'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful' His saying, exalted is He: "And the women in the city said, 'The wife of the Aziz is seeking to seduce her young man; she has deeply fallen in love with him. Indeed, we see her in clear error.'" "So when she heard of their scheming, she sent to them and prepared for them a couch and gave each one of them a knife and said, 'Go out to them.' So when they saw him, they admired him greatly and cut their hands and said, 'Glorified is Allah! This is not a human; this is but a noble angel.'" He mentioned the action attributed to the women to remind of the name of the plural. (النِسْوَةُ) is a plural of few, and there is no singular form for it in its wording. The plural of many is (نِساءٌ), and (نِسْوَةٌ) is a form of (فِعْلَةٌ), which is one of the four forms that indicate a lesser number. The poet has expressed this in a verse: (p-75) 'In (أفْعَلَ) and (أفْعالٍ) and (أفْعِلَةٍ) ∗∗∗ and (فِعْلَةٌ) is known for the lesser number.' It is narrated that these women were four: the wife of the king's baker, the wife of his cupbearer, the wife of his doorkeeper, and the wife of his porter. And (العَزِيزِ) refers to the king, and from this is the saying of the poet: (p-75) 'A pearl that a merchant dived for ∗∗∗ ∗∗∗ was brought to the Aziz on the day of its unveiling.' And (الفَتى) means the young man: and it is known in the context of a servant. The Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, said: "Let none of you say: 'My slave' or 'My maid,' but let him say: 'My young man' and 'My young woman.'" However, it may be said in other contexts, as in: "And when Moses said to his young man..." [Al-Kahf: 60]. The original meaning of (الفَتى) in the language is: the young man, but since most of the servants were young, the term (فَتى) was borrowed for them. And (شَغَفَها) means: he reached her until it became from her heart the place of (الشَغافِ), which is most commonly understood as a covering from the membranes of the heart. It is said that (الشَغافُ) is the black part of the heart, and it is said that (الشَغافُ) is a disease that reaches the heart. Abu Rajaa, Al-A'raj, Ali ibn Abi Talib, Al-Hasan - with a difference - Yahya ibn Ya'mur, Qatadah - with a difference - Thabit, Awf, Mujahid, and others read: "قد شَعَفَها" with the letter 'ain unpointed, and thus there are two interpretations: One is that he elevated her to every rank of love and took her to every path, and this is taken from (شَعَفِ الجِبالِ) which are its peaks and summits. (p-76) And from this is the saying of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him: "It is likely that the best wealth of a Muslim will be sheep that he follows to the peaks of the mountains and the places of rain, fleeing with his religion from trials." The other interpretation is that (الشَعَفُ) is a pleasure with a burning sensation that arises from wounds and scabs and similar things. From this is the saying of Imru' al-Qais: (p-76) 'Will they kill me while I have burned her heart ∗∗∗ ∗∗∗ as the man who burned the woman did?' And (المَشْعُوفُ) in the language is one whose heart has been burned by love, and from this is the saying of Al-A'sha: 'She disobeys the informers while love is at times ∗∗∗ ∗∗∗ of what beautifies for the one who is burned what they have done.' It has been narrated from Thabit Al-Bunani and Abu Rajaa that they read: "قد شَعِفَها" with a broken 'ain unpointed. Abu Hatim said: The known reading is the opening of the 'ain, and this has been read. Ibn Muhaisin read: "قد شَّغَفَها" merging the 'dāl' into the 'shīn.'

It has been narrated that the saying of these women was intended to plot against the wife of the Aziz to provoke her until she would present Yusuf to them, so that her excuse would be made clear or her blame would be justified. Ibn Zayd said: 'Shaghaf' in love and 'shaghaf' in hatred. Al-Shabi said: 'Shaghaf' and 'mashghuf' with a dot in love, and 'sha'af': madness, and 'mash'uf': the insane. These two sayings are weak.

And His saying, the Most High: "So when she heard of their plotting"—the verse. Their saying was called plotting because they showed denial of something wrong and aimed to stir her anger against them. It was said: Their plotting was that they revealed that about her, although she had informed them of it and had commanded them to keep it secret. This would not be considered plotting unless they showed her the opposite of that and intended by revealing it to harm her.

And the meaning of "She sent to them" is to invite them to attend. "And prepared" means: she made ready and facilitated. "And a couch": that which one leans upon from bedding and cushions. This is expressed as a gathering prepared for honor. It is known that this type of honor does not lack food and drink. For this reason, Mujahid and Ikrimah interpreted the couch as food. Ibn Abbas said: "Couch" means: a gathering, as mentioned by Al-Zahrawi. Al-Qutabi said: It is said: 'We leaned at so-and-so,' meaning we ate.

And His saying: "And she gave each one of them a knife" implies that there was among the food something that could be cut with knives. It was said: it was meat, and they did not bite into the meat but rather cut it with knives. It was said: it was a citron, and it was said: it was a type of citron called 'zumard,' which is similar to the citron and exists in that land. It was said: it is made from sugar, almonds, and mixtures. Ibn Abbas, Mujahid, Al-Jahdari, Ibn Umar, Qatadah, Al-Dahhak, Al-Kalbi, and Aban ibn Taghlib read: "mutk'an" with a damma on the meem and a sukoon on the taa and tanween on the kaaf. There was disagreement about its meaning; it was said: it is the citron, and it was said: it is a name that encompasses anything that can be cut with a knife from fruits like the citron and apples. Al-Tabari recited:

We drink the sin openly from the cup, and you see the 'mutk' among us borrowed.

And the majority read: "mutta'kan" with a shaddah on the taa, open and with a hamzah, and they shortened it. Al-Zuhri read: "mutk'an" with a shaddah on the taa without a hamzah, which is the reading of Abu Ja'far ibn Al-Qaqa' and Shaybah ibn Nasah. Al-Hasan read: "muttakaan" with an elongation on the vowel to emphasize the movement. The knife is masculine and feminine, as said by Al-Kisai and Al-Farra, while Al-Asma'i only recognized the masculine form.

And His saying: "Come out" is a command to Yusuf, and he obeyed her according to the kingship. Al-Makki and Al-Mahdi said: It is said that there is a precedence and delay in the story; that is, the story of the women was before her disgrace regarding the shirt to the lord, and with the matter becoming public to the lord, what was between her and Yusuf was cut off.

Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

And this is a possibility, except that it is not required by the words of the verse. Rather, it is possible that the story of the women came after the story of the shirt. This is because the Aziz was of little jealousy, as were his people altogether. Do you not see that the denial at the time of the shirt was only because it was said: ﴿Indeed, it is from your plotting; indeed, your plotting is great﴾ [Yusuf: 28]? This indicates a lack of jealousy. Then the matter settled when he said: ﴿O Yusuf, turn away from this﴾ [Yusuf: 29] and you [women]

It appears from the collection of the words of Sibawayh and Al-Mubarrid that the letter is reduced by it and nothing else, and that the verb is what is raised by it. This word is used as a verb and a letter, and in some places it is a verb with the weight of fa'il, and that is in the reading of the one who recited: "Hasha lillah." Its meaning is taken from the meaning of the letter, which is the removal of something from a meaning associated with it. This verb is taken from "al-hasha," meaning: this is in the hasha and this is in the hasha. From this is the saying of the poet:

He says: The one who walks to the stronghold is its people ∗∗∗ ∗∗∗ By which hasha did the distinct mixture become?

And from it is the hashiyah, as if it is a distinction from all that it is for. And among the places where "hasha" is a verb is this verse, which indicates that it enters upon the preposition, and the letters do not enter upon one another. This is indicated by the omission of the ya from it in the reading of the others: "hasha" in the manner of their omission from: "la ubali" and "la adri" and "law tara," and it is not permissible to omit from the letters except if there is a weakening in it like: "la'alla," so it omits and returns to "alla." It is objected in this condition by "mundhu" and "muth," for it omitted without weakening. So contemplate it.

(p-81) Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

And from that is in the hadith of Khalid on the day of Mu'tah: "So hasha bil-nas." So the meaning of "hasha lillah" here is: Hasha Yusuf for his obedience to Allah, or for his status with Allah, or for Allah's elevation of him that he should be accused of what you accused him of or called to like it; for those are the actions of humans and he is not one of them; he is rather an angel. Thus Abu Ali Al-Farisi arranged the meaning of this saying according to these two readings that are in the seven. As for the reading of Ubayy ibn Ka'b and Ibn Mas'ud, it is that "hasha" is a letter of exception, as the poet said:

Hasha Abu Thawban, indeed he ∗∗∗ is stingy from the salt and the cursing.

And the voicing of the sheen in one of the readings of Al-Hasan is weak; it combines between two voicings, and his second reading has the omitted alif from "hasha."

Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

And the comparison to the angel is of the kind of comparison to the great things, even if they are not seen. And Abu Al-Huwairith Al-Hanafi and Al-Hasan read: "This is not a human, this is only a noble king" with the kasra of the lam in "malikin." And upon this reading, the speech is eloquent, as when we were amazed by the beauty of his form, we said: What is suitable for this to be a servant human? Rather, it is suitable for him to be a noble king. And the accusative of "basharan" (p-82) is in the language of Hijaz, "ma" is compared to "laysa," and as for Tamim, it raises, and it was not read with it.

And it has been narrated that Yusuf, peace be upon him, was given a third of beauty, and "and about the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, he was given half of beauty," so in some of the chains, it is he and his mother, and in some of them, it is he and Sarah, the grandmother of his father.

Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

And this is in the context of representation, meaning: If beauty were something that is divided, then the beauty of Yusuf would fall in half of it. The intention is that the greatness of his beauty falls in the soul of the listener, in the manner of the comparison to the heads of devils and the fangs of ogres.