The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 224
PT. 12 وَاسْتَبَقَا الْبَابَ وَقَدَّتْ قَمِيصَهُ مِنْ دُبُرٍ CH. 12 YUSUF 26. And they both raced to the door, and she tore his shirt from والْفَيَا سَيْدَهَا لَدَا الْبَابِ قَالَتْ مَا behind, and they found her lord جَزَاءُ مَنْ أَرَادَ بِأَهْلِكَ سُوءٍ إِلَّا أَنْ تُسْجَنَ أَوْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ at the door. She said, 'What shall be the punishment of one who intended evil to thy wife, save imprisonment or grievous chastisement?' 1529 a The words, that We might turn away from him evil and indecency, signify that a person who had witnessed such signs could not stoop to evil. They may also mean that God brought about these circumstances so that Joseph should no longer live in the evil company of his master's wicked wife and her evil companions which might have exercised pernicious influence on him. a Here there is another point of resemblance between Joseph and the Holy Prophet. Just as an attempt was made to tempt Joseph away from the path of piety and rectitude, similarly, the idolaters of Mecca made an unsuccessful attempt to make the Holy Prophet give up preaching the Unity of God by offering to make him their king or amass great wealth for him or give him in marriage the most beautiful girl in Arabia. The offer was of course disdainfully rejected by the Prophet with the historic words, "If you place the sun on my right hand and the moon on my left hand, I will not give up preaching the Oneness of God. " (Zurqānī & Hishām). This constitutes the eleventh resemblance between these two great Prophets. 1529. Commentary: When Joseph saw that all his exhortations and admonitions to his master's wife to desist from her evil course were of no avail, he thought he should no longer stay in the room, lest it might give rise to unfounded suspicions. So he hastened to leave her presence. Thereupon the woman, in order to prevent him from leaving the room, ran to the door to reach it before Joseph succeeded in getting out. There was thus a sort of race for the door. It was most probably at the shirt in order to pull him back and in door that the woman pulled Joseph's so doing she tore his shirt at the back. Here, again, the Bible differs from the Quran. The Bible says that when the woman caught hold of Joseph's garment, he left it in her hand (Gen. 39:12). But as the Hebrews used to wear one garment only, which was generally long enough to cover the whole body, it is inconceivable that Joseph should have run away naked, leaving the only garment he was wearing in the woman's hand. So the Quranic account that Joseph's shirt was torn in the scuffle seems to be more reasonable. 1432