ভূমিকা
“So the king said: ‘Bring him to me.’ Then, when the messenger came to him, he (Yusuf) said: ‘Go back unto your lord and ask him: What was the case of the women who cut their own hands?
Verily my Lord is aware of their guile’.” By interpreting the king’s dream and proposing a precise program of dealing with the future impending famine without attaching any preconditions, Yusuf not only showed in prison that he was an extraordinary person, but he also indicated that he was a knowledgeable and wise man.
The verse says: “So the king said: ‘Bring him to me.’...” When the messenger came to him, Yusuf did not jump to seize his freedom, instead he requested a reevaluation of his past record, he would not leave the prison just by the king’s permission and forgiveness; yet, he told him that he should go back to the king and ask him about the women who had been at the palace of the ‘Aziz and had cut their hands. He did not want his freedom to be the result of a royal amnesty.
Yusuf wanted his innocence and chastity to be vindicated and get the king to understand that his entire regime was more corrupt and injustice more widespread that he could have imagined. Probably, because he held the ‘Aziz in great respect, he did not mention his wife, and only mentioned the women as a group.
It is mentioned in an Islamic tradition that the blessed Prophet (S) said: “ I am astonished at the patience of Yusuf, whenever the king needed his dream interpreted, Yusuf did not say that he would not do such unless he was freed from prison, but when they wanted to free him, he did not come out until all the charges and accusations against him were refuted.” Therefore, when the messenger of the king came to Yusuf, instead of being happy that after years of imprisonment he was going to be free, he gave him a negative answer.