Yusuf (Joseph)

28. “So when he (the ‘Aziz) saw his shirt was torn from behind, he said: ‘Verily it is of the guile of you women! Truly, your guile is great’.”

The Qur’anic terms /kayda kunna/ (your guile) here means: ‘to accuse some guiltless people while hiding one’s own guilt and swiftly dissociating it from oneself without having the slightest anxiety’.

The Qur’an regards the Satan’s tricks as weak, but the guile of women have been mentioned as great in this verse. According to the ‘Tafsir-us-Safi’, it is because the satanic guile is momentary, invisible and acted in a subtle way, whereas the guile of women is acted along with delicacy, and affection, which are both focused and continuous.

Allah sometimes accomplishes major tasks by means of some small things.

For example: ’Abraha was defeated by the birds of ’Ababil; the life of the Prophet of Islam (S) was saved because of a spider’s web; a crow was used to instruct a human being (Cain) on how to bury a human being (Abel); the chastity of Mary was made manifest through the infant’s talk, Yusuf’s innocence was proved by the tear in his shirt; the faith of a country’s people was known through the messages of a bird (Hoopoe); and finally, the People of the Cave were recognized through the kind of their money.

All of these incidents are examples of great occurrences divinely fulfilled through objects and incidents that are otherwise seen as commonplace or insignificant.

The ‘Aziz accepted the method proposed by the “witness” and gazed at Yusuf’s shirt. He noticed that the shirt had been torn from the back, and he remembered that he had never heard Yusuf tell a lie, even once, he turned to his wife and said that this act was part of the guile of women, that their guile is indeed, very powerful.

The verse says:

“So when he (the ‘Aziz) saw his shirt was torn from behind, he said: ‘Verily is of the guile of you women! Truly, your guile is great’.”