Do You Know What You Did to Yūsuf?

When Yūsuf (peace be upon him) saw his brothers begging — when he saw they had sunk to the level of begging — glory be to Allah, look at this: these brothers who had plotted to be rid of him and to kill him had reached such weakness that they were begging from their brother, whom they did not recognise, saying: give us charity.

At that point, when Yūsuf saw his brothers begging, he did not want it to go any further. He did not want them to sink below that level. When you beg, that is as low as it gets, and as weak. And he did not want to see his brothers in that position — even though they had harmed him and caused him all this trouble, thrown him in the well and tried to kill him. He was their brother, and he did not want to see them as beggars.

He said: do you know what you did to Yūsuf and his brother, when you were ignorant? Do you know what you did to Yūsuf and his brother? Who could say this except Yūsuf himself? Who knows about Yūsuf? How would al-ʿAzīz know about that? So the moment he said it, they realised they were speaking to Yūsuf. When he asked them what they had done with Yūsuf and his brother, they knew that the man standing in front of them was Yūsuf (peace be upon him).