(50–57) “The king said, ‘Bring him to me.’ But when the messenger came to him, Joseph said, ‘Return to your master and ask him about the women who cut their hands. My Lord certainly knows their guile.’ * The king said, ‘What was your affair when you sought to seduce Joseph?’ They replied, ‘Allah forbid! We know of no evil on his part.’ The wife of al-Azīz said, ‘Now the truth has come to light. It was I who sought to seduce him, and he is certainly one of the truthful. * This is so that he may know that I did not betray him in his absence, and that Allah does not cause the schemes of betrayers to succeed.’”

Allah Most High says: “The king said” to those around him, “Bring him to me”—meaning Joseph (peace be upon him). He ordered them to release Joseph from prison and bring him before him. When the messenger came to Joseph and instructed him to appear before the king, Joseph declined to leave immediately, waiting until his complete innocence had been established. This demonstrated his patience, intelligence, and sound judgment.

He “said” to the messenger, “Return to your master,” meaning the king, “and ask him about the women who cut their hands.” That is, ask him about their affair and what happened with them, for their case is plain and evident. “My Lord certainly knows their guile.”

The king summoned the women and asked, “What was your affair”—that is, what happened with you—“when you sought to seduce Joseph?” Did you see anything from him that gave cause for suspicion?

They declared him innocent and “replied, ‘Allah forbid! We know of no evil on his part’”—neither little nor great. The basis upon which the accusation rested was thereby removed, and only what the wife of al-Azīz had to say remained. “The wife of al-Azīz said, ‘Now the truth has come to light’”—that is, it had become pure and manifest after the evil and suspicion in which we had implicated him, which led to his imprisonment (1). “It was I who sought to seduce him, and he is certainly one of the truthful” in his statements and in his claim of innocence.

“This” confession of mine—the confession [that I sought to seduce Joseph]—was made “so that he may know that I did not betray him in his absence.”

She may have meant her husband: so that he might know that, although she confessed to having sought to seduce Joseph, she had not betrayed her husband in his absence. Nothing had occurred beyond the attempt at seduction, and she had not violated the sanctity of his marriage bed. Alternatively, she may have meant Joseph: so that Joseph might know, when she confessed that it was she who had sought to seduce him and that he was truthful, that she had not betrayed him while he was absent from her. “And that Allah does not cause the schemes of betrayers to succeed.” Every betrayer’s treachery and plotting will inevitably recoil upon them, and their affair will inevitably be exposed.