وَقَالَ نِسْوَةٌ فِى ٱلْمَدِينَةِ ٱمْرَأَتُ ٱلْعَزِيزِ تُرَٰوِدُ فَتَىٰهَا عَن نَّفْسِهِۦ قَدْ شَغَفَهَا حُبًّا · فَلَمَّا رَأَيْنَهُۥٓ أَكْبَرْنَهُۥ وَقَطَّعْنَ أَيْدِيَهُنَّ وَقُلْنَ حَٰشَ لِلَّهِ مَا هَٰذَا بَشَرًا إِنْ هَٰذَآ إِلَّا مَلَكٌ كَرِيمٌ
Wa-qāla niswatun fi'l-madīnati'mraʾatu'l-ʿazīzi turāwidu fatāhā ʿan nafsihi qad shaghafahā ḥubbā innā la-narāhā fī ḍalālin mubīn · Fa-lammā samiʿat bi-makrihinna arsalat ilayhinna wa-aʿtadat lahunna muttakaʾan wa-ātat kulla wāḥidatin minhunna sikkīnan wa-qālati'khruj ʿalayhinn · Fa-lammā raʾaynahu akbarnahu wa-qaṭṭaʿna aydiyahunna wa-qulna ḥāsha li'llāhi mā hādhā basharan in hādhā illā malakun karīm
"Some women in the city said: 'The vizier's wife is trying to get her young man against his will; love for him has pierced her to the heart. We see her in manifest error.' When she heard of their talk she sent for them, prepared for them a banquet with cushions, gave each of them a knife, and said: 'Come out before them!' When the women saw him they were overwhelmed by him, and they cut their hands, and said: 'God preserve us! This is no human being; this is none but a noble angel.'"
The root ش-غ-ف: شَغَاف (shaghāf) — the fine membrane that envelops the heart, the pericardium. The verb: to reach this membrane, to penetrate to the innermost casing of the heart.
The word occurs in the Qurʾān only here. And its image is worth recording: love is described as having penetrated not the inside of the heart but the membrane that envelops it. The lexicographers explain this as "to reach the deepest point".
حُبًّا — in the accusative as tamyīz (specification): "with respect to love". In Arabic tamyīz is the element that resolves the indefiniteness in a sentence. That is, "it pierced her in this respect: love."
And the point of word order is here: what the women said is called makr in the next clause of the verse — fa-lammā samiʿat bi-makrihinna.
The root م-ك-ر: to move towards an outcome secretly, by indirect means. The root was treated in detail at Fāṭir 35/43 (wa-lā yaḥīqu'l-makru's-sayyiʾu illā bi-ahlih). I do not repeat it here.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the choice of the word: what was said is, on the face of it, a reproach. The text calls it "makr" — that is, it names the speech according to the purpose of the speaker.
And what the mistress of the house does is counted out step by step in the verse. I record this as an observation, and its ground is the order of the verbs:
| Order | Verb | What |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsalat ilayhinn | She summoned them |
| 2 | Aʿtadat lahunna muttakaʾan | She prepared a banquet with cushions |
| 3 | Ātat kulla wāḥidatin minhunna sikkīnan | She gave each of them a knife |
| 4 | Qālati'khruj ʿalayhinn | She said "come out" |
The third step is worth recording: the knives are handed out first, the coming out follows. That is, the scene is set up in advance so as to produce the outcome. And this is the woman's method of defending her own position: to put those who reproach her into the same position.
مُتَّكَأ — root و-ك-أ: to recline. Ittikāʾ — to lean upon. The word describes a seating arrangement of cushions to lean upon, and the hospitality that goes with it. The lexicographers record that the word means both "the place to recline" and "the food served there".
This sentence was treated at al-Mujādala 58/2 as an example of grammar:
The best-known instance of the same structure in the Qurʾān: "This is no human being" — مَا هَٰذَا بَشَرًا (Yūsuf 12/31). The same pattern, the same function: to declare decisively that a thing is not something.
I rely on that treatment. The pattern is mā operating like laysa (the Ḥijāzī dialect): the predicate comes in the accusative — basharan. This is a negation that conveys certainty.
And the clause immediately following does the same work from the other side: in hādhā illā malakun karīm — the in … illā pattern of restriction (ḥaṣr). This pattern was analysed in detail at al-Najm 53/4.
That is, two sentences together: one thing is denied, and something is put in its place. Both are patterns of certainty.
And this must be recorded, as my own reading: the women's words are not a praise but a defence — indeed the mistress of the house will use them so: fa-dhālikunna'lladhī lumtunnanī fīh (32). The scene had been staged to show that the reproach was unjust, and it attains its end.
حَٰشَ لِلَّهِ — in Arabic an expression of tanzīh (holding at a remove): "God forbid, this cannot be." The expression occurs twice in the sūra: here (31) and in verse 51 — and in the second place these same women will say of Joseph mā ʿalimnā ʿalayhi min sūʾ. The same expression in both places, about the same person.
Yūsuf 12/32: wa-la-yakūnan mina'ṣ-ṣāghirīn (وَلَيَكُونًا مِّنَ ٱلصَّٰغِرِينَ)
The light nūn of emphasis at the end of the verb is written in the muṣḥaf with an alif (as though it were tanwīn). This is an orthography seen in only two places in the Qurʾān, and it was recorded in al-ʿAlaq together with the other instance. I rely on that treatment.
And the content of the threat must be recorded: two things — prison and humiliation (aṣ-ṣāghirīn). In the next verse Joseph will ask for the first of them himself.