قالَ ما خَطبُكُنَّ إِذ راوَدتُنَّ يوسُفَ عَن نَفسِهِ ۚ قُلنَ حاشَ لِلَّهِ ما عَلِمنا عَلَيهِ مِن سوءٍ ۚ قالَتِ امرَأَتُ العَزيزِ الآنَ حَصحَصَ الحَقُّ أَنا راوَدتُهُ عَن نَفسِهِ وَإِنَّهُ لَمِنَ الصّادِقينَ
[The king] said: ‘What was your business, women, when you solicited Joseph?’ They said: ‘Heaven be praised! We know of no evil in him.’ The governor’s wife said: ‘Now the truth has come to light! It was I who solicited him, and he is indeed telling the truth.’
EXEGESIS
Rāwadtunna (solicited) is the feminine past tense plural that comes from the root of rawd (or possibly ruwayd). It originally means to wish something and try to achieve it by gentle and delicate means,[1] and was discussed in verse 23. Here it means ‘you tried to seduce him’.
Khaṭb (business) refers to an issue of significant importance that becomes the subject of discussion or address.[2] The term implies a weighty affair that demands attention, often rising to prominence as ‘the talk of the town’, as in, What is your business (khaṭb), O Sāmirī (20:95), when Prophet Moses (a) returned to his people and found that Sāmirī had led so many of them astray, or in the verse, He said: ‘O messengers, what is now your errand (khaṭb)?’ They said: ‘We have been sent toward a guilty people’ (51:31-32), where Prophet Abraham (a) asked the angels what matter could be important enough to warrant three angels coming in such a fashion.[3]
Ḥāsha li-llāh is an expression of surprise with a religious tone, and was discussed in detail in verse 31. Here it should have the same meaning as maʿādh allāh (God forbid).[4] Alternatively, it expresses surprise about Prophet Joseph (a), as the women were astonished that he was in no way swayed by any of their attempts to solicit him.[5]
ʿAzīz (governor) was discussed in detail in verse 30 and refers to the same high-ranking official who had purchased Prophet Joseph (a) when he arrived in Egypt.
Ḥaṣḥaṣa (has come to light) stems from the root ḥaṣṣa, meaning ‘to cut off or extract a portion’, with ḥiṣṣah referring to a distinct part or share of something. In this context, it carries a dual meaning: either that a portion of the truth has been unveiled,[6] like a fragment emerging from obscurity, or that truth itself has been decisively separated from falsehood, becoming unmistakably clear,[7] much like purifying gold by removing impurities. This concept resonates with the Quranic theme of divine disclosure, where truth is progressively distinguished from falsehood (see for example 17:81).
The root ḥaṣṣa has rendered as ḥaṣḥaṣa here, like some other similar words in Arabic, such as kubbū becoming kubkibū and kaffa becoming kafkafa.[8]
EXPOSITION
The messenger returned to the king without Prophet Joseph (a), and instead brought him a message; Prophet Joseph (a) had asked the king to look into the matter of the women who had cut their hands and the conspiracy that led to his wrongful imprisonment. He refused to leave the prison before that matter was finally concluded. In essence, Prophet Joseph (a) demanded a full judicial review to establish his innocence, a stance we might liken in contemporary terms to filing a formal appeal for case reconsideration.
[The king] said: unlike the other verses quoting him, this verse does not specify that it is the king speaking, although from the context it would appear that it is indeed him who is asking the question.
It seems the king’s curiosity was piqued. With the matter brought to his attention, he wished to investigate it personally. He ordered that all the noblewomen indicated by Prophet Joseph (a) be brought to the court so that they may be questioned. Not before long they were all gathered in his presence, including the governor’s wife, whom Prophet Joseph (a) had not singled out in any way.
What was your business, women, when you solicited Joseph?: the way this is phrased indicates that the king already had a good idea of the matter, as if he is in fact asking them to come clean about it.[9] Prophet Joseph (a) had merely requested that the king inquire about the affair of the women who cut their hands, but by the time the women had been gathered and the meeting set, the king had probably heard from his courtiers the basic facts on the matter and how Joseph (a), the young Hebrew slave, had become the object of fascination for the city’s noblewomen, and who had then been imprisoned on allegations of sexual misconduct, all the while maintaining his innocence.
They said: ‘Heaven be praised! We know of no evil in him’: the women replied that they never heard him doing anything wrong or bad.[10] They were surprised that he had been imprisoned, for he had been nothing but appropriate in their presence.
The governor’s wife was also present and had been summoned to the royal court. She also knew that if Prophet Joseph (a) had wished he could have openly accused her, but had not done so out of respect and honour.[11]
She also knew that if the women were allowed to speak any more they would reveal her actions, so instead she chose to confess them herself.
More than that though, it seems that when finally confronted with what she had done after all those years, the guilt had weighed heavy on her conscience and she regretted what she had done (as is apparent from the next verses). She was also once again exposed to the noble character of Prophet Joseph (a), who after all he had been through still did not make a public denouncement of her, but had only spoken of the women in general. Perhaps this is what shook her to come clean.[12]
Now the truth has come to light! It was I who solicited him, and he is indeed telling the truth: with the collective testimony of the women and the unequivocal confession of the governor’s wife, Prophet Joseph’s (a) innocence was irrefutably established, vindicating him completely.[13] Beyond mere exoneration, the king was profoundly struck by Prophet Joseph’s (a) manifest nobility of character, his unwavering chastity, and his unimpeachable trustworthiness.
INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS
- While the Bible makes no mention of her confession, Ephrem’s (d. 373) Commentary on the Genesis does relate how the governor’s wife admits to her crime.[14]
[1] Qurtubi, 9/162; Tabrisi, 5/340.
[2] Tibyan, 6/153.
[3] Sharawi, pp. 6988-6989.
[4] Tibyan, 6/153.
[5] Zamakhshari, 2/478.
[6] Tabrisi, 5/366.
[7] Tabrisi, 5/367.
[8] Tibyan, 6/154.
[9] See Qutb, 4/1995.
[10] Tibyan, 6/153; Alusi, 6/448; Nemuneh, 9/431.
[11] Razi, 18/467-468.
[12] Nemuneh, 9/431-432.
[13] Tabrisi, 5/367. See also Zamakhshari, 2/479.
[14] Gabriel Said Reynolds, ‘Biblical Background’ in The Wiley Blackwell Companion to the Qurʾān, ed. Andrew Rippin & Jawid Mojadeddi (Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2017), pp. 306-307.