Perhaps I Will Return to the People, That They May Know” (The Political Context Between the Precedent and the Sequel, and the Praiseworthy Return) Capt Mohamed Hassan El-Taher

Date: November 7, 2026

There is a verse you cannot read without sensing how central the people are in the Quranic text, especially in times of hardship and crisis. God Almighty said:

“Joseph, O truthful one, give us your ruling about seven fat cows eaten by seven lean ones, and seven green ears of grain and others dry, that I may return to the people, that they may know.”

This is verse 46 of Surat Yusuf, the twelfth surah in the order of the Mushaf, whose opening God begins with:

– “We relate to you the best of stories.”

It was not the best of stories merely because it is the story of a king or a prophet, but because it is the story of all people.

It covers most of their conditions :

– love and jealousy,

– injustice and patience,

– prison and empowerment,

– ignorance and knowledge,

– and then the return.

To understand the verse, you must live what comes before it and what comes after it.

The preceding context

As shown in verses 43–45 of Surat Yusuf, the King of Egypt saw a dream that terrified him:

Seven fat cows eaten by seven lean ones,

and seven green ears of grain and others dry.

So the King gathered the council: the scholars, the priests, the advisors.

He said:

“O eminent ones, explain to me my vision, if you are able to interpret visions.”

The answer of the so-called council was:

“They said:

– ‘A jumble of dreams, and we are not learned in the interpretation of dreams.'”

Knowledge is a preserving memory and an examining insight.

When insight is absent, masked ignorance appears through the tongue (“a man is hidden beneath his tongue”): when a person is unable, he accuses the vision of being a jumble of dreams.

 Then the solution comes from memory, in the absence of insight.

– It came when the cupbearer who had been freed from prison remembered, after a long span of years, after years of forgetting:

“And the one who was freed, and remembered after a time, said:

– I will inform you of its interpretation, so send me forth.'”

It appears that the movement of interpretation, in the journey between the prison and the palace, required familiarity and transmitted experience from past dealings.

This increased trust in Joseph because of that earlier experience.

 For we find in the Quranic text that the one who was freed:

went to the prison, to Joseph, and not to the palace.

Because true knowledge was not in the palace; it was in the prison. And he said to him with the eagerness of someone in need:

“Joseph, O truthful one, give us your ruling… that I may return to the people, that they may know.”

Note the precision:

He did not say “that I may return to the king,” but “to the people.”

Why? Because the vision was not for the king alone; it concerned the fate of all the people.

The coming famine would make no distinction between king and prisoner.

He also said “perhaps” (la’alla) twice.

 The commentators said this was because he was not certain of:

his return, since he might die on the way,

nor that the people would know, since they might not understand.

Such is knowledge: it is hope, not arrogance. What was not understood from the precedent (in the usage of the scholars of legal theory, meaning “what came before”) is made clear by the context, through the sequel in verses 47–49. For that without which an obligation cannot be fulfilled is itself obligatory.

So what did Joseph do?

Did he say, “Release me first, then I will give you my ruling”?

Did he make his freedom a condition for his knowledge?

Here the difference appears, through this contrast, between:

the ignorant person who sells his knowledge,

and the scholar who gives it freely when it is needed. For that without which an obligation cannot be fulfilled is itself obligatory.

God Almighty said:

“He said: ‘You will plant for seven years consecutively, and what you harvest leaves in its ear, except a little from which you will eat (47). Then there will come after that seven difficult years which will consume what you have saved for them, except a little from which you will store (48). Then will come after that a year in which the people will be given rain and in which they will press (49).'”

He gave them a complete economic plan for fifteen years, while still in prison. He asked for no reward. He said, in effect: save the people first, and later the people will know my worth.

And look at the centrality of the people in the story:

It began with “that I may return to the people,”

and ended with “the people will be given rain.” From the return to the relief.

The word al-nas (“the people”) is the most frequently repeated word in the Quran denoting humanity as a collective.

It appears, with its root n-w-s, 241 times in 179 verses,

and it appears in no derivation other than this form.

This repetition was not accidental; it was intended. Because the entire Quran was revealed for the people:

“O people, worship your Lord, who created you.” [Al-Baqarah: 21]

“O people, eat of what is on earth, lawful and good.” [Al-Baqarah: 168]

“O people, there has come to you a clear proof from your Lord.” [An-Nisa: 174]

“Say: O people, I am the Messenger of God to you all.” [Al-A’raf: 158]

“And We have not sent you except as a mercy to the worlds.”

Sometimes “the people” means:

all of humankind,

the believers,

the hypocrites,

the disbelievers.

But each time, they are the focus of the event, because they are the ones charged with responsibility, and they are the ones who bear the trust.

The origin of the word al-nas in the language is from al-naws,

meaning agitation, wavering, and movement.

As if the human being was called nas because he moves, forgets, wavers, and is troubled. For this reason he constantly needs someone to turn to for knowledge, to steady him, such as Joseph (“O truthful one”). Here the continuous interplay of people between reason and ignorance becomes clear.

In Surat Yusuf alone, you see people in two forms:

1. People of ignorance:

They are the king’s council who said:

“A jumble of dreams.”

They are Joseph’s brothers who said:

“Joseph and his brother are more beloved to our father than we are.”

They are the wife of the Aziz and those with her. These people judged by desire, not by reason. They interpreted what they did not understand and accused what they did not know.

Ignorance is not merely not knowing;

ignorance is to claim that you know when you do not.

2. People of reason:

This is Joseph. He did not say “I do not know,” and he did not say “I know everything.” He said: this is its interpretation, and this is its plan. He linked:

knowledge with action,

the vision with planting, saving, and management.

Reason in the Quran is not mere intelligence, but a reason that connects you to the people. Joseph did not use his reason to take revenge on his brothers, nor to escape from prison, but to save the people from famine.

That is why the cupbearer said:

“that I may return to the people, that they may know.”

Because knowledge that does not return to the people becomes another prison. The scholar who does not return to the people has a knowledge imprisoned along with him.

How many a scholar today is a prisoner in his tower, knowing but not returning? And how many an ignorant person returns to the people with his ignorance and misleads them?

The Quranic equation is:

Reason without returning to the people = selfishness,

and returning to the people without reason = chaos.

Therefore the Messenger of God (peace be upon him), with his comprehensive speech, said:

“Fear God wherever you are, follow a bad deed with a good one and it will erase it, and treat people with good character.” (Narrated by al-Tirmidhi)

Consider the order:

Fear God: this is between you and God.

Follow a bad deed with a good one: this is between you and yourself.

Treat people with good character: this is between you and the people.

As if the Prophet is saying: it is not enough to be a scholar, and it is not enough to be pious in your prayer niche. Religion is tested among the people.

Joseph treated people with good character while in prison, so they called him “the truthful.” And he treated them with good character while in the palace, saying to his brothers: “There is no blame upon you today. May God forgive you.”

To treat people with good character means:

to return to them with knowledge, not with arrogance,

to excuse their ignorance, as Joseph excused the ignorance of the council,

not to sell them your knowledge, but to give it as a duty,

to know that people are not an audience applauding you, but a trust upon your neck.

Conclusion:

Perhaps I will return…

Each one of us is that cupbearer.

We go far in life: in prison, in exile, in learning, in pain. Then we discover that the goal is to return.

Perhaps I will return to the people, that they may know.

Perhaps I will return to them:

with what I have learned, not what I have accumulated,

with reason, not with ignorance,

with good character, not with quarrel.

Whoever lives for the people lives on after death in their hearts. And whoever lives for himself dies while still alive. So let us return, for the return is praiseworthy, and may you endure, O homeland.

And just as God relieved the people after seven hard years at the hands of Joseph, every crisis our nation passes through today needs a new Joseph who says: I return to the people, that they may know.

So will we be that one who returns?