Tafseer of Joseph · Yusuf · 12:23
And she, in whose house he was, sought to seduce him. She closed the doors and said, "Come, you." He said, "[I seek] the refuge of Allah. Indeed, he is my master, who has made good my residence. Indeed, wrongdoers will not succeed."
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of the words of Allah the Exalted: وَرَاوَدَتْهُ الَّتِي هُوَ فِي بَيْتِهَا عَنْ نَفْسِهِ وَغَلَّقَتِ الأَبْوَابَ وَقَالَتْ هَيْتَ لَكَ قَالَ مَعَاذَ اللَّهِ إِنَّهُ رَبِّي أَحْسَنَ مَثْوَايَ إِنَّهُ لا يُفْلِحُ الظَّالِمُونَ (And the woman in whose house he was staying sought to seduce him to give himself to her; she shut the doors and said: "Come here!" He said: "I seek refuge with Allah — He is indeed my lord, who has ennobled my dwelling. Truly, the wrongdoers will not prosper.") (verse 23)
Abū Jaʿfar says: Allah the Exalted says: The wife of the ʿAzīz — the one in whose house Yūsuf was staying — sought to seduce Yūsuf to give himself to her, that he might approach her. As:
18964. Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq: And when he reached his full strength, the woman in whose house he was staying — the wife of the ʿAzīz — sought to seduce him to give himself to her.
18965. Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: (And the woman in whose house he was staying sought to seduce him to give himself to her) — he said: she loved him.
18966. He said: his father related to me, on the authority of Isrāʾīl, on the authority of Abū Ḥaṣīn, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr — who said: she said: "Come here!"
Concerning His word: (she shut the doors) — He says: the woman shut the doors of the chambers behind herself and Yūsuf, because of what she wanted from him and sought to seduce him to — door after door.
Concerning His word: (and she said: "hayta lak") — the Qurʾān-scholars differed over the reading of this. The majority of the scholars of Kūfa and Baṣra read it as (hayta lak) — with a fatḥa on the hāʾ and the tāʾ — with the meaning: "come here" and "approach" and "come closer", as the poet said concerning ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, may Allah have mercy on him:
"Bring to the Commander of the Faithful a message — the brother of Iraq, when we arrive — that Iraq and its people stretch their necks toward you — so hayta haytā!"
That is: come and approach.
Likewise it was explained by those who read it thus:
18967. Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Makhramī related to me, saying: Abū l-Jawwāb related to us, saying: ʿAmmār ibn Razīq related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: (hayta lak) — he said: "come here."
18968. Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: (hayta lak) — he said: come here.
18969. Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: his father related to him, saying: his uncle related to me, saying: his father related to him, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — he said: (hayta lak) — she says: come here.
18970. Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Ḥajjāj related to us, saying: Ḥammād related to us, on the authority of ʿĀṣim ibn Bahdala, on the authority of Zarr ibn Ḥubaysh — that he read this word as (hayta lak) with naṣb (the accusative vowel) — that is: come here.
18971. Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me — he said: Ibn Jurayj said: Ibn ʿAbbās said concerning His word: (hayta lak) — he said: she says: come here.
18972. Aḥmad ibn Suhayl al-Wāsiṭī related to me, saying: Qurra ibn ʿĪsā related to us, saying: al-Naḍr ibn ʿArabī al-Jazarī related to us, on the authority of ʿIkrima, the freed slave of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: (hayta lak) — he said: come here. He said: it is in the Ḥawrānī tongue.
18973. Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: (and she said: hayta lak) — al-Ḥasan said: he says: come here.
18974. Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: (hayta lak) — some say: come here.
18975. Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: ʿAmr ibn Muḥammad related to us, on the authority of Asbāṭ, on the authority of al-Suddī: (and she said: hayta lak) — he said: come here; and it is in Coptic.
18976. Al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAṭāʾ related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: (hayta lak) — he said: a word in Syriac, that is: approach.
18977. Al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: (hayta lak) — he said: come here.
18978. Al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad related to us, saying: Khalaf ibn Hishām related to us, saying: Maḥbūb related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: (hayta lak) — he said: come here.
18979. He said: ʿAffān related to us, saying: Ḥammād related to us, on the authority of ʿĀṣim, on the authority of Zarr: (hayta lak) — that is: come here.
18980. Al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, saying: al-Thawrī related to us — it reached me concerning His word: (hayta lak) — he said: come here.
18981. Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf related to us, saying: Abū ʿUbayd related to us, saying: ʿAlī ibn ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of Khālid al-Ḥadhdhāʾ, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — that he read: (hayta lak) and said: she calls him to herself.
18982. Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the word of Allah the Exalted: (hayta lak) — he said: an Arabic linguistic form, by which she calls him.
18983. Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shubl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid — the like of it — but he said: an Arabic linguistic form, by which she calls him to herself.
18984. Al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Shabāba related to us, on the authority of Warqāʾ, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid — like the report of Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr.
18985. Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid — the like of it.
18986. Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf related to us, saying: al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Hushaym related to us, on the authority of Yūnus, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: (hayta lak) — with fatḥa on the hāʾ and the tāʾ — and he said: she says: come here.
18987. Al-Ḥārith related to me — he said: Abū ʿUbayd said: al-Kisāʾī used to cite it — namely (hayta lak) — he said: and he said: it is a dialect of the people of Ḥawrān that reached the Ḥijāz; its meaning is "come." He said: Abū ʿUbayda said: I asked a learned old man from Ḥawrān, and he confirmed that it is their dialect, which he knows.
18988. Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq: (hayta lak) — he said: come.
18989. Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: (and she said: hayta lak) — he said: come here, to me.
A group of the early scholars read it as: "hīʾtu lak" — with kasra on the hāʾ, ḍamma on the tāʾ and a hamza — with the meaning: "I have made myself ready for you" — from the expression "hiʾtu lil-amri ahīʾu hayʾatan" (I prepared myself for the matter).
Among those from whom this is transmitted are Ibn ʿAbbās, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī and others.
18990. Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf related to us, saying: al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥajjāj related to us, on the authority of Hārūn, on the authority of Abān al-ʿAṭṭār, on the authority of Qatāda: that Ibn ʿAbbās read it thus — with kasra on the hāʾ and ḍamma on the tāʾ. Aḥmad said: Abū ʿUbayda said: I know it only with a hamza.
18991. Al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb related to us, on the authority of Abān al-ʿAṭṭār, on the authority of ʿĀṣim, on the authority of Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī: "hīʾtu lak" — that is: I have made myself ready for you.
18992. He said: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of ʿIkrima — the like of it.
18993. Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, who said: ʿIkrima used to say: I have made myself ready for you.
18994. Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda — he said: "hīʾtu lak" — ʿIkrima said: I have made myself ready for you.
18995. Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: al-Ḥajjāj related to us, saying: Ḥammād related to us, on the authority of ʿĀṣim ibn Bahdala, who said: Abū Wāʾil used to say: "hīʾtu lak" — that is: I have made myself ready for you. And Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ and al-Kisāʾī rejected this reading.
18996. It was related to me from ʿAlī ibn al-Mughīra, saying: Abū ʿUbayda Maʿmar ibn al-Muthannā said: I was present with Abū ʿAmr, and someone asked him — a man well acquainted with the Qurʾān — about the word of the one who reads "hīʾtu lak" — with kasra on the hāʾ and hamza on the yāʾ. Abū ʿAmr said: that is nonsense — he made it into "faʿaltu," derived from "I prepared myself." This is the Khindaq dike — travel from here along the Arabs until you reach Yemen; do you know anyone who says "hīʾtu lak"?
18997. Al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Kisāʾī used not to cite "hīʾtu lak" from the Arabs.
The majority of the scholars of Medina read: "hīta lak" — with kasra on the hāʾ, sukūn on the yāʾ and fatḥa on the tāʾ.
Some of the Meccan scholars read: "haytu lak" — with fatḥa on the hāʾ, sukūn on the yāʾ and ḍamma on the tāʾ.
Some of the Baṣran scholars — namely ʿAbd Allāh ibn Isḥāq — read: "hayti lak" — with fatḥa on the hāʾ and kasra on the tāʾ.
Some of the transmitters cited a verse of Ṭarafa ibn al-ʿAbd with "hayt" with fatḥa on the hāʾ and ḍamma on the tāʾ:
"My tribe is not the most far-removed, when a caller of the clan calls: haytū!"
Abū Jaʿfar says: The most correct reading is that of those who read (hayta lak) with fatḥa on the hāʾ and the tāʾ and sukūn on the yāʾ — for this is the recognized linguistic form among the Arabs and no other, and it is, according to what has been transmitted, the reading of the Prophet ﷺ.
18998. Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: al-Thawrī informed us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Abū Wāʾil — Ibn Masʿūd said: I listened to the Qurʾān-scholars and found their readings to be close to one another; so recite as you were taught, and avoid affectation and mutual discord — for it is only like when one of you says "halumma" or "taʿāla." Then ʿAbd Allāh recited: (hayta lak). I said: O Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, people read it as "haytu lak." ʿAbd Allāh said: I read it as I was taught — that is dearest to me.
18999. Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Abū Wāʾil — he said: I heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd recite this verse: وَقَالَتْ هَيْتَ لَكَ . He said: they said to him: "We used to read it only as 'haytu lak'." ʿAbd Allāh said: I read it as I was taught — that is dearest to me.
19000. Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Ibn ʿUyayna related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Abū Wāʾil — he said: ʿAbd Allāh said: (hayta lak). Masrūq said to him: People read it as "haytu lak." He said: Leave me, for I read as I was taught — that is dearest to me.
19001. Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Ādam al-ʿAsqalānī related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Shaqīq, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd — he said: (hayta lak) — with naṣb on the hāʾ and the tāʾ, without a hamza.
Abū ʿUbayda Maʿmar ibn al-Muthannā mentioned: that the Arabs do not put "hayt" into the dual or the plural or the feminine form, and that they leave it indeclinable in all cases — singular, plural and gender being clarified only by what follows it. He said: one says to a single person: "hayta lak," to two: "hayta lakumā," to a group: "hayta lakum," and to women: "hayta lakunna."
Concerning His word: (He said: "I seek refuge with Allah!") — Allah the Exalted says: Yūsuf said, when the woman called him to herself and said to him: "Come to me": I seek protection with Allah against that to which you call me, and I take my refuge with Him against it.
Concerning His word: (truly, He is my lord who has honored my dwelling) — he says: your husband and master is my lord. As:
19002. Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: ʿAmr ibn Muḥammad related to us, on the authority of Asbāṭ, on the authority of al-Suddī: (I seek refuge with Allah; truly, He is my lord) — he said: my master.
19003. He said: Ibn Numayr related to us, on the authority of Warqāʾ, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ: (He is my lord) — he said: my master.
19004. Al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad related to us, saying: Shabāba related to us, on the authority of Warqāʾ, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid — the like of it.
19005. Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid — the like of it.
19006. Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shubl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid — the like of it.
19007. Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid: (He said: "I seek refuge with Allah! Truly, He is my lord who has honored my dwelling") — he said: my master — that is: the husband of the woman.
19008. Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq: (He said: "I seek refuge with Allah; truly, He is my lord") — he means: Iṭfīr. He says: he is my master.
Concerning His word: (who has honored my dwelling) — he says: he has honored my dwelling place, esteemed me and granted me his trust — and so I will not betray him. As:
19009. Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq — he said: (who has honored my dwelling) — he entrusted me with his house and his family.
19010. Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: (who has honored my dwelling) — and I will not betray him regarding his family.
19011. Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid: (who has honored my dwelling) — he said: Yūsuf means his master, the husband of the woman.
Concerning His word: (truly, the wrongdoers will not prosper) — he says: the one who does wrong — who acts in a manner not permitted to him — will not endure and will not succeed. And that to which you call me of fornication (zinā) is wrongdoing and betrayal of my master who entrusted me with his dwelling. As:
19012. Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq: (truly, the wrongdoers will not prosper) — he said: that to which you call me is wrongdoing, and whoever does that will not prosper.
