall

Saying: O our father! We went racing one with another, and left Joseph by our things, and the wolf devoured him, and thou believest not our saying even when we speak the truth.

Muhammad Sarwar

and saying, "Father, we went playing and left Joseph with our belongings. A wild-beast came and devoured him. We realize that you will not believe us even though we are telling the truth".

Qaribullah & Darwish

They said: 'We went racing and left Joseph with our things. The wolf devoured him, but you will not believe us, though we speak the truth'

Safi-ur-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri

They said: "O our father! We went racing with one another, and left Yusuf by our belongings and a wolf devoured him; but you will never believe us even when we speak the truth."

Wahiduddin Khan

They said, "Father, we went off racing and left Joseph with our belongings, and the wolf devoured him. But you will not believe us, even though we are telling the truth."

Talal Itani

They said, “O father, we went off racing one another, and left Joseph by our belongings; and the wolf ate him. But you will not believe us, even though we are being truthful.”

Tafsir jalalayn

They said, `O father, we went competing, shooting, and left Joseph by our things, our clothes, and the wolf ate him. But you would never believe us, even though we speak the truth', before you, you would still have accused us [of lying] in this story, because of your adoration of Joseph, so how much more so when you think ill of us?

Tafseer Ibn Kathir

قَالُواْ يَا أَبَانَا

And they came to their father in the early part of the night weeping. They said;"O our father!

Allah narrates to us the deceit that Yusuf's brothers resorted to, after they threw him to the bottom of the well. They went back to their father, during the darkness of the night, crying and showing sorrow and grief for losing Yusuf. They started giving excuses to their father for what happened to Yusuf, falsely claiming that,

إِنَّا ذَهَبْنَا نَسْتَبِقُ

We went racing with one another,

or had a shooting competition,

وَتَرَكْنَا يُوسُفَ عِندَ مَتَاعِنَا

and left Yusuf by our belongings,

guarding our clothes and luggage,

فَأَكَلَهُ الذِّيْبُ

and a wolf devoured him,

which is exactly what their father told them he feared for Yusuf and warned against.

They said next,

وَمَا أَنتَ بِمُوْمِنٍ لِّنَا وَلَوْ كُنَّا صَادِقِينَ



but you will never believe us even when we speak the truth.

They tried to lessen the impact of the grave news they were delivering.

They said, `We know that you will not believe this news, even if you consider us truthful. So what about when you suspect that we are not truthful, especially since you feared that the wolf might devour Yusuf and that is what happened.'

Therefore, they said, `You have reason not to believe us because of the strange coincidence and the amazing occurrence that happened to us.