Surah Yusuf 12:21-29 - Quran Translation Commentary

21. The man from Egypt who bought him said to his wife: “Treat him with respect³², possibly he may prove useful for us or we may adopt him as a son³³. Thus We established Yusuf in the land³⁴ and (caused him to go through the trial) so that We might teach him the interpretation of events³⁵. Allah has full power to enforce His command, but most of the mankind do not know ³⁶.

22. And when he reached maturity³⁷, We gave him wisdom and knowledge. Thus do We reward the righteous³⁸.

23. And she in whose house he was, tried to seduce him³⁹. She closed the doors and said: ‘’Come on, O you He said: “I seek refuge in Allah! Verily, He is my Lord, He has given me a good place, verily wrong-doers will never be successfull⁴⁰”.

24. And she desired him passionately, and he too would have desired her, had he not seen a clear vision from his Lord⁴¹. It was so because We wanted to keep him away from evil and lewdness⁴². Verily he was one of Our chosen slaves⁴³.

25. And they both raced to the door, and she tore his shirt from behind, and they met her master at the door. She said: “What is the punishment for him who had an evil design against your wife, except prison or a painful torment ⁴⁴?”

26. He (Yusuf) said: “It was she who tried to seduce me⁴⁵”, and a witness from her own family gave evidence; “If his shirt is torn from the front, then she spoke the truth and he is a liar.

27. “And if his shirt is torn from behind, then she told a lie and he is truthful⁴⁶”

28. So when he saw his shirt torn from behind, said: “Verily this is the guile of you women. Verily your plot is very great⁴⁷!

29. “O Yusuf! Ignore this, and (O woman!) beg forgiveness for your sin; truly it is you, who are guilty⁴⁸.”

Commentary

32. The Caravan was going to Egypt, so it took Yusuf to Egypt, and there they sold him as a slave. In Egypt the man who bought him was a big officer in the government and his name, as given in the Bible, was Potiphar, He is said to be a highranking officer of the guards in the army. Qur’an, as will be seen further on, has used for him the title of ‘Aziz’.

On seeing Yusuf he realized that he must be a boy belonging to a noble family, who has come to this state due to some adversity. The boy was promising, well behaved and reliable, and therefore, he told his wife to treat him with respect and not to treat him as a slave.

33. The officer was a discerning man and therefore he realized the worth of Yusuf, and probably he was childless, so he told his wife that possibly they might adopt him as their son.

34. Allah’s plan was to make Yusuf the ruler of Egypt. For this purpose, it was necessary that he should have the experience of the civilized life of the land. Allah provided such means for him that he took a firm foothold there and thus he was helped in getting himself established by getting the experience in the household of an officer.

35. That is: God’s purpose in passing Yusuf through so many travails was to equip him with the deftness which is necessary to see the bottom of an event for knowing its reality. Blows of circumstances help man to get to the depth of the matter and going deep fills his satchel with pearls.

36. This is an undeniable fact and the objective in stating it here is to show that inspite of his jealous enemies the vistas of success in this and the next world went on opening for Yusuf, and on the other hand the intent is to hint that Allah’s plan concerning Muhammad (Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam), will likewise be enforced inevitably, neither the Quraish nor anybody else can prevent it from being enforced.

37. Reaching maturity means growing up to be eighteen to twenty years old, that is, an age when a person is able to understand serious things about life. In ayat No. 152, Surah An’am the word ‘Ashudd’ has been used in the same sense.

38. ‘Hakm’ (Wisdom) means ability to take a decision and knowledge (Ilm) here means the light of insight. These qualities were bestowed on Yusuf when he became mature, prior to his attaining prophethood. This was the immediate reward from his Lord for his conduct and righteous life, which he promptly received.

On this occasion Allah has also mentioned about his tradition that is: those who lead a righteous life, in other words they fulfill adequately, their responsibilities as Allah’s slaves, and nurture in themselves good habits and qualities, Allah blesses such persons with wisdom to take right decisions, and the knowledge in the form of insight required for this purpose is also granted to them. This reward of good conduct is received by man in this world itself according to his rank.

39. Bible says that Yusuf was beautiful and handsome. -(Genesis: 39:6).

In other words, Allah had gifted him the beauty of both face and character.

Aziz of Egypt had kept Yusuf in his house and he had made him the sole manager of his household, entrusting to him all responsibilities. - (Genesis: 39-2 to 4). Aziz’s wife fell in love with Yusuf and one day finding the opportunity tried to seduce him.

It may be noted that the stories of the extraordinary beauty of Yusuf which are widely known are based on exaggeration and unbridled imagination. If he were the most beautiful man in the world, as is the general belief, then Qur’an would have definitely made a mention of it somewhere. But Qur’an makes no mention of it at all. It has given prominence to the beauty of his character, which is the main purpose of this chronicle, while the romantically inclined people want to see in it the romantic shades. In this way they have turned this chronicle of Yusuf which Qur’an has presented in a very balanced way, into a traditional love story of ‘Yusuf and Zulekha’.

40. One day the wife of Aziz of Egypt found the opportunity and bolted the door of her room from inside and unashamedly tried to seduce Yusuf. But he was an epitome of righteousness. How could he get himself involved in such an act.? Spontaneously he replied: I seek refuge in Allah ! How can I indulge into such an act when my Master has given me such a nice position! By this Yusuf meant that when Allah has granted him all these facilities and bestowed on him so many favours, having honoured him to be the son of a prophet, guided him at every step and helped him whenever needed. Allah gave him an honourable position in Egypt, blessed him with the light of knowledge and wisdom, established him on the high peak of morality, and gave him such a sense of modesty and chastity that he needed no training from any other source.

What Yusuf meant to say was that he could not bring himself to be ungrateful to the Being who gave him all these bounties by acting against His commands and prove himself to be an incapable person; and that if he succumbed to her wishes then he would be considered a wrong-doer and a sinner and it is well known that the wrong-doers cannot succeed; there is disgrace for them in the world and grievous punishment in the Hereafter.

It is worth noting how brief was Yusuf’s reply and how very reasonable, every word of which is replete with fear of God and anxiety for the Hereafter.

Some commentators have opined that the reference to “my Lord “in this verse is to indicate the master of the household, Aziz of Egypt, but Zajjaj (expert lexicographer) states that it refers to Allah (Fathul Qadeer, Vol. III, page 17). It means that Yusuf refers to Allah when he says that He has given me nice position, etc. We agree with the opinion of Zajjaj, because there is no reason to consider it to refer to Aziz as there is no mention of his name in this verse, while Allah’s name is mentioned just preceding this statement. Secondly in the ayat No.25, the words ‘sayyiduha’ (her master, i.e. husband) have been used in relation to his wife, but the word ‘Lord’ (Rab) has not been used there, though it could be used there to mean her master (husband). Thirdly there is no instance in the Qur’an where any prophet has termed any man as Lord even metaphorically. Fourthly this sentence has three parts, all of which are related with one another. First part is: ‘I seek refuge in Allah “which expresses fear of God, second part is: ‘He is my Lord, He has made my stay agreeable’, which is an expression of gratitude to God and the third part is: ‘Verily wrong-doers do not prosper’, which expresses belief in the reward and punishment in the Hereafter. But by taking ‘Lord to mean the Aziz of Egypt, the parts of this statement become disconnected. Fifthly the occasion was to mention the favours of Allah and not of the Aziz of Egypt.

For these reasons the opinion of the majority of the commentators cannot be accepted.

41. That is: The woman made advances, and Yusuf would too have reciprocated, had he not seen the veritable sign from his Lord. It means that inspite of the advance made by the woman, Yusuf resisted it firmly, which is very difficult, but it was made possible by a veritable sign from God. veritable sign (Burhan) means that irrefutable argument which is latent in the statement of Yusuf which has been referred to above, that is a man cannot escape Allah’s hold after committing a sin. To see the ‘Burhan’ means to have the insight to understand it and believe in it. Yusuf was granted that wisdom, that is why on this delicate occasion he could save himself from falling into the trap of sinning.

Leaving aside this simple meaning of the verse, a group of commentators has relied on senseless narratives and have written strange explanations, e.g. Yusuf had seen the image of Prophet Yaqub or an angel, which is totally far-fetched and it is nothing else but trying to create polemical points by turning the simple meaning of the Quranic statement into vague explanations. Such narratives have veiled the real sense and the subjectmatter of the Qur’an, and for this reason it is necessary to refute such attempts with firmness. Similarly some commentators have, in their explanation of the ayat: ‘He too would have desired her’, hinted at Yusuf’s passionately desiring her and other baseless insinuations, which remarks deserve to be drowned in the sea. Such remarks do not deserve to be quoted, but Imam Razi has refuted them, which is briefly like this: We do not accept that Yusuf had passionately desired the woman and the argument for this contention is Allah’s statement ‘he would have desired her, had he not seen a veritable sign from his Lord’. The ayat says that he would have desired her, it does not say that he desired her. The objection of Zajjaj that such a conclusion is not correct according to the Arabic grammar is not correct, because its example can be found in the Qur’an:

“She (Moosa’s mother) would have disclosed the matter, had We not strengthened her heart.” - (Al-Qasas-10).

In this case also the words ‘would have’ mean that she did not express. As for the narratives, what is the guarantee that the commentators who have copied these narratives from the companions of the Prophet and their immediate followers, were authentic?

42. Yusuf’s character is free from all types of corruption and he is completely innocent of any sinful desires. Truth loving commentators and polemicists are of the same opinion and we also agree with them (vide At-Tafseerul Kabir, Vol. 18, pages 115 to 130). The fact is that Qur’an has narrated this delicate situation in such a way that there is not even the slightest hint of any faltering or misstepping by Yusuf. Had he committed such an error, then there would have been some mention of his repentance. But since there is no such mention in the Qur’an and therefore, all the statements of these commentators which do not conform to Quran’s statement are automatically refuted. Yusuf has left behind such a marvelous example of his modesty and chastity that it has been mentioned in the holy Prophet’s tradition in these words:

“There are seven persons on whom Allah will cast His shadow of grace. One of them will be a person who, when invited to commit the evil act, replied: ‘I fear Allah.’ “ - (Bukhari-Kitabul Azan).

43. That is: He is one of Our favourite slaves.

44. Yusuf ran to the door so that he might run away and save himself from this evil, and the wife of Aziz ran to the door so that she might stop Yusuf from opening the door and escaping out of her evil designs. In her attempts she pulled the shirt of Yusuf from behind so violently that it tore off. However, Yusuf succeeded in opening the door. By chance Aziz was present at the door at that very, time. Seeing him, his wife panicked and with her presence of mind immediately accused Yusuf of trying to seduce her.

The YUSUF WAS THE APPLE OF HIS FATHER, YAQUB’S EYE, AND HIS FATHER LOVED HIM IMMENSELY, BECAUSE HE KNEW THAT A PERSONALITY LIKE YUSUF IS RARELY. BORN IN THIS WORLD. IN THE WORDS OF THE URDU POET, IQBAL: FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS, NARCISSUS (FLOWER) WEEPS ON HER BLINDNESS, FOR RARELY IS AN OBSERVER BORN IN THE GARDEN.

45. Yusuf gave a brief reply in an extremely decent way, which was sufficient to prove his innocence.

46. The statements of both, Yusuf and Aziz’s wife, were at variance, and there was no eye. witness of the incident. Therefore, a relative of the woman, who was a man of understanding, offered the circumstantial evidence that if Yusuf’s shirt is torn from the front then it is the sign that the initiative in this case was taken by him, and the woman was trying to save herself; but if the shirt is torn from behind, then it is the sign of the fact that the woman was after Yusuf and that when Yusuf ran away from her to save himself, the woman pulled his shirt from behind, tearing it. This statement which described the likelihood of the things happening has been termed by Qur’an as evidence, which provides us a guideline that in deciding disputes circumstantial evidences are also important.

47. The shirt’s being torn from behind was the proof of the fact that the initiative was not taken by Yusuf, therefore the Aziz of Egypt declared his own wife to be guilty and the accusation of Yusuf by her as a female trick and deceit. The general statement made by him that women’s guile and trickery were great signifies that when a woman tries to seduce a man, she becomes most cunning and dangerous. She commits an evil act and throws the blame on others. Women are unable to see their own shortcoming and they do not have the courage to own their guilt. It does not mean that every woman behaves in this manner, but only those who have such evil mentality, for such evil acts are committed by them only.

48. Though Aziz declared his wife to be guilty but he did not have the courage to take any step against her. He had the fear of bringing his wife to disrepute, therefore, he asked Yusuf to forgive and forget the ‘incident.