Yusuf · Makki · ayah 50 of 111

Yusuf 12:50

وَقَالَ ٱلْمَلِكُ ٱئْتُونِى بِهِۦ ۖ فَلَمَّا جَآءَهُ ٱلرَّسُولُ قَالَ ٱرْجِعْ إِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ فَسْـَٔلْهُ مَا بَالُ ٱلنِّسْوَةِ ٱلَّـٰتِى قَطَّعْنَ أَيْدِيَهُنَّ ۚ إِنَّ رَبِّى بِكَيْدِهِنَّ عَلِيمٌ

“And the king said, "Bring him to me." But when the messenger came to him, [Joseph] said, "Return to your master and ask him what is the case of the women who cut their hands. Indeed, my Lord is Knowing of their plan."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Offered his freedom after years in prison, Yusuf sent the king's messenger back with a question, because he wanted to leave cleared, not merely released.

A reflection

He would have answered the summoner

Of all the moments in this long story, this is one the Prophet ﷺ chose to speak about himself. Abu Hurayrah reports that he said: had I stayed in prison as long as Yusuf stayed, I would have answered the summoner. The report is in both Sahihs.

The summoner is the king's messenger in this ayah. The door was open. The man who had waited so long, forgotten by the cupbearer, was being called out at last. And Yusuf said: go back.

Some readers hear the hadith as a mild correction, as if Yusuf were too stubborn. The commentaries hear the opposite. One says the Sunnah came praising him for this, pointing to his virtue, his rank and his patience.

Another draws a quiet conclusion from it. If Yusuf could hold back in prison when nothing obliged him to, he would hardly fail to hold back where it was required. The praise of his patience here is also a clearing of him from what was said about him earlier.

And there is humility in the words. In the same breath the Prophet ﷺ spoke humbly of Ibrahim and asked mercy for Lut. The greatest of the messengers says of his brother: I would not have managed what he managed.

Elsewhere he told a man from ʿAbd al-Qays: you have two qualities Allah loves, forbearance and deliberateness. The second is anāh, the steadiness that does not lunge at the first opening. That quality is on show at this door.

Think of everything inside a man after years in a cell, when someone says: you may go. Every muscle moves towards the light. Anāh is the pause that asks first: go out as what?

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.