Surah Yusuf 12:105-111 - Quran Translation Commentary

107. Are they satisfied that they are safe from the over whelming punishment of Allah, or of the coming of the hour (Doomsday) while they are unaware?

108. Say: (O Prophet!) “This is my path.¹⁶² I invite towards Allah, with insight (sure knowledge )¹⁶³ whoever follows me.¹⁶⁴ And Glorified is Allah and I am not of the Mushrikeen (idolaters).”

109. And We did also send messengers to whom We sent revelation before your save men, from among the people of the townships¹⁶⁵ Have they not travelled in the land and seen the nature of the consequences for those who were before them ?¹⁶⁶ And verily the abode of the Hereafter,¹⁶⁷ for those who fear Allah, is best. Will you then not understand?

110. (The earlier nations were given some respite). Till, when the messengers despaired and the people thought that false predictions were told them, then Our help came to them.¹⁶⁸ And whom We would was saved. And Our wrath cannot be awarded from the people who are the criminals.

111. Verily in their stories there is a lesson for men of understanding.¹⁶⁹ It is not an invented story, but a confirmation of that (Scripture) which came before,¹⁷⁰ and a detailed explanation of everything,¹⁷¹ and a guidance and a mercy for the people who believe.¹⁷²

Commentary

160. This is the real reason for the people’s not finding the truth which the Qur’an is inviting people to seek. The signs leading to monotheism are found at every step in the world, but people have interpreted this universe in such a wrong way and have formulated such wrong theories about life and have stuck to them so firmly that they are not prepared to look at these signs and pay any heed to them.

161. Only that belief in God is proper and correct which is monotheistic, because polytheism is denial of His attributes, and a slave’s relationship with his Lord can be established only when he believes in Him with all His attributes as they are. Even today a majority of people in the world believes in God, but it does not feel the necessity to turn towards Him for seeking guidance, nor does it have anything to do with worshipping or obeying Him. Moreover, many of them are not satisfied with one God but have invented a number of gods for their own satisfaction. In such a case their belief in God becomes meaningless, but the majority of them is under self-deception.

162. That is: This is my way and this is my religion.

163. That is: My message (dawah) is neither without argument nor is it unreasonable, nor is it an invitation to embrace a religion which has no light of knowledge and nature; on the contrary my dawah is fully reasonable, supported by arguments, the very voice of nature and the light of knowledge.

164. It shows that in Makkah along with the Prophet his followers were also busy in the work of propagating the religion of truth, as if the Muslim Ummah has been prepared for the work of dawah from the very first day.

165. It elicits the fact that all the messengers of God who came to this world were from amongst the human beings, and they were males, and they were citizens of townships, because the office of prophet-hood is a very dignified office, for which men only could be more appropriate. For fulfilling the important responsibilities of prophet-hood, it was necessary to have highly intellectual capacities and the opportunities to address the ‘pharaohs of the time’, and these could be available only in the cities. Therefore, prophets were sent down in big cities.

166. For explanation, please see Surah Al- An’am, Note No.20

167. Abode of the hereafter means Paradise.

168. That is: Our help reached Our messenger exactly at the time when they were disappointed about their nations embracing their religion; and the respite that the people had got let them to believe that the warnings of punishment which they were given were false, and they thought that no punishment would visit them. Here this message is given to comfort the Prophet and his companions that the respite given to the idolaters is quite in keeping with the demands of Allah’s wisdom. This respite is till the Prophet despairs of their embracing Islam. If he despairs, then his rejecters would be punished in this world by means of some natural calamity, and for the people of faith Allah’s help would come and they would be rid of the Idolaters and would also be saved from the divine punishment.

169. The chronicles of the prophets and their nations have been narrated in the Qur’an with the main purpose of giving a lesson to the people, who should not read them as mere stories of the bygone days.

170. Points to the Torah that the guidance given in it is confirmed by the Qur’an. In the existing book of Genesis of the Torah, the story of Yusuf is different from what is stated in the Qur’an, but so far as the main theme is concerned there is similarity in both the narratives, which is a proof of the fact that this story was not invented by the Prophet (Peace be upon him), but that the Being who had revealed the Torah has also revealed the Qur’an, and the realities which were removed from the pages of the Torah have been engraved in the pages of the Qur’an.

171. ‘Tafseel’ (detail) literally means to state by opening or uncovering’. It signifies that in the Qur’an all the necessary matters have been stated clearly, so that there should be no difficulty in understanding which one is Allah’s path, what is liked by Allah and what in not liked by Him, and what are His teachings.

172. Qur’an opens the avenues of Allah’s guidance, by following which people of faith can deserve to receive Allah’s mercy.