وَ قَالَ نِسۡوَۃٌ فِی الۡمَدِیۡنَۃِ امۡرَاَتُ الۡعَزِیۡزِ تُرَاوِدُ فَتٰىہَا عَنۡ نَّفۡسِہٖ ۚ قَدۡ شَغَفَہَا حُبًّا ؕ اِنَّا لَنَرٰىہَا فِیۡ ضَلٰلٍ مُّبِیۡنٍ ﴿۳۰﴾ فَلَمَّا سَمِعَتۡ بِمَکۡرِہِنَّ اَرۡسَلَتۡ اِلَیۡہِنَّ وَ اَعۡتَدَتۡ لَہُنَّ مُتَّکَاً وَّ اٰتَتۡ کُلَّ وَاحِدَۃٍ مِّنۡہُنَّ سِکِّیۡنًا وَّ قَالَتِ اخۡرُجۡ عَلَیۡہِنَّ ۚ فَلَمَّا رَاَیۡنَہٗۤ اَکۡبَرۡنَہٗ وَ قَطَّعۡنَ اَیۡدِیَہُنَّ وَ قُلۡنَ حَاشَ لِلّٰہِ مَا ہٰذَا بَشَرًا ؕ اِنۡ ہٰذَاۤ اِلَّا مَلَکٌ کَرِیۡمٌ ﴿۳۱﴾ قَالَتۡ فَذٰلِکُنَّ الَّذِیۡ لُمۡتُنَّنِیۡ فِیۡہِ ؕ وَ لَقَدۡ رَاوَدۡتُّہٗ عَنۡ نَّفۡسِہٖ فَاسۡتَعۡصَمَ ؕ وَ لَئِنۡ لَّمۡ یَفۡعَلۡ مَاۤ اٰمُرُہٗ لَیُسۡجَنَنَّ وَ لَیَکُوۡنًا مِّنَ الصّٰغِرِیۡنَ ﴿۳۲﴾ قَالَ رَبِّ السِّجۡنُ اَحَبُّ اِلَیَّ مِمَّا یَدۡعُوۡنَنِیۡۤ اِلَیۡہِ ۚ وَ اِلَّا تَصۡرِفۡ عَنِّیۡ کَیۡدَہُنَّ اَصۡبُ اِلَیۡہِنَّ وَ اَکُنۡ مِّنَ الۡجٰہِلِیۡنَ ﴿۳۳﴾ فَاسۡتَجَابَ لَہٗ رَبُّہٗ فَصَرَفَ عَنۡہُ کَیۡدَہُنَّ ؕ اِنَّہٗ ہُوَ السَّمِیۡعُ الۡعَلِیۡمُ ﴿۳۴﴾ ثُمَّ بَدَا لَہُمۡ مِّنۡۢ بَعۡدِ مَا رَاَوُا الۡاٰیٰتِ لَیَسۡجُنُنَّہٗ حَتّٰی حِیۡنٍ ﴿٪۳۵﴾

شہر کی عورتیں آپس میں چرچا کرنے لگیں کہ”عزیز کی بیوی اپنے نوجوان غلام کے پیچھے پڑی ہوئی ہے، محبّت نے اسے بے قابو کر رکھا ہے، ہمارے نزدیک تووہ صریح غلطی کر رہی ہے۔“ اس نے جو اُن کی یہ مکّارانہ باتیں سُنیں تو اُن کو بُلاوا بھیج دیا اور ان کے لیے تکیہ دار مجلس آراستہ کی²⁶اور ضیافت میں ہر ایک کے آگے ایک ایک چھُری رکھ دی۔ ﴿پھر عین اُس وقت جب کہ وہ پھل کاٹ کاٹ کر کھا رہی تھیں﴾ اس نے یُوسُف کو اشارہ کیا کہ ان کے سامنے نکل آ۔ جب ان عورتوں کی نگاہ اُس پر پڑی تو وہ دنگ رہ گئیں اور اپنے ہاتھ کاٹ بیٹھیں اور بے ساختہ پُکار اُٹھیں” حاشالِلّٰہ، یہ شخص انسان نہیں ہے، یہ تو کوئی بزرگ فرشتہ ہے۔“ عزیز کی بیوی نے کہا” دیکھ لیا! یہ ہے وہ شخص جس کے معاملہ میں تم مجھ پر باتیں بناتی تھیں۔ بےشک میں نے اِسے رجہانے کی کوشش کی تھی مگر یہ بچ نِکلا۔ اگر یہ میرا کہنا نہ مانے گا تو قید کیا جائے گا اور بہت ذلیل و خوار ہوگا۔“²⁷  یُوسُف ؑ نے کہا ”اے میرے ربّ! قید مجھے منظور ہے بہ نسبت اس کے کہ میں وہ کام کروں جو یہ لوگ مجھ سے چاہتے ہیں۔ اور اگر تُو نے ان کی چالوں کو مجھ سے دفع نہ کیا تو میں ان کے دام میں پھنس جاوٴں گا اور جاہلوں میں شامل ہو رہوں ²⁸گا“۔۔۔۔ اس کے ربّ نے اس کی دُعا قبول کی اور اُن عورتوں کی چالیں اس سے دفع کر دیں،²⁹ بے شک وہی ہے جو سب کی سُنتااور سب کچھ جانتا ہے۔
پھر ان لوگوں کو یہ سُوجھی کہ ایک مُدّت کے لیے اسے قید کر دیں حالانکہ وہ ﴿اس کی پاکدامنی اور خود اپنی عورتوں کے بُرے اطوار کی ﴾ صریح نشانیاں دیکھ چکے تھے۔³⁰ ؏ ۴ 

The women of the city began gossiping among themselves: “The wife of the Aziz is chasing after her young slave; love has overpowered her. In our view, she is plainly in the wrong.” When she heard of their cunning talk, she sent for them, arranged a cushioned banquet for them,²⁶ and placed a knife before each of them at the feast. (Then, just as they were cutting and eating the fruit,) she signalled to Yusuf to come out before them. When the women caught sight of him, they were stunned and cut their own hands, and spontaneously cried out, “Allah preserve us! This is no human being; this is surely some noble angel!” The wife of the Aziz said, “There, you have seen him! This is the one about whom you used to taunt me. Yes, I did try to seduce him, but he held himself back. If he does not do as I say, he will be imprisoned and utterly disgraced.”²⁷ Yusuf said, “My Lord! Prison is dearer to me than that to which these people are calling me. And if You do not turn their schemes away from me, I will fall into their trap and become one of the ignorant.”²⁸ His Lord answered his prayer and turned the women’s schemes away from him.²⁹ Surely He alone is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing.

Then it occurred to these people to imprison him for a time, even though they had already seen clear signs (of his chastity and of the misconduct of their own women).³⁰ [Ruku 4]

This is Surah Yusuf 12:30–35, following Maulana Maududi’s Urdu rendering in Tafheem-ul-Quran. The superscript numbers mark his footnotes, and the parenthetical phrases are his explanatory additions, which I kept as in the original.

EXPLANATORY FOOTNOTES

Summary of footnotes

In Surah Yusuf 12:30–35, the noblewomen of the city gossip that the Aziz’s wife has fallen for her young slave, so she invites them to a cushioned banquet (a custom Maududi notes is confirmed by Egyptian antiquities and narrated very differently in the Talmud, while the Bible omits it entirely). She hands each a knife and summons Yusuf; overwhelmed by his beauty, they cut their hands and declare him a noble angel rather than a man. Unashamed, she admits trying to seduce him and threatens him with prison and disgrace if he refuses her, which Maududi reads as evidence of the moral decay of Egypt’s elite and argues that the boldness of women celebrated in the modern West is nothing new. Yusuf, a young man of about nineteen or twenty surrounded by temptation on every side, turns to his Lord, preferring prison to sin and humbly admitting that without God’s help he could fall. Maududi stresses that his greatness lay not only in his self-control but in his humility, since he never took pride in his resistance, and that this trial was the most delicate stage of his moral training, bringing out hidden qualities of integrity, chastity and discipline. Allah answered his prayer by strengthening his character so that every scheme failed, and by opening the way to prison, where the household, despite clear signs of his innocence and their own women’s misconduct, decided to confine him for a time. Maududi sees this imprisonment as the public seal of Yusuf’s moral victory and of the moral defeat of Egypt’s ruling class, since by then he was widely known and people understood he was jailed not for any crime but because the nobles found it easier to imprison an innocent man than to restrain their own women. He adds that jailing people without a fair trial is an old habit of dishonest rulers, and that modern oppressors differ only in cloaking such acts in the language of democracy, law and national security, making them not just unjust but deceitful and shameless as well.

Details

Footnote 26

That is, a gathering in which cushions had been set out for the guests to recline on. The antiquities of Egypt also confirm that cushions were widely used at their gatherings.

The Bible makes no mention of this banquet. The Talmud does narrate the incident, but its account differs greatly from the Quran’s. The life, spirit, naturalness and moral depth found in the Quranic narrative are entirely absent from the Talmud’s version.

Footnote 27

This gives an idea of the moral condition of Egypt’s upper classes at that time. Clearly, the women whom the Aziz’s wife invited would have been the wives of nobles, chieftains and high officials. Before these ladies of high standing she presents the young man she loves and, by displaying his handsome youth, tries to convince them: faced with so graceful a young man, what else could I have done but lose my heart to him? These ladies of great households then, by their own conduct, practically confirm that each of them would have done exactly what the Aziz’s wife did in such circumstances. And in this crowded gathering of respectable women, the honoured hostess feels no shame in openly declaring her resolve that if her handsome slave does not agree to become the plaything of her desires, she will have him sent to prison. All of this shows that the freedom and boldness of women which Europe, America and their Eastern imitators today regard as a marvel of the twentieth century is nothing new; it is a very old thing. Hundreds of years before Decius, it existed in Egypt in the same fashion as it does today in this “enlightened age.”

Footnote 28

These verses present to us a remarkable picture of the circumstances in which Yusuf (peace be upon him) found himself at that time. Here is a handsome young man of nineteen or twenty, who has come from a nomadic life with excellent health and youth in full bloom. After passing through poverty, exile and forced slavery, fate has brought him to the house of a great nobleman in the capital of the world’s greatest civilised empire. Here, first, the lady of the very house with whom he has dealings day and night begins pursuing him. Then word of his beauty spreads throughout the capital, and the women of the city’s wealthy households become infatuated with him. Now he stands on one side, and on the other are hundreds of beautiful snares, spread everywhere and at all times to entrap him. Every kind of scheme is being employed to inflame his passions and break his restraint. Wherever he goes, he sees sin standing with its doors open, waiting for him in all its charm and allure. Some people go looking for opportunities for immorality, but here the opportunities themselves are looking for him, lying in wait so that the moment the slightest inclination toward evil arises in his heart, they can immediately present themselves. Every one of the twenty-four hours of day and night he lives under the danger that if the grip of his resolve slackens for even a single moment, he could enter any of the countless doors of sin standing open for him.

In such a situation, the success with which this God-fearing young man resists these satanic temptations is in itself no small cause for praise. But beyond this astonishing perfection of self-control lies a further perfection of self-knowledge and purity of thought: even so, the arrogant thought never enters his heart, “How wonderful I am! How strong my character is, that such beautiful young women are devoted to me, and still my feet do not slip.” Instead, mindful of his human weaknesses, he trembles and with utmost humility implores God for help: “My Lord, I am a weak human being. Where do I have the strength to withstand these overwhelming temptations? Support me and save me; I fear my feet may slip.”

In reality, this was the most important and most delicate stage of Yusuf’s moral training. The extraordinary qualities of honesty, trustworthiness, chastity, recognition of what is right, uprightness, self-discipline and mental balance, which had until then lain hidden within him and of which he himself was unaware, all came to the surface during this period of severe trial and began working with full force. He himself came to know what powers lay within him and what use he could make of them.

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Footnote 29

“Turned away” here carries two meanings. First, Yusuf’s righteous character was granted such firmness that all the schemes of these women failed against it. Second, the divine will opened the prison door for him.

Footnote 30

Thus, Yusuf’s imprisonment was in reality the completion and proclamation of his moral victory and of the moral defeat of Egypt’s entire class of nobles and officials. Yusuf was no longer an unknown, obscure man. Throughout the country, and at least in the capital, everyone, high and low alike, had come to know of him. A man whose captivating personality had enchanted not one or two but most of the women of the great households, and whose extraordinary beauty so unsettled their homes that the rulers of Egypt saw their own safety in imprisoning him, obviously could not remain hidden. His story must surely have spread from house to house. People in general must also have learned what a lofty, firm and pure character this man had, and they must have known that he was sent to prison not for any crime of his own, but because the nobles of Egypt found it easier to jail this innocent man than to keep their own women in check.

This also shows that seizing a person and sending him to prison without proving him guilty in a court according to the requirements of justice is an old practice of dishonest rulers. In this respect, too, the devils of today are not very different from the wicked of four thousand years ago. If there is any difference, it is only this: they did not invoke the name of “democracy,” whereas these invoke that name along with their misdeeds. They committed their unlawful acts without any law, whereas these first make a “law” for every wrongful excess. They openly laid hands on people for their own interests, whereas these, whenever they seize someone, try to convince the world that he was a danger not to them but to the country and the nation. In short, they were merely oppressors; these are, in addition, liars and shameless.