Tafsir of Yusuf 12:30

{And women said}: A group of women, five in number: the wife of the cupbearer, the baker, the stable master, the chamberlain, and the prison warden. Niswa is a singular noun for the collective "women," and its feminine gender is notional, like lumma (a group of people). Thus, the feminine ta is not attached to its verb. There are two dialects: breaking the nun or damma-ing it.

{In the city}: In Egypt.

{Said: "What..."}: Meaning Qatfir (Potiphar), and al-Aziz is the King in the language of the Arabs.

{His youth}: His servant. One says fataya (my male servant) and fatati (my female servant).

{Has captivated her}: His love has pierced the shaghaf (pericardium) of her heart until it reached the core. Shaghaf is the veil of the heart, or a thin membrane called the "tongue of the heart." Al-Nabigha said: "The place of the shaghaf which the fingers seek." It is also read sha‘afaha (with an ‘ayn), from sha‘afa the camel, meaning to burn it with tar.

{In clear error}: In deviation and distance from the path of truth.

{Because of their plotting}: Because of their backbiting and evil speech, saying: "The wife of the Aziz has fallen in love with her Canaanite slave," and their loathing of her. Backbiting is called "plotting" because it occurs in secret and in one's absence, just as a plotter hides his plot. It is said she had entrusted them with her secret, but they exposed her.

{She sent to them}: She invited them. It is said she invited forty women, including the five mentioned.

{And prepared for them a reclining place}: Meaning cushions to lean upon. By this arrangement—sitting reclined with knives in their hands—she intended for them to be stunned and bewildered upon seeing him, so they would be distracted from themselves, causing their hands to fall upon their hands, cutting them. It is not unlikely she intended to combine plotting against him and them, placing daggers in their hands so they would cut themselves, thereby silencing them with proof, and to terrify Joseph with her plot when he emerged before forty women holding daggers, making him think they would attack him.

Others say muttaka’ means a banquet, as the affluent used to recline for food, drink, and conversation. Hence, the prohibition against eating while reclining. She brought them knives to prepare what they were eating. Others say it means food, as in "we reclined at so-and-so's," meaning we ate. Mujahid says it means food that is sliced, as the one cutting leans on what is being cut. It is also read as mutka’ (without hamza), mutka’ah (with madd), or mutka’ (meaning citron/etrog).

{When they saw him, they magnified him}: They deemed him great and were awestruck by that magnificent beauty and superior splendor. It is said Joseph’s beauty compared to others was like the full moon compared to the stars. The Prophet (ﷺ) said: "I passed by Joseph on the night of the Ascension... he was like the moon on the night of the full moon." It is said that when he walked in the alleys of Egypt, the radiance of his face would appear on the walls like sunlight reflecting off water.

{They cut their hands}: They wounded them.

{Exalted is Allah}: A phrase used for declaring transcendence in the context of exception. It is a preposition used to express purity and innocence. Thus, Hasha lillahi means the purity and transcendence of Allah.

{This is not a human}: They denied his humanity due to the strangeness of his beauty and the distance of his splendor from what is known of human features, affirming instead that he was an angel. They were certain of this because Allah has ingrained in human nature that there is nothing more beautiful than an angel, just as there is nothing uglier than a devil.

{This is but a noble angel}: The use of ma (in ma hadha basharan) follows the Hijazi dialect, which is the ancient dialect and the one in which the Quran was revealed.

{She said: "That is he..."}: She did not say "this is he" (despite him being present) to elevate his status in beauty and his worthiness to be loved and obsessed over, and to express the distance of his station. She means: "He is that Canaanite slave you imagined, then blamed me for; had you imagined him as he truly is, you would have excused me."

{Seeking to protect him}: A form of exaggeration indicating extreme restraint and careful guarding, as if he were in a state of protection and striving to increase it. This is the clearest proof that he was innocent of what the fabricators attributed to him.

{His affair}: The pronoun refers to the "that" (the one she invited). The meaning is: "that which I commanded him."

{And he will surely be}: Read with both shadda and light nun. The light nun is more appropriate, as the nun was written in the codex as an alif according to the rules of pausing, which only occurs with the light form.