Joseph 23

3 min read

This axis brings together 2 instances of the use of this verse in Muhammad Shahrur’s books, linking it to the concepts and arguments that appear around it.

Text of the verse as cited

The woman in whose house he was sought to seduce him. She bolted the doors and said, “Come to me.” He said, “God forbid! He is my lord, who has made my stay good. Indeed, wrongdoers do not prosper.”

Reader’s answer

Question

How does Shahrur employ Joseph 23 in his interpretation of the meaning of wrongdoing and will?

Shahrur employs the verse as an example of wrongdoing as an act arising from conscious will: according to his presentation, Joseph understood that committing adultery was a wrong and an act of wrongdoing, and therefore refrained from it. The attached evidence does not establish an independent reading of “the house” as a place of residence or a social relationship.

Shahrur cites Joseph 23 to illustrate wrongdoing as a voluntary decision made with prior awareness of its error and consequences; he presents Joseph’s abstention from adultery as arising from his awareness that it was wrongdoing. Within the context of his explanation of the difference between divine willing and human will, Shahrur presents wrongdoing as a possibility settled by the human being’s choice of it; once it occurs, it becomes an intentional act rather than a merely theoretical possibility.

Evidence and location

The State and Society — p. 109.

Limits of the reading

  • The available citation establishes the use of the verse to explain wrongdoing and will, not a comprehensive interpretation of the verse or the story.
  • The evidence cannot be used to establish a claim about the social or spatial meaning of the word “house.”
  • The second evidence item is not an interpretive quotation of the verse, but a list of book titles; it should therefore not be relied upon as evidence for this entry.

Continue from here

Brief reading

For Shahrur, the verse is read as an example of conscious abstention from adultery, and of the meaning of the house as a place of residence and a social relationship.

Axes

  • Human and ethical
  • Political and social
  • Conscious choice: 2
  • The house: 2

Its place in the conceptual network

It connects moral choice with the concept of the house in the social structure.

Role of the verse in the argument

  • Example: 1
  • Support: 1

Instances of use

  • The State and Society, p. 109: He cites it to show that Joseph refrained from adultery because he regarded it as deliberate wrongdoing committed with knowledge of the consequence.
    • Concept: Conscious choice
    • Function of the verse here: Example
    • Textual evidence: “We understand from His—exalted be He—saying: {And the woman … Indeed, wrongdoers do not prosper} (Joseph 23) how Joseph understood that, if he were to commit adultery… it would be wrongdoing.”
  • Toward New Foundations for Islamic Jurisprudence, p. 255: He employs it to show that the house is the place of residence and the woman’s social ownership, not merely a material dwelling.
    • Concept: The house
    • Function of the verse here: Support
    • Textual evidence: “And in His statement in the story of Joseph: {And the woman in whose house he was sought to seduce him}”

This page is presented within the general atlas construction methodology.

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Muhammad Shahrur Atlas