Surah Yusuf (12) — Ayah 35

(Ayah 35) {ثُمَّ بَدَا لَهُمْ مِّنْۢ بَعْدِ …:} When the news of these events spread in the city and the madness of the wife of the Aziz of Egypt in love and the fame of the steadfastness of Yusuf (peace be upon him) in chastity became widespread, the people of authority and decision reached the conclusion that Yusuf (peace be upon him) must, at all costs, be imprisoned for some time, so that, due to living in the same house, all meetings and interactions would end, and gradually the fame of this incident would also die down. This decision clearly shows the dominance of the wife of the Aziz of Egypt and other women over him, and his lack of honor and shamelessness, that he imprisoned Yusuf (peace be upon him) but did not even question the women about their involvement. From this, the moral condition of the society at that time is evident. In the present era, this was first the state of the disbelievers of the West, and now the elite of Muslim countries have adopted the same attitude. (Except whom Allah wills) And all the disbelievers and their agents want to make all Muslims just as shameless.
Now Allah knows best whether they fabricated some crimes to imprison him, just as governments impose fictitious charges, and whether, despite knowing the reality of the accusation of the wife of the Aziz (the intention of wrongdoing with the household of the Aziz), they declared this as the crime of Yusuf (peace be upon him), or whether they simply imprisoned him in silence, the inevitable result of which, for those unaware of the real truth, was the impression that after all, Yusuf (peace be upon him) must have had some fault in this matter for which he was sent to prison. Yusuf (peace be upon him) was deeply troubled by this impression about himself, so you will see ahead that, despite the king’s message to summon him, Yusuf (peace be upon him) did not leave the prison until all the concerned women were brought before the king and his innocence was confirmed by their own words. One commentator has written that now if a government imprisons a preacher or speaker for stating the truth, and then, by Allah’s help, some ruler orders his release from prison, he should not insist on staying in jail, because there is no such accusation against him that would cause him disgrace. As for the call and propagation of truth, that is not a crime but rather his duty, which he must continue to fulfill even afterwards. Despite all this, it appears that, due to the kindness, piety, patience, loyalty, service, chastity, worship of Allah, and countless other virtues of Yusuf (peace be upon him), the Aziz of Egypt certainly had love for him in his heart, because of which he was content with imprisonment; otherwise, he could have made him disappear by some trick, as the brothers had done, or even had him killed, as was the first plan of the brothers of Yusuf (peace be upon him). But firstly, there was the piety and patience of Yusuf (peace be upon him), and secondly, the decision of Allah Almighty, which prevails over all. Because of this, the decision of imprisonment was made, in which there were many wisdoms of Allah Almighty.

35. 1. Even after the chastity and purity of Yusuf (علیہ السلام) became clear, the only wisdom behind imprisoning Yusuf (علیہ السلام) could have been that the Aziz of Egypt wanted to keep Yusuf (علیہ السلام) away from his wife so that she would not try to trap Yusuf (علیہ السلام) in her snare again, as she intended to do so.

Even after seeing all the clear proofs (of Yusuf’s innocence and the women’s misconduct), they still thought it best to imprison Yusuf for a while [35].

[35]
The Pressure of Influential People on the Courts of Egypt:

That is, it had become clear to all the chiefs of the city and the dignitaries of the state that Prophet Yusuf ؑ was completely innocent and the real culprit was Zulaikha. Despite this, the court of that country decided that Yusuf should be imprisoned for an indefinite period. This was because now the real culprit was not only Zulaikha, but the wives of the dignitaries of the state had also become her supporters and equal partners in this crime. This incident not only highlights the helplessness of men before their wives, but also shows that the courts responsible for justice there used to make their decisions based on the principle of "might is right." The indefinite period was because neither could any charge be framed, nor could it be decided how long the punishment for this innocence should last. And probably, the wisdom in this was that Yusuf should remain in prison until people, especially the women, forgot about this incident.