Tafseer of Joseph · Yusuf · 12:32
She said, "That is the one about whom you blamed me. And I certainly sought to seduce him, but he firmly refused; and if he will not do what I order him, he will surely be imprisoned and will be of those debased."
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 word of Allah, the Exalted: قَالَتْ فَذَلِكُنَّ الَّذِي لُمْتُنَّنِي فِيهِ وَلَقَدْ رَاوَدْتُهُ عَنْ نَفْسِهِ فَاسْتَعْصَمَ وَلَئِنْ لَمْ يَفْعَلْ مَا آمُرُهُ لَيُسْجَنَنَّ وَلَيَكُونًا مِنَ الصَّاغِرِينَ (She said: This is he about whom you blamed me — and I did indeed seek to seduce him to be with me, but he resisted that. And if he does not do what I command him, he shall surely be imprisoned and shall be among the abased.) [12:32]
Abū Jaʿfar said: Allah, the Exalted, says: The wife of the ʿAzīz said to the women who had cut their hands: "This which befell you upon seeing him, and at that one glance which you cast upon him whereby there struck you what struck you — the loss of reason and the lapse of understanding and bewilderment [note 21] — so that you were bewildered until you cut your hands, he is the one about whom you blamed me for loving him and for my heart being penetrated by love of him, and you said: The wife of the ʿAzīz has been taken in the grip of love by her young man; truly we see her in manifest error!" Then she confessed before them that she had sought to seduce him and that what they had recounted about her in the city was correct, and she said: وَلَقَدْ رَاوَدْتُهُ عَنْ نَفْسِهِ فَاسْتَعْصَمَ — concerning that which she sought to seduce him to. [notes 22, 23] As in:
19243 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: ʿAmr ibn Muḥammad related to us, on the authority of Asbāṭ, on the authority of al-Suddī — she said: فَذَلِكُنَّ الَّذِي لُمْتُنَّنِي فِيهِ وَلَقَدْ رَاوَدْتُهُ عَنْ نَفْسِهِ فَاسْتَعْصَمَ — she says: "After he had loosened the trouser-cord (sirwāl), he resisted. I do not know what came over him."
19244 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda — concerning His word فَاسْتَعْصَمَ — that he said: "That is to say: he resisted."
19245 — ʿAlī ibn Dāwūd 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 فَاسْتَعْصَمَ — that he said: "He held himself aloof (imtanaʿa)."
وَلَئِنْ لَمْ يَفْعَلْ مَا آمُرُهُ لَيُسْجَنَنَّ وَلَيَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الصَّاغِرِينَ — she says: "And if he does not obey me in what I call him to of my need for him — لَيُسْجَنَنَّ — she says: he shall surely be imprisoned [note 24] — and he shall surely be among the people of contempt and abasement through imprisonment, and I shall surely abase him." [note 25]
The pausal form on لَيُسْجَنَنَّ is with nūn (nūn shaddah), for it is doubled — as one says: لَيُبَطِّئَنَّ [Sūrat al-Nisāʾ: 72].
وَلَيَكُونَنَّ — the pausal form on it is with alif, for it is the light nūn, which bears resemblance to the nūn of the case-ending inflection of nouns in the expression "raʾaytu rajulan ʿindaka" (I saw a man with you); when one pauses at "al-rajul" one says "raʾaytu rajulan" — the nūn becomes alif. So too in "walyakūnan" — as is found in His word: لَنَسْفَعًا بِالنَّاصِيَةِ * نَاصِيَةٍ [Sūrat al-ʿAlaq: 15-16] — the pausal form is with alif for the reason mentioned. Of this also is the saying of al-Aʿshā:
"And pray in the evening hours and the early morning, and do not worship the devil — and Allah you must worship (faʿbudā)." [note 26]
For it is in reality "faʿbudan" — but when one pauses, the pause is with alif.
