Tafsir of Yusuf 12:52

{ذَٰلِكَ لِيَعْلَمَ أَنِّي لَمْ أَخُنْهُ بِالْغَيْبِ}

This is from the speech of Yusuf. It means: "That verification and readiness [to return to the king] was so that it would be known that I did not betray him in his absence regarding his sanctity."

• {بِالْغَيْبِ} (In the absence/unseen): Its grammatical position is a state (ḥāl) related to the subject or the object. It means: "While I was absent from him, hidden from his sight," or "While he was absent from me, hidden from my sight."
• It is also permissible for it to be an adverb of place, meaning: "In the place of the unseen," which is the concealment and seclusion behind the seven locked doors.

{وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِي كَيْدَ الْخَائِنِينَ}

• He does not cause it to succeed, nor does He guide it.
• It is as if this is an allusion to his wife regarding her betrayal of her husband’s trust.
• It is also an allusion to him (the Aziz) regarding his betrayal of God’s trust when he helped her imprison [Yusuf] after the signs of his innocence had appeared.
• It is also permissible that this is an affirmation of Yusuf’s own trustworthiness, meaning: "Had I been a traitor, God would not have guided my plot nor caused it to succeed."

{وَمَا أُبَرِّئُ نَفْسِي ۚ إِنَّ النَّفْسَ لَأَمَّارَةٌ بِالسُّوءِ إِلَّا مَا رَحِمَ رَبِّي ۚ إِنَّ رَبِّي غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ}