۞ Surely, in Joseph and his brothers there are signs for the inquirers. 7 And call to mind when the brothers of Joseph conferred together and said: "Surely Joseph and his brother are dearer to our father than we are, although we are a group of so many. Our father is clearly mistaken. 8 Let us kill Joseph or cast him in some distant land so that we may get our father's exclusive affection; then play innocent." 9 Thereupon one of them said: "Do not kill Joseph, but if you are bent upon doing something, cast him down to the bottom of some dark pit, perhaps some caravan passing by will take him out of it." 10 They said: "O our father! why dost thou not trust us with Joseph,- seeing we are indeed his sincere well-wishers? 11 Send him with us tomorrow that he may enjoy himself and sport, and surely we will guard him well. 12 (Jacob) said: "Really it saddens me that ye should take him away: I fear lest the wolf should devour him while ye attend not to him." 13 They said: "Should a wolf eat him, despite the presence of our strong group, we would indeed be a worthless lot!" 14 So when they went away with Joseph and decided to cast him in the bottom of the dark pit, We revealed to Joseph: "Surely a time will come when you will remind them of their deed. They know nothing about the consequence of what they are doing." 15 At nightfall they came to their father weeping, 16 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." 17 And they brought Joseph's shirt, stained with false blood. Seeing this their father exclaimed: "Nay (this is not true); rather your evil souls have made it easy for you to commit a heinous act. So I will bear this patiently, and in good grace. It is Allah's help alone that I seek against your fabrication." 18 And there came a caravan – so they sent their water-drawer, he therefore lowered his pail; he said, “What good luck, this is a boy!”; and they hid him as a treasure; and Allah knows what they do. 19 In selling him they asked for a very small price and even then no one wanted to buy him. 20