Translation of the meanings Ayah 20 Surah Yūsuf - English Translation - Dr. Waleed Bleyhesh Omary - The Noble Qur'an Encyclopedia

Ayah: 20

وَشَرَوۡهُ بِثَمَنِۭ بَخۡسٖ دَرَٰهِمَ مَعۡدُودَةٖ وَكَانُواْ فِيهِ مِنَ ٱلزَّٰهِدِينَ

(20) And they sold him off^[2691] for a meagre sum, a few dirhams; they were indeed not keen on him.

[2691] Exegetes are of two different opinions as to who the sellers were. al-Ṭabarī, al-Samʿānī, al-Qurṭubī, Ibn Kathīr and al-Saʿdī are of the opinion that these were his brothers who caught up with the caravan and told them that Yūsuf was an eloping slave boy whom they then sold to the wayfarers for a pittance. On the other hand, Ibn Juzayy, Abū Ḥayyān, al-Biqāʿī, Riḍā and Ibn ʿĀshūr, given the context and the flow of events, see that these were the wayfarers themselves. They wanted to rid themselves of their felony, a veritable hot potato, as soon as possible (cf. Riḍā, al-Tafsīr al-Mukhtaṣar) or they were just unaware of his true worth (cf. Ibn ʿĀshūr).