Yusuf (Joseph)

26. “He said: ‘She (it was who) sought to seduce me from my (pure) self,’ and a witness from her own family bore witness, ‘If it be that his shirt is torn from the front, then she speaks the truth and he is of the liars’.”

Some narrations say that the witness was a child who, like Jesus (as), spoke from inside the cradle, but since this report is not well documented it cannot be disregarded.

It might be better to think of the witness as one of the counselors of the ‘Aziz who was a relative of his wife and who was fairly intelligent that, like ‘Aziz, saw the situation.

This “witness” however, did not actually witness the main event, because if he did himself, he would not have used the conditional sentence and circumstantial evidence to make a judgment, therefore the word “witness” is used to describe him as a referee.

At first, Yusuf said nothing, and perhaps if the wife of the ‘Aziz did not speak out accusing him with a flagrant lie, her reputation would not have been damaged by the saying:

“She it was (who) sought to seduce me…”

However, once she had made her accusations, Yusuf did not see any wisdom in continuing to hold his tongue, he had to defend himself which meant disclosing the truth where she was concerned, so he said that it was she who was the one who was doing the seducing.

The verse says:

“He said: ‘She (it was who) sought to seduce me from my (pure) self,’ and a witness from her own family bore witness...”

Obviously, it is hard to believe at first that the unmarried male slave in the prime of his young manhood would be the one who was innocent and the older married woman who was apparently noble, would be the one with the sinful character. Thus, there would have been a greater tendency to accuse Yusuf in this connection than the wife of the ‘Aziz.

As Allah is always an advocate of those who are upright and good, He would not allow this pious abstemious man to be the object of false accusations.

Thus, as the Qur’an says a witness from among her very own household suggested that the true culprit would be determined by looking at the way the shirt was torn, that if it were torn from the front, it would indicate that she was right and he would be the liar.

The verse says:

“…‘If it be that his shirt is torn from the front, then she speaks the truth and he is of the liars’.”