10 Preface قالَ قائِلٌ مِنهُم لا تَقتُلوا يوسُفَ وَأَلقوهُ في غَيابَتِ الجُبِّ يَلتَقِطهُ بَعضُ السَّيّارَةِ إِن كُنتُم فاعِلينَYusuf AliSaid one of them: “Slay not Joseph, but if ye must do something, throw him down to the bottom of the well: he will be picked up by some caravan of travellers.”1One of the brethren, perhaps less cruel by nature, or perhaps more worldlywise, said: “Why undertake the risk of blood-guiltiness? Throw him into the well you see there! Some travellers passing by will pick him up and remove him to a far country. If not, at least we shall not have killed him:” This was false casuistry, but such casuistry appeals to sinners of a certain kind of temperament. The well was apparently a dry well, deep enough to prevent his coming out, but with no water in which he could be drowned. It was God’s Plan to save him alive, but not to make Joseph indebted to any of his brethren for his life!