The Self That Incites to Evil

This part begins where Yūsuf (peace be upon him), having been exonerated, says wa mā ubarriʾu nafsī: I do not seek to exonerate myself.

The nafs is la-ammāratun bi-l-sūʾ. The human nafs, the soul, the ego, does have this in it: it is the self that incites to evil. It is from here that many of the scholars of spirituality have taken one of the categories of the nafs, al-nafs al-ammārah bi-l-sūʾ, the one that incites to evil. That prompting we know — should I do this wrong, should I do that wrong, and that, and that — comes generally from al-ammārah bi-l-sūʾ. Then there are the others: al-nafs al-muṭmaʾinnah, mentioned in the last juzʾ of the Qur'an, and taken up there. Illā mā raḥima rabbī: except the one upon whom my Lord has mercy — such a one will be protected. And for those who do err in listening to the promptings of the nafs and the soul: inna rabbī ghafūrun raḥīm, my Lord is Most Forgiving, Most Merciful.

The story continues, and here is a brief summary of it. After he had been exonerated, he refused to go out until those women had been questioned — the women of that whole gathering, at which the ʿAzīz's wife, after her attempt to seduce him and the spreading of the word, was being taunted by them. They began to say: why are you running after this young man? And she says to them: you do not understand what this man has; this man is extremely beautiful. So she arranges a particular gathering at which she gives each of them a plate of fruit and a knife, and then tells Yūsuf (peace be upon him) to come in. And, subḥānAllāh, when he comes in they were struck wholly dumb. They had never seen anything like it. Instead of cutting their fruit they cut their hands. One can hardly conceive what beauty that must have been, and what effect it must have had upon those women.

After that he is put into prison. There he does not cease his daʿwah; he carries it on. Some there ask him for the interpretation of a dream. Before giving the interpretation he says: do not be troubled, it will be given you before the food comes. But then he gives them daʿwah. He speaks of Allah (swt), of tawḥīd, of His oneness; and he says that this is what he follows and what his forefathers followed. And after that the whole account of the… At any rate, the point is that at length there is a dream seen by the malik, the king. And one of the men who had been in the prison, whose dream Yūsuf (peace be upon him) had interpreted, says: I can find someone to tell you that dream and to give you that information. So Yūsuf (peace be upon him) gives them his directions as to what should be done for the seven years, and how the staple foods are to be preserved.