Joseph
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[12:70]
And [later,] when he had provided them with their provisions, he placed the [King’s] drinking-cup in his brother’s camel-pack. And [as they were leaving the city,] a herald called out: "O you people of the caravan! Verily, you are thieves!"

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* v.70 : Lit., “an announcer” (mu’adhdhin) – a noun derived from the verbal form adhdhana (“he announced” or “proclaimed” or “called out publicly”).
* Commenting on this verse, Rāzī says: “Nowhere in the Qur’ān is it stated that they made this accusation on Joseph’s orders; the circumstantial evidence shows rather (al-aqrab ilā zāhir al-hāl) that they did this of their own accord: for, when they had missed the drinking-cup, [these servants of Joseph remembered that] nobody had been near it [except the sons of Jacob], and so it occurred to them that it was they who had taken it.” Analogous views are also advanced by Tabarī and Zamakhsharī in their comments on the last words of verse 76 below. This extremely plausible explanation contrasts sharply with the Biblical account of this incident (Genesis xliv), according to which the false accusation was part of an inexplicable “stratagem” devised by Joseph. If we discard – as we must – this part of the Biblical version, it is far more logical to assume that Joseph, who had been granted by the King full authority over all that belonged to the latter (see verse 56 above), had placed the royal cup as a present in the bag of his favourite brother; and that he did this secretly, without informing his servants, because he did not want anyone, least of all his ten half-brothers, to know his predilection for Benjamin. For a further explanation of this incident and of its ethical relevance within the context of Joseph’s story, see note 77 below.