Tafseer of Joseph · Yusuf · 12:34
So his Lord responded to him and averted from him their plan. Indeed, He is the Hearing, the Knowing.
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: فَاسْتَجَابَ لَهُ رَبُّهُ فَصَرَفَ عَنْهُ كَيْدَهُنَّ إِنَّهُ هُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ (His Lord answered him and turned their plot away from him; verily, He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing.) [12:34]
Abū Jaʿfar said: If someone asks: "How do you explain His word فَاسْتَجَابَ لَهُ رَبُّهُ — when there had been no prior supplication from Yūsuf, and he had not implored his Lord to turn away their plot? He had only informed his Lord that the prison was dearer to him than disobeying Him."
Then we say: In his informing of it there is a complaint to his Lord about what he had suffered from them; and in his word وَإِلا تَصْرِفْ عَنِّي كَيْدَهُنَّ أَصْبُ إِلَيْهِنَّ there is the meaning of a supplication and a request to his Lord to turn away their plot. Therefore Allah, the Exalted, said: فَاسْتَجَابَ لَهُ رَبُّهُ . This is like the expression of one who says to another: "If you do not visit me, I will insult you" — and the other replies: "Then I will visit you" — for in his word "If you do not visit me, I will insult you" there is the meaning of a command to visit.
Abū Jaʿfar said: The meaning of the text is: Allah answered Yūsuf's supplication, and turned away from him what the wife of the ʿAzīz and her companions wanted from him of disobedience to Allah. As:
19252 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq — فَاسْتَجَابَ لَهُ رَبُّهُ فَصَرَفَ عَنْهُ كَيْدَهُنَّ إِنَّهُ هُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ — that is to say: "He saved him from committing disobedience with regard to them — although a part of what he had feared had already befallen him."
إِنَّهُ هُوَ السَّمِيعُ — of the supplication of Yūsuf when he implored his Lord to turn away the plot of the women from him, and of the supplication of every supplicant among His creation — الْعَلِيمُ — of his desire and his need, and what benefits him, and of the need of all His creation and what is good for them. [note 33]
