Surah Yusuf (12) — Ayah 25

(Ayah 25){وَ اسْتَبَقَا الْبَابَ …:} The scholars have written that this sentence is connected with {’’ وَ لَقَدْ هَمَّتْ بِهٖ …‘‘} and {’’ كَذٰلِكَ لِنَصْرِفَ…‘‘} is a parenthetical sentence brought in to establish the chastity of Yusuf (peace be upon him). The meaning of the verse is that the woman resolved to commit adultery, but Yusuf (peace be upon him) refused. Thus, in this struggle, both of them ran towards the door, Yusuf (peace be upon him) ahead and the wife of Aziz behind. Yusuf (peace be upon him) ran so that he could quickly open the door and escape, and the wife of Aziz ran so that she could reach first and not let him open the door and escape. Here, the noteworthy point is that the doors which the wife of Aziz had locked very well, when Yusuf (peace be upon him) ran without caring about the locked doors to avoid sin, Allah Almighty helped in opening them as well. For this very purpose, she grabbed his shirt from behind to stop him, but even after tearing the shirt, she could not succeed in stopping him. Yusuf succeeded in getting out of the door, and she also came out, and suddenly both of them found her husband in front of them. Now, all that “true love” whose story our storytellers narrate with relish, and which, because it is the true love of a Messenger of Allah, they consider a stage of divine gnosis, in a moment turned into an accusation. She said, “What should be the punishment for the one who intended evil with your wife, except that he be imprisoned or suffer a painful punishment?” Glory be to Allah! To provoke her husband, the one who was seducing the slave became the chaste wife in front of her husband, and she herself became the accuser, and the accusation was not even that he had molested or assaulted her, but only that he intended evil. Now, who can go into someone’s heart and investigate whether there was an intention or not, and if there was, what was it? Then, for the proof of this accusation, she did not present any witness or evidence, yet she herself became the judge to pronounce the punishment, as if for him, there could be any option besides one of these two punishments.

25. 1 When Prophet Yusuf (AS) saw that the woman was determined to commit evil, he ran towards the door to get out, and the woman also ran after him to catch him. Thus, both rushed and ran towards the door.

25. 2 That is, upon seeing her husband, she immediately pretended to be innocent and declared Yusuf (AS) entirely guilty, even suggesting a punishment for him. Whereas, in reality, the situation was the opposite; she herself was the culprit, while Prophet Yusuf (AS) was completely innocent and desirous of avoiding evil, striving for that purpose.

25. So they both raced to the door, and she tore his shirt from behind. They found her husband [25] at the door. She said, "What is the punishment for one who intended evil for your wife except that he be imprisoned or [26] given a painful punishment?"

[25] When Zulaikha tried to arouse the emotions of Sayyiduna Yusuf (peace be upon him) through flirtation, he moved towards the door so that he could open it and go outside, and Zulaikha ran after him and tried to pull him back towards herself. In this struggle, Zulaikha grabbed Sayyiduna Yusuf’s (peace be upon him) shirt from behind and pulled it, so the shirt was torn from the back. However, Yusuf (peace be upon him) succeeded in opening the door, and when the door opened, suddenly the Aziz of Egypt was standing at the door. He himself saw with his own eyes that both were coming out of a closed room—Yusuf in front and Zulaikha behind—and this was sufficient evidence for the possibility of some wrongdoing, or at least such a suspicion could certainly arise.

[26]
Zulaikha’s Trick:

When Zulaikha saw her husband standing at the door, suddenly an idea occurred to her and she put the entire blame for this act on Sayyiduna Yusuf (peace be upon him). Then, not only did she stop at this, but also tried to have him punished by saying that it was he who intended evil against her. With such a trick, she achieved two aims with one arrow: first, she tried to prove herself chaste, even though she herself was the real root of the wrongdoing; and second, since Sayyiduna Yusuf (peace be upon him) had rejected her desire and she considered it an insult, she wanted to have him punished by her husband in return, and in order to cover up her own crime and prove herself innocent, she demanded severe punishment or imprisonment for Yusuf (peace be upon him).