Volume 10 Surah 12 - 15 - Enjoy Islam

Yūsuf (Joseph) | FACING UP TO TRIAL
their feelings public. She then admits to what she had done: “Indeed I have tried to
seduce him, but he guarded his chastity. Now, however, if he does not do what I bid him, he
shall certainly be thrown in prison, and shall indeed be humiliated.” (Verse 32)
A social environment which allows these attitudes is a special one. It is that of
affluent aristocracy. Joseph was a slave lad who spent his adolescent years in such an
environment. That is indeed the long trial which he endured. He resisted its
influences, temptations, frivolity and wicked designs. His age and that of the woman
under whose roof he had lived for such a long period are significant in estimating the
pressure he was under, the gravity of his trial and his long resistance. As for this
particular incident, it would not have been particularly difficult for Joseph to resist,
had it come suddenly, without long preparation. It would have been made easier by
the fact that he was the target of temptation, not the seeker. For a man may find a
woman who throws herself at him not very appealing.
Let us now examine the text as it describes the situation: “She in whose house he was
living tried to seduce him. She bolted the doors and said, ‘Come.’” (Verse 23) This time it
was a bold attempt at seduction, with an open invitation to go the full course. The
bolting of the doors only comes at the last moment. The woman was already at the
point when desire is at its strongest. Hence, she calls out to him, ‘Come’. This bold,
crude invitation is never the first one made by a woman. Indeed, it is of the ultimate
type which may never be used unless the woman is forced to resort to it. The young
man was living in her house and his growth, strength and development were all
there for her to see, just as her own femininity was at its optimum. There must,
therefore, have been earlier attempts at gentle persuasion before she resorted to this
crude and sudden invitation.
“He said: ‘God protect me. Goodly has my master made my stay here. Those who do wrong
come to no good.’“ (Verse 23) First he appeals to God to protect him against doing such
a grave and sinful act: “God protect me’ (Verse 23) He then refers to God’s grace when
He saved him from the well and placed him in a home where he was secure and
treated kindly: “Goodly has my master made my stay here.” (Verse 23) He then expounds
a clear principle: “Those who do wrong come to no good.” (Verse 23) The ‘wrong’
intended here is the one which she wants him to do, but it represents a trespass over
what God has forbidden.
The sūrah makes it absolutely clear that Joseph’s reply to the open attempt at
seduction was a straightforward refusal, coupled with remembrance of the grace
God had bestowed on him, as well as remembrance of the limits which no one
should violate. There was no initial compliance when she invited him openly after
bolting the doors and speaking in crude terms of what she wanted him to do. This
last point is given in the sūrah in a much milder form which hints at what actually
took place. This is what we understand from the unusual Arabic expression which
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