Ustadh Asim Khan

[THROWN IN A WELL TAFSEER SURAT YUSUF]

Thrown in a Well | Lesson 9 Ayaat 25-29

This is that scene in the life of Yusuf where he is being seduced by that very crazy lady. We spoke
about this last week because it began last week and this is the continuation. But just to put it into context, just
to try and bring it home, the story begins, when he has reached a certain age, and that age is full manhood, at
that point he was placed in this big trial of temptation. He is already at an age where temptation is going to be
the most difficult in terms of his lifetime. It is the age when current day youth would go to college or university.
Imagine yourself at that time, and its not that youre having problems taking your eyes away from the
opposite gender, but there is actually a girl out there who is after you. And this is no random person. This girl is
the type of girl that everyone goes after. Imraat ul-Aziz is from the rich and famous, like a celebrity. That type
of girl is after you. Thats already going to be so problematic. Add to the whole scenario that slavery is still
around. And the girl thats after you, you are her slave. That is only going to make things worse. She not only
says flirtatious things to you everytime you go past, she one day traps you inside your dorm. You live on
campus. She finds a way in. She locks the door. She makes a move on you. This scenario is very difficult.
Yusuf is in a far more difficult situation. He is a slave to this woman and he is inside her castle. There is
nowhere she can go. However, when she tries to make a move on him, this is what happens.

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25. They raced to the door. She tore his shirt at the back. They met her husband by the
door. She said, How should a man whose intention was to harm your family be
punished for what he did except with prison or painful punishment?
They both now race to the door. Just before this ayah, we learnt that we shouldnt think that Yusuf
somehow was not tempted by that lady.

There was some struggle there for Yusuf . In his heart, he was tempted. However, he overcame the
temptation, inwardly first, with his heart, by fearing Allah, and then he acted with his limbs. What did he do?
They both raced to the door. Now it is clear why Yusuf would race to the door he is trying to race
to the door to get out. Why is she racing to the door? To stop him from getting out.
Interesting how the earlier ayah mentioned they had 2 different types of she had her and he had his .
Now they both ran, in one verb - - not she ran and he ran. What is interesting though is they are running
for completely different reasons.
And in the process she does of his . is to make a tear, a long slit in the back. Ibn Ashur says that what
he believes to have happened, from the ayah here, is that Yusuf is about to make a run for it. She
goes up to him and probably tries to touch him or something. He turns around. He is about to run. As soon as
he is about to run, she grabs him. He doesnt stop. He carries on running. As he carries on running, she makes a
tear in the back of his shirt, most probably unknowingly.

she locked all of the doors. There was a reference to a big house, a massive castle. So they are

inside a massive castle, most probably in an inner room somewhere. Yusuf , you can imagine is trying
to run away from her. He is opening one door after another to try and get out of that castle. He is making a
frantic run for it.

> both struggle > symbolic meaning

, as Ibn Ashur says, signifies struggle. Competing with somebody else and struggling at the same time.
So he is struggling and she is struggling as well. She is struggling in order to get to the door first. If she gets to
the door first, she can stop him.

> finding without trying, by surprise or unknowingly

, translated as they both find. But the word for find is wajada. The ayah doesnt say wajada. It says . This
word
means to find without even trying. It means to find unknowingly, by surprise. They both ran for the
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door. And what happens? Out of nowehere, Yusuf manages to open the door and whom do you
know is on the other side? The sayyid. Aziz is there. Right there.

Her master and not his master or their master?

And the ayah does not refer to Aziz as sayyidahu (his master). The ayah says ( her master). If anything it
should be Yusufs master, or at the very least, sayyidahuma (both their master). But the ayah says her master.
Thats whom they find. Where? Right at the .
Right at the door. This is the last door in the castle that
leads to the exit. There he is, trying to come inside. Coincidentally, he has come back home at that time. And
Yusuf has just got to the door, opened it, and he sees Aziz. The thing is both of them are actually
there. She is right behind him, and so they both see Aziz. However, in actuality we are being told to focus on
that fact that the person that they found was her master. Why? Why does the ayah say and they found
sayiidaha (her master)?
Of course, master, sayyid, as many said, historically speaking, thats what the Egyptians would call the husband
with regards to the wife. However, that still doesnt answer the question why is it that it is her sayyid that we
are being told they found as opposed to his master? Why does the ayah say that surprisingly, unknowingly,
they end up seeing Aziz, and in that case, what really matters is that he was her master. Why do you think that
is? The focus is on the guilty person. Yusuf sees Aziz and is relieved to see him. In that situation, she is
the one who is caught off guard. She is the one who is caught guilty. So in that case, out of the two, who is
looking at Aziz as their master more? She is. Caught red handed by her own master.
Ar-Raazi mentioned this. Yusuf , by this time, Aziz loves him so much. He is not even a slave anymore.
They are so close, he doesnt feel like a slave. The first time he came to their house, he said look after him, give
him a fantastic place of residence with us. By now, he is so close to Aziz, he is not even like a slave.
Who speaks first? The lady speaks first. If anything, who does Aziz see first? Yusuf, or the woman? Aziz sees
Yusuf first. She cuts in straight away. Look at what she says.

She doesnt say, he is trying to rape me. She doesnt say that. She says, what is the jaza (punishment). So you
are already assuming that you realize that he is the guilty one here, not me. You see how cunning she is being.
She doesnt say he is trying it on me. She says what is the punishment. Forget about all of that, its already a fact
that he is trying it on me.

What should be the punishment for one who desires, not evil for me, she says for your family. He is trying
it on your family! What do you have to say about that, Aziz? What are you going to do about that?
She doesnt even stop there. She carries on. She says,

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Oh, Ill tell you what, I mean I am just going to suggest something here, it is up to you whether you take it or
not. I am thinking, prison, or azabun aleem, torture, lashing, I dont know, I am just putting it out there, Aziz. It
is up to you, it is your call.
She is going straight in for the kill. Shes not even going to accuse him. She is saying you should be punishing
him now. And even in there, there are a few lessons:

She knows that Aziz has a soft spot for Yusuf . And because of that, he might overlook it all.

Why imprison first?

Whats the first punishment she suggests? It is to painfully punish him? Or is it to imprison him? It is to
imprison him. Why did she go for the lesser of the 2 first? She loves him. It is a crazy love, a twisted
love at that, but she still has strong feelings for him. So she doesnt want to see him be tortured. She
doesnt want that to happen to him. But at the same time, she wants to see him punished. Why? To
send him a message that dont you dare, I am going to try it on you again, and you better not do
anything silly that time. So she wants to send him a message that dont mess with me, you better
succumb to my request next time I do that.

is a present tense passive verb. As for , thats a noun. So the difference between the verb and
noun is that a verb is to do with a particular time, caged by time. Noun is not caged by time. So is to
say punish him in whatever way. But to say imprison him in a verb is actually to say for a little while, put him in
prison. could be even for a day, Ar-Raazi said. She is saying, I just want him to have a little bit of
punishment. And what type of punishment? Hes not even going to feel it, just put him in prison for a day or so.
So the first one she comes up with is what she really wants Aziz to take up. And thats because she loves him
so thats why she says that first.

could be used as a question, like, what do you think should be the punishment? Should it be this or

this?
Or it is a negation. There is no punishment for him except this or this.

Key Lessons
The key lessons that we learn are:

Obligation to Flee from Temptation

You have to see the racing of Yusuf and the lady in a symbolic way. He was running to the door, but
symbolically what is he running away from? He is running away from haram, temptation, zina. Physically he
was running away from it. And she was physically running to it. And the fact that Yusuf literally ran
away from the temptation shows us that there is an obligation there, that when a person is faced with those
kinds of temptations, he shouldnt say, oh I can handle it, or its not that bad, or its okay, he should say I need to
get away as far as possible from this.

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Do the Maximum
And the fact is that Yusuf knew that all the doors are locked. What could he do by getting to the door?
They were all locked anyway. And the way she locked them, she locked them properly. Was it worth running to
the door? Probably not. Then why does he still run to the door? He still runs to the door because he knows
Allah wants us to do the maximum. And thats the second lesson. Allah wants to see us do the maximum even
if it is little. The most Yusuf could have done is run away. Even to a locked door. From here to there.
He didnt say, whats that going to achieve. He did the maximum, even if it was just there.
Many a time we are in difficult situations, for example, people may think, oh I am in university, I have to
interact, and then they let their guard down, and whatever happens, happens - it is all casual. Why? Because
they say you can only do so much. So why dont you do that much? Do the maximum. When somebody does
the maximum, then Allah helps that person. Do the maximum that you can do and leave it to Allah.
He ran to a locked door and what do you know, who is on the other side? The one person who would end
everything then and there. Aziz. Who made that happen? Allah. What did Yusuf do? He did the
maximum. He ran to the door and tried to open it.

Same Goal but Motives Differ

They both raced to the door. If anyone was seeing them both run to the door and they never knew anything
else, they would think that they both ran to the door for the same reason one wants to get there before the
other one. Their actions are exactly the same. However, their niyyah is totally different. Their intentions are
completely different; however their actions may be exactly the same. And it teaches us the importance of
having the right intention. Sometimes a person may be doing things, which, others cant tell his intention. But
Allah knows his intention and He is judging him based on his intention. As the Prophet said,
12

Indeed actions are (according to one interpretation) judged upon their intention and every man will get what
he intended.

My Reflections
Doing the maximum helped Yusuf, because Aziz was there. But if he did not run, his shirt would not be ripped,
and he would be standing in front of the lady when Aziz arrived, which would make it her word against his.
Doing the maximum also provided the evidence that helped prove his innocence.

12

Sunan Abi Dawud

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26. He said, It was she who tried to seduce me. A witness from her people then
declared, If his shirt is torn in front, she speaks the truth and he has clearly told a
shameless lie.
So Aziz is standing at the door. He has just been given all this information. Bang. What do you know whats
happened? He is trying it on me. You need to punish him. What are you going to do about it? Imprison him. Or
are you going to torture him? What are you going to do? And then Yusuf speaks. He never said
anything first. After she is accusing him of all this stuff, then he speaks up. And there is a little lesson there that
we are going to come to.
He says she was the one who tried to seduce me. Notice how the wife of Aziz did not say he tried to seduce
me. She said some random stuff. She never said the actual thing. But Yusuf said exactly what was
happening. It shows you who is guilty as well. Thats another indication. He said she is the one who tried to get
my iraada to change to her iraada.

And then

Now Allah mentions what happens next. Yusuf has made his case. He just says point blank, no, she is the one
who tried it on me. Now, a fourth person, comes to the scene. Who is this person? Many, many views. Let us
just see what this ayah says.

A person or a man whom Allah refers to as the witness or a witness, he comes in and the only thing we need to
know about this man is not his name, his age, however that he was from ( her side of the family). Why does
that make a big difference? The fact is that the person who is going to come to decide what is going on is from
her side. If anything, he is going to be biased towards her, not against her. However, that person, what does he
do? He says:

He starts to propose how to investigate the matter. He says if his shirt is torn in front she speaks the truth and
he has clearly told a shameless lie.

here? Because there are many opinions here. There are 2 famous opinions:
However, who is this
1.

One is that this is a child in a cot. And the child speaks up. Oh I know what is going on here. If you
check out his ... that is one view.

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2.

[THROWN IN A WELL TAFSEER SURAT YUSUF]

Another view is that this is basically somebody who works for Aziz or someone from Azizs family. And
he is a very sharp person in terms of being able to make judgment. And to be honest this seems to be
the best view. Why? Because of 2 reasons:
a.

Firstly, this process of finding out what the judgment is, Allah praises this process that he
comes up with later on by saying it is from the ayaat. That they saw from the ayaat. And one
of the signs that they saw was this being torn from the back and being told that it is, in
fact, pointing towards her tearing it and him being truthful. Allah praised that process, which
points to the fact that this person is a person of good judgment; we can learn something from
him.

b.

Yusuf is later on thrown into prison. When he is thrown into prison, he is told by the
king, look you can come out now. He says I dont want to come out until you go and ask the
, if he was a baby, Yusuf would have said, go
women what happened. Here, the
and ask the baby, baby doesnt lie. The baby is far greater evidence, if it spoke, than asking
the women to confess. If a baby spoke that is far greater evidence. But he doesnt say that, he
says, ask the niswa what happened. So thats the second piece of evidence that perhaps it
isnt a strong view to say that it was a baby in a chamber.

comes and he is from her side. And he proposes that lets look at the shirt. If it is torn from the front
This
then she is speaking the truth and he is telling a lie. And if the shirt is torn from the back then she has lied and
he has clearly told the truth.
, he thought that she was in the right. And through
Now here Ibn Ashur says that it seems here that this
the process of investigation, the conclusion that they reached based on the idea that he comes up with,
actually points to the opposite that Yusuf is in the right. Why does he say this? Because he says that
if he was on her side, then why would he come to a conclusion that was against her? Most probably what
happened is that unknowingly he comes up with a way to show who is in the right and that way ends up
leading to another answer which is that she is in the wrong.
comes and says, if it is torn from the back then it means that he is truthful. How does it mean that he
This
is truthful? Because the idea is that if he is going to go after her, then she is going to try and push him away.
And if she pushes him away, she is going to tear his shirt from the front. But if she is going after him and he is
going away then she is going to try and pull his shirt. And if she pulls his shirt, then his shirt is going to be torn
from the back.
That is why, Ibn Qayyim mentions that this process of deducing the ruling by bringing the evidence is
something that Allah praised, for Allah mentions in ayah 35,

Allah mentions that after they had all seen from the ayaat (signs)...
Yusuf is made a victim of again. They try on him again. Now she gets the rest of her friends to try and

. So when it comes to that stage, he goes, I

persuade him and pressure him into doing zina with her
would rather go to prison. Before he goes to prison, they actually knew all the evidences, they saw all the
evidences, but still put him into prison. Allah mentioned they saw the ayaat.
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highlighted. Which
And Ibn Qayyim says that one of the ayaat they saw was this one that the
. Allah was pleased with the reasoning that this man
shows that Allah was pleased with his istidlaal of this
brought in order to deduce the hukm (ruling). And from this we learn that Allah wants us to establish the
evidences before declaring a ruling.

My Reflections

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27. If his shirt is torn at the back, then she has lied and he has clearly told the simple
truth.

Activity
Ar-Raazi says, besides the being torn from the back, there are many other evidences
to show that Yusuf was in the right and he was in the wrong. Try and identify
those. How many signs of Yusufs innocence can you find so far?
1.

The way that he responds,

a.

being second instead of jumping in before her and

b.

being very clear about what happened as opposed to the way she said it which was quite
ambiguous. She is not being clear in her accusation.

2.

He is a slave. Would a slave even dare to do that to their master? Would a slave try to rape their
master? It is unlikely.

3.

He was first to the door.

4.

Hes been living there for a long time. His character is known to Aziz. He knows that he hasnt got it in
him to do something like this.

Raazi brings all these things and says that besides the shirt being torn from the back there are so many other
signs that show that he is innocent.
The fact that Yusuf doesnt speak first he speaks second teaches us something. If you can expose
someone for doing something wrong, you have got the opportunity, what is better, is it better that you try and
advise that person privately, or to even maybe ignore it, or is it better to go in and expose that person? It
depends.
However, if that person publicly tries to dishonour you, then you should speak up and you should not be quiet
and try to deal with it privately. As soon as he saw his master at the door, Yusuf could have told on her. He
waited to see what she would say, perhaps she may make some excuse to explain what was happening like, oh
Yusuf we cant play this racing game anymore. But she was cunning. She went for the kill. So because she
accused him publicly, he had to defend himself. He had to defend his honour. He couldnt keep quiet here.
So in this situation, if anyone was to accuse a person, they shouldnt say I will leave it to Allah. Allah will clear
my name. Do you see this? Someone might say this. Say no, look at Yusuf . He was accused, he didnt
say Allah will help me. Allah will help you if you do what Allah wants you to do. You must defend yourself. Just
like you had to run to that door.
Even though he was a shy, humble person, that didnt translate into him being passive. Some people are like
this, they confuse beign humble and sincere with keeping their mouths shut in very circumstance. I dont know
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if you have seen this before. They misunderstand sincerity, they misunderstand tawakkul, they misunderstand
being humble to just being passive. Someone does something bad to you? Dont worry about it. Accuse you of
doing wrong? Dont worry about it. No. Certain circumstances dictate that you have to take particular action.
And this is one of them here.

My Reflections

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28. He saw the shirt torn at the back and said, The source of this is womens
deviousness. Without a doubt your guile is very great.
When he saw the
, that it had a slit in the back, then, he said,
( this is from your plotting and

. Ibn Ashur says that it is clear to

scheming). Who is saying this? There are 2 opinions: either it is Aziz or the
to go around investigating
me that it is the Aziz speaking now. Why? Because he is the one who got the
the matter, and now he is bringing the evidence and the conclusion. And so he is the one seeing the
conclusion. When he sees it, he realizes that his wife is the one being unfaithful to him. And so what does he
say?

Here, Raazi says this refers to what you just said. When you said what should be the punishment for the one
who tries some evil with your family. All that you said to me, it is from your
( it is from your , your
plotting and scheming). He doesnt say you as a singular, he says you as a plural. Women! You are like this. You
plot and you scheme. What can you say about women? The way he is talking, already you can see where he is
going to go with this. And then,

Indeed your , o women is
( mighty). And this means that the scheming and plotting of women is great.
Thats what Aziz says. He ends that statement by saying, this is from the plotting of women, and you know the
way women are, they are so bad when it comes to plotting and scheming, in fact they are so great and cunning
in the way they plot and scheme.

Here, Qurtubi mentions something. He said, Allah mentions in Surat an-Nisa,

Indeed the of shaytan is ever weak. So Qurtubi said, Allah mentioned about shaytan his is weak and the

of women is great. What does that teach us?

Here, it seems, as mentioned by As-Samaraaee, that this is really accurate to say about this. Why? Because
Allah mentioned in Surat An-Nisa, indeed the plot of shaytan is weak. But was it Allah that mentioned that the
plotting of women is great? It wasnt. It was Aziz. So it is not really right to compare the 2 and then make a
lesson based on that. Because thats not really an accurate comparison.
And Ustadh Asim is inclined towards this. That it is more accurate to say this that this is not a general
statement about women for all time that women, their cunning and scheming nature is far greater than men,
and even shaytan, which is what some people say. He can accept the view that if a woman was to plot, then
her plotting would be far more cunning than a man. Which is different to saying women are cunning.
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However, what Dr. Fadhil As-Samaraaee mentioned, he thinks is a far better analysis, and that is, what he is
actually saying is that just because Allah mentions something in the Quran, it doesnt mean Allah approves of
it. And that is very accurate. Because Allah mentions so many things in the Quran. Allah mentions shaytan says
this, Allah mentions the people of Lut said this to him, so Allah mentioned about what happened and just
because He mentioned, for example, what shaytan said, it doesnt mean Allah is pleased with that, or accepts
that, or affirms that. It doesnt mean that.

and his way of deducing the reasoning and the ruling was
And thats why Ibn al-Qayyim said that the
praiseworthy why? Becaue Allah mentioned something later on that showed that He was pleased with that.
So Ibn al-Qayyim is also referring to this type of principle of understanding that just because Allah mentioned
something in the Quran, it doesnt mean Allah approves of this thing. Especially as Allah is not the One saying
is saying it. Either way its not Allah who is saying it.
it. Aziz is saying this, or the

My Reflections

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29. Yusuf, ignore all this, and you, my wife, should ask forgiveness for your evil act.
There is no doubt that you are in the wrong.
This is just too much. You would think that Aziz, the husband, in this situation would go crazy.
Wouldnt he go crazy? Hes just been shown to his face by somebody else respectable that it was your wife that
was trying it on your slave. You would go crazy wouldnt you? What does he say instead? Yusuf ( turn
away) ( from this). Meaning, as al-Qaasimi said, keep quiet, dont tell anyone what happened. Yusuf
understood exactly what he is saying.
He is saying, brush it under the carpet. I dont want you to say anything to anyone. Why would he say that?
Why would he say I dont want you to tell anyone what happened here? Who is he? He is the Minister of
Finance. He is a politician. A person in that position wants to keep scandals at home quiet. And their career is at
stake if somebody finds out some dodgy business is going on in their house. He doesnt want his career to be
messed up.

No Nidaa
Al-Qaasimi also mentioned that the fact he doesnt say ya Yusuf, calling him out properly, shows his close
connection with Yusuf. Its someone so close he could just talk to him just like that. And it also shows us how
intelligent Yusuf was that he understood just from these few words what his master was saying. He
understood it and he did not say anything.

But now look at what he says. Yusuf you havent done anything wrong. I am not going to be mad at you. But
hes going to be mad at his wife, right? He should be mad at his wife. What does he say to his wife? . This is
like another sentence. This other sentence is being directed to his wife.

Ask Allah to forgive you. Is that all youre going to say to me? Yeah, yeah, just go ask Allah to forgive you.

vs

Indeed you are from ( those that make mistakes).

Those that make mistakes? Is that all that youre going to say? And even here, he doesnt say you are a person
making a mistake - or from ( women that make mistakes). He says ( men and women
who make mistakes). Go ask Allah to forgive you. That easygoing? He should go crazy on his wife. At the very
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least, he should separate them and say, thats it, you stay upstairs, he stays downstairs now. He doesnt do any
of that. So what does that show us about Aziz and the way he is towards his wife? Certain things are
unforgiveable. If your wife is unfaithful to you, it is not good character to say oh, its okay, dont worry about it,
you made a mistake.
If you fast forward you find, what do you know, she has got the opportunity to do the whole thing again. In a
more theatrical way. She calls all her friends over. So youre thinking, Aziz, you never put any measures in place
to stop her doing it again? In fact she could do double next time. She called the niswa of misr (elite women of
Misr), and she says come over here and check him out. Why does she say that? In order for them to put
pressure on him to do zina with her. So at the very least Aziz should have had some ghayrah (protective
jealousy) of his wife. But thats what he failed in. Though he may have had good conduct before with Yusuf
in being good to him, when it came to his wife and this particular scenario, he is not doing too well.

Ghayra is Praiseworthy
And this is a point that both Ibn Qayyim and Ibn Taymiyyah mention, which is that here Aziz is
being shown to have little ghayrah (protective jealousy). And Ibn Qayyim said that a man having
protective jealousy over his woman is one of the strongest preventions for her to be unfaithful to him. If a man
is very protective of his daughter, his sister, his mother, his wife, and he is not casual about things.
Your daughter is going to university now, as a father, you are concerned about which university shes going to.
He doesnt want her to live out, he wants her to live at home. And even when she goes, he wants to know her
timetable, he doesnt want her to be out long, or late. This is protective jealousy. And this will help her to
protect her chastity. And the opposite which is, its up to you, you can learn from your own mistakes. Where do
you want to go? You want to live out there? You go, live and learn yourself. What could happen is she could fall
into mistakes. She could be robbed of her chastity and all the rest of it.
So the man having protective jealousy over his woman is actually something which helps her keep faithful to
him but also protect herself from abuse from outside world. In our times, this element of protective jealousy
over ones wife is dwindling. Brothers dont have this sense of honour for their women as they once did. And
here Aziz is being shown that this is very bad. First he tells Yusuf, brush it under the carpet and then he tells the
wife it is between you and Allah. And then when he says

This makes it broad. He isnt saying, you are clearly in error. He is saying, people make mistakes and you made a
mistake. And later on as well we will see how Ibn Taymiyyah speaks about this as well about the lack of
ghayrah of Aziz.
Diyatha means a person who has no protective jealousy over his womenfolk. And next week we see Ibn
Taymiyyah calls him a diyuth (somebody who has absolutely no honour over his woman).

My Reflections

Sirat Initiative | Thrown in a Well | Lesson 9 Ayaat 25-29

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