57. It is said that the two were personal servants of the Egyptian king. One of them a wine server, while the other a baker. The king learnt that they had been poisoned, so he imprisoned them (Ibn Jarir).

58. Following the `Omani dialect, Ibn `Abbas and Dahhak have understood the textual word “khamran” as “‘inaban” meaning grapes. In fact, it is said that `Abdullah ibn Mas`ud’s copy of the Qur’an read “`inaban” instead of “khamran” (Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir).

59. Suddi and Ibn Is-haq have understood the verse as follows: “The food you two are fed with (in your dreams) will not be brought to you, but I will tell you about the interpretation thereof, before it (actually) comes to you.” Ibn Jurayj however did not accept this interpretation (Ibn Jarir). And most of the commentators have accepted the apparent meaning.

Thanwi adds that Yusuf tried to build his credibility by prefacing his invitation to tawhid with this piece of information: the food does not come to you but I am able to tell you what it is, before it arrives: so, you should believe in me when I say your Lord is one.

60. In truth, knowledge is a great blessing from Allah. Yusuf was given beauty. But it brought him nothing but troubles, including imprisonment. But knowledge brought him great rewards including his escape from the prison (Se`di in `Ibar).

61. Asad comments: “Joseph wants to avail this opportunity to guide his two fellow-prisoners to the true faith; and so, while promising that he would explain their dreams presently, he asks them to listen first to a short discourse on the oneness of God.”

62. It is notable that when it comes to the right religion, Yusuf speaks first of Ibrahim (asws) then Is-h aq (asws) and then his own father and not his father and upwards. In matters of guidance, lineage-bonds are spiritual. It might also be noted that he does not mention his own prophethood at this point (Au.).

63. This is how Allah treats him who forsakes the false religions of his forefathers and followed the true guidance received from Allah through his Messengers: Allah guides his heart, teaches him what he knew not, and makes out of him a leader for the people to follow (Ibn Kathir).

64. Allah showed His favor to mankind by raising some men from among them as Messengers in order to deliver His warnings (Ibn `Abbas - Ibn Jarir).

Asad adds: “Since God is almighty and Self-sufficient, it is not for His sake that man is warned not to ascribe divine qualities to aught beside Him: the absolute condemnation of this sin is solely designed to benefit man by freeing him from all superstition, and thus enhancing his dignity as a conscious, rational being.”

65. Yusuf Ali illustrates the message hidden in words, ‘O my two fellow-prisoners’: “Note the personal touch again. ‘Are we not also companions in misfortune? And may I not speak to you on terms of perfect equality, - as one prisoner to another? Well then, do you really think a conflict of heterogenous gods is better than Allah, the One (and Only). Whose power is supreme and irresistible?’”

66. In Majid’s words, “they have no existence whatever anywhere save in your imagination; they are names absolutely without any corresponding reality.”

Alusi has a subtle point if those could know whom he intended should know: Similar is the situation of those who imagine that they address their acts of worship to Allah. They imagine Him to be a huge body sitting on the `Arsh: an idea that both knowledge and reason reject. The Name that He has ascribed unto Himself is altogether different from the name they imagine for Him. In other words, what they worship is but a name. It has no existence beyond their imagination.

67. Yusuf introduced this piece of advice before offering them the interpretation perhaps because he feared that they might not pay him attention later. The verse also speaks volumes about faith in Allah before anything else, and that, in its final analysis, the relationship between Him and His slaves is more important than their relationship with other mortals, even if they are Messengers. In this case, although one of them was a few days away from death, Yusuf did not invite them to belief in his own Messengership. He told them to simply have faith in Allah and forsake false gods. When trying to understand ahadith such as, “Whoever said ‘There is no deity besides Allah,’ entered Paradise,” one might keep this verse before him (Au.).

68. Reports say that the two did not like the interpretation at all, and so changed their stance, saying that they were merely testing him, having actually seen nothing of that sort. Yusuf then added these words, “Thus is decreed the affair about which you two enquire” (Ibn Jarir). This opinion has been attributed to Ibn Mas`ud also (Ibn Kathir).

69. It was a request to intimate the king that a person wholly innocent was undergoing imprisonment (Majid, slightly altered).

To the extra-sensitive who wonder at the usage of the word “rabbik” in this verse, Qurtubi reminds of the hadith predicting the approach of the Doomsday, which has a similar usage:

إِذَا رَأَيْتَ الْمَرْأَةَ تَلِدُ رَبَّهَا

“When a slave girl will give birth to her master (rabbaha).”

70. The translation herewith follows the understanding of the great majority. However, a few have understood the verse as, “Shaytan made him (Yusuf) forget his Lord.” And, therefore, since he had sought the help of ‘other than Allah,’ “Yusuf had to stay in the prison a few years more as punishment.” In fact, a hadith has also been quoted to this effect. One is in Ibn Jarir. But Ibn Kathir says that it has been declared as untrustworthy. Rashid Rida builds on it and says that even if it is accepted that Yusuf momentarily forgot his Lord, it need not have brought punishment on him. After all, the Qur’an instructed the Final Prophet, (6: 68):

وَإِمَّا يُنْسِيَنَّكَ الشَّيْطَانُ فَلَا تَقْعُدْ بَعْدَ الذِّكْرَى مَعَ الْقَوْمِ الظَّالِمِينَ [الأنعام : 68]

“And if Shaytan makes you forget, then do not sit after the remembrance with a transgressing people.”

It also said (7: 201):

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ اتَّقَوْا إِذَا مَسَّهُمْ طَائِفٌ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ تَذَكَّرُوا فَإِذَا هُمْ مُبْصِرُونَ [الأعراف : 201]

“Surely those who fear (their Lord), remember Allah when a thought from Shaytan touches them, and they begin to see (the truth).”

So, temporary forgetfulness of Allah is not a sin, nor it is a sin to seek the help of other than Allah. (It is reliance on them that is disapproved: Au.). Those who have relied on weak ahadith such as the above to lay blame on a Prophet, have forgotten the great status of the Prophets in the sight of their Lord.

Imam Razi clarifies that although it is allowable when one is wronged to seek redress from an unbeliever, his own (Razi’s) life-long experience, now in his fifty-seventh year, is that the more one seeks the help of the created, the more complicated things become.

Sayyid offers us his own opinion: Allah (swt) did not wish that the man should remember Yusuf. Once out of prison, life returned to its pains and pleasures. And that was good for Yusuf. His release from the prison could not be attributed to a slave. Allah freed Yusuf of the obligation to a mortal (with slight modification).

71. According to most of the authorities the word “bid`” is used for a number between three and nine (Ibn Jarir).

Yusuf did not stay in the prison longer than what Allah had willed for him. The attribution to the wine-server forgiving him was only because, apparently, Allah works through means, and, in this case that was the means employed (Au.).