“He said, ‘My Lord, prison is dearer to me than that to which they invite me. And unless You turn their plot away from me, I may incline toward them and become one of the ignorant.’ (33) So his Lord answered him and turned their plot away from him. Indeed, He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. (34) Then, after they had seen the signs, it appeared best to them to imprison him for a time.” (35)

“He said, ‘My Lord’”—that is, “O my Lord”—“prison is dearer to me than that to which they invite me.” It was said that the invitation came from her alone, but he attributed it to them all in order to speak indirectly rather than explicitly.

It was also said that they all invited him to themselves.

Ya‘qub alone recited it as al-sajn, with the letter sīn carrying a fatḥah; the majority recited it with a kasrah.

It was said: Had he not said, “Prison is dearer to me,” he would not have been tested with imprisonment. What is more fitting for a person is to ask Allah for well-being.

His saying, Most High: “And unless You turn their plot away from me, I may incline toward them”—that is, I may be drawn to them and comply with them. One says, “So-and-so ṣabā toward such-and-such,” meaning that he inclined and longed for it.

“And become one of the ignorant”: this indicates that when a believer commits a sin, he commits it out of ignorance.

“So his Lord answered him”—that is, He responded to him—“and turned their plot away from him. Indeed, He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing”—[of his supplication] (1), and All-Knowing of their scheming.

“Then it appeared best to them”—that is, to the governor and his advisers. They had initially intended to deal with Joseph’s case merely by ordering that it be overlooked; then it appeared best to them to imprison him. “After they had seen the signs” proving Joseph’s innocence: the tearing of the shirt, the speech of the child, the women’s cutting their hands, and their loss of reason—“to imprison him for a time,” that is, for a period they considered appropriate.

‘Aṭā’ said: Until people ceased talking about it. (2)

‘Ikrimah said: Seven years.

Al-Kalbī said: Five years.

Al-Suddī said: This was because the woman said to her husband, “This Hebrew slave has disgraced me among the people, telling them that I sought to seduce him. So either allow me to go out and apologize to the people, or imprison him.” So he imprisoned him. He also mentioned that Allah Most High made that imprisonment a purification for Joseph, peace be upon him, from his inclination toward the woman. (3)