Surah Yusuf 12:30-35 - Quran Translation Commentary

(12:31) When she came to know of their guile,⁴⁶ she sent for them and prepared for them a banquet⁴⁷ giving each one of them a knife. Then she ordered, ‘Enter upon them (O Yusuf).’ When they saw him they extolled him and cut their hands.⁴⁸ They said, ‘Allah’s refuge.⁴⁹ This is no mortal. This surely is a noble angel.’⁵⁰

(12:32) She said, ‘This is the one about whom you were blaming me.⁵¹ Yes, I did desire after him but he has resisted. Yet if he does not do as I demand, surely, he will be imprisoned and will be humbled.’⁵²

(12:33) He said, ‘O my Lord. Verily, prison is better for me than what they invite me to.⁵³ If You do not turn their guile away from me, I might incline towards them and become one of the ignorant.’⁵⁴

(12:34) His Lord responded to him and turned their plots away from him.⁵⁵ Surely, He is the Hearer, the Knower.

(12:35) Then it appeared (better) to them after the signs they saw, that they might as well imprison him for a while.⁵⁶

Commentary

44. To fall in love with a mere slave must have been thought a matter of idignity by the aristocratic class (Au.).

Note the use of the present and future tense rather than past tense in the words, “seeks to,” meaning, that the woman had not given up the idea altogether (Ibn al-Qayyim). Also see Sayyid’s remark above under note 30.

45. Majid comments, “i.e., she has been completely infatuated by him, she has fallen so low as to attach herself to her own servant.”

46. One of the probable explanations for the use of the word “makr” is that the Egyptian ladies carried the same sentiments for Yusuf but outwardly criticized Zulaykha. Another is that having heard the stories of his incredible beauty, they wished to see the man who was probably ordinarily kept out of sight (Shawkani, Shabbir). Indeed, aware of his own irresistible beauty, Yusuf could have been in the habit of keeping himself out of public sight (Au.).

Another possibility is that Zulaykha confided to them her infatuation for Yusuf, but they spread the story (Baghawi).

47. The translation follows one opinion. Another opinion is that “muttaki’” alludes to cushions. Both the meanings have come from the Salaf. Some of them have read it as “mutkan” meaning, “utrunj” (citrus fruit: Middle-eastern orange) - Au.

48. In a Sahih report the Prophet said, recalling his seeing Yusuf in the heavens during his Night Journey and Ascension, “I encountered Yusuf in the third heaven,”

إِذَا هُوَ قَدْ أُعْطِىَ شَطْرَ الْحُسْنِ

“He was given one half of (all) beauty.”

According to another report coming through Anas, Allah distributed one half of (all) beauty among Yusuf and his mother, and the other half among the rest of the mankind. It is also reported that Yusuf used to veil his face from fear of causing pandemonium, especially among women. Suhayli has explained that what the hadith means to say is that Yusuf was given one half of the beauty given to Adam whom Allah had created with His hands and who was the most beautiful of the creatures ever (Ibn Kathir).

Alusi uses the occasion to defend the “words of disbelief” that are reported of some of the ascetics. He reports Ibn `Ataa’ as commenting on the women cutting their hands in total amazement in words, “if such was the effect of the vision of a created being, why blame those who, when granted the vision of the Creator, uttered what they uttered?”

49. The translation is based on the opinion of the Salaf as in Ibn Jarir. However, Shawkani states that the phrase means, roughly, “Glory to God!”

50. Majid writes: “The expression .. suggests moral dignity and sublimity of character rather than physical beauty or carnal charms. The highly-placed ladies of Egypt are paying a tribute to Joseph’s character as a human being rather than referring to the eroticising effect of his personality.”

51. Yusuf Ali explains: “When her reputation began to be pulled to pieces, the wife of `Aziz invited all ladies in society to a grand banquet. We can imagine them reclining at ease after the manner of fashionable banquets. When the dessert arrived and the talk flowed freely about the gossip and scandal which made their hostess interesting, they were just about to cut the fruit with their knives, when, behold! Joseph was brought into their midst. Imagine the consternation which his beauty caused, and the havoc it played with their hearts! ‘Ah!’ thought the wife of `Aziz, ‘now is your hypocrisy self-exposed! What about your reproaches to me? You have yourselves so lost your self-control that you have cut your fingers.’”

We might point out here that although most of the commentators have explained that the women cut their fingers, the Qur’an itself used the word “hands.” Anyone who observed women (not influenced by machinist Western culture) cutting a fruit into halves and quarters with a knife would testify to the accuracy of the Qur’an. They hold the fruit and press the knife in such a manner that if pressed harder the knife would cut their palms (Au.).

52. Although it is not necessary that ‘Aziz’s wife said these words before those ladies, the context strongly suggests this. And, it should give us some idea of the moral state of the women of high positions of the time. Modern Western sexual anarchy has its precedence in the culture of the past (Au.).

53. To spurn the invitation of a rich, beautiful and highly placed woman was no small an act for a man in the prime of his youth. A hadith says:

سَبْعَةٌ يُظِلُّهُمْ اللَّهُ فِي ظِلِّهِ يَوْمَ لَا ظِلَّ إِلَّا ظِلُّهُ الْإِمَامُ الْعَادِلُ وَشَابٌّ نَشَأَ فِي عِبَادَةِ رَبِّهِ وَرَجُلٌ قَلْبُهُ مُعَلَّقٌ فِي الْمَسَاجِدِ وَرَجُلَانِ تَحَابَّا فِي اللَّهِ اجْتَمَعَا عَلَيْهِ وَتَفَرَّقَا عَلَيْهِ وَرَجُلٌ طَلَبَتْهُ امْرَأَةٌ ذَاتُ مَنْصِبٍ وَجَمَالٍ فَقَالَ إِنِّي أَخَافُ اللَّهَ وَرَجُلٌ تَصَدَّقَ أَخْفَى حَتَّى لَا تَعْلَمَ شِمَالُهُ مَا تُنْفِقُ يَمِينُهُ وَرَجُلٌ ذَكَرَ اللَّهَ خَالِيًا فَفَاضَتْ عَيْنَاهُ

“There are seven who will be provided shade by Allah at a time when there will be no shade except His: A just ruler, a youth who matured in devotion to Allah, a man whose heart is stuck in the mosque when he leaves it until he re-enters, two men who loved each other for the sake of Allah coming together over it and parting over it, a man who spent with his right hand in a manner that his left hand did not know what the other hand had spent, a man whom a beautiful, well-placed woman invited but he said, ‘I fear Allah,’ and, a man who remembered Allah in his private and his eyes were filled with tears” (Ibn Kathir).

The hadith is in the Sahihayn (H. Ibrahim).

54. Use of the plural form suggests that other women had their own designs on Yusuf. It is also possible that the highly-placed ladies threw innuendoes at him suggesting a more positive approach to the proposed fun: “After all you are a man. Hopefully!” In amorous matters women have ways that can lend greater meaning to words unsaid than those they stop at with a giggle (Au.).

55. Allah responded to Yusuf’s prayer and provided him protection from the mischief of the women. As for his imprisonment, that was part of a larger scheme (Shabbir from Shah `Abdul Qadir).

56. Asad offers his note taking a comment from Zamakhshari, “Thus, according to the Qur’an, Joseph was imprisoned not because his master believed him to be guilty, but because, in his weakness, he wanted to appease his wife, ‘being entirely submissive to her, and behaving like a riding-camel whose reins she held in her hand.’”

Yusuf Ali explains further, “To the `Aziz it appears as if it might be in his wife’s best interests that he should disappear from her view in prison. The decisive factor was the view of the men generally, who were alarmed at the consternation he had caused among the women. They knew that Joseph was righteous: they had seen the Signs of Allah in his wonderful personality and his calm and confident fortitude. But, it was argued, it was better that one man (even if righteous) should suffer in prison rather than that many should suffer from the extraordinary disturbance he was unwittingly causing in their social life. Not for the first nor for the last time did the righteous suffer plausibly for the guilt of the guilty. And so Joseph went to the prison - for a time.”