12:39 Yusuf (Joseph)

وقال يوسف للفَتَيين اللذين معه في السجن: أعبادةُ آلهةٍ مخلوقة شتى خير أم عبادة الله الواحد القهار؟

ثم صرح لهما بالدعوة، فقال: { يَا صَاحِبَيِ السِّجْنِ أَأَرْبَابٌ مُتَفَرِّقُونَ خَيْرٌ أَمِ اللَّهُ الْوَاحِدُ الْقَهَّارُ } أي: أرباب عاجزة ضعيفة لا تنفع ولا تضر، ولا تعطي ولا تمنع، وهي متفرقة ما بين أشجار وأحجار وملائكة وأموات، وغير ذلك من أنواع المعبودات التي يتخذها المشركون، أتلك { خَيْرٌ أَمِ اللَّهُ } الذي له صفات الكمال، { الْوَاحِدُ } في ذاته وصفاته وأفعاله فلا شريك له في شيء من ذلك.{ الْقَهَّارُ } الذي انقادت الأشياء لقهره وسلطانه، فما شاء كان وما لم يشأ لم يكن { ما من دابة إلا هو آخذ بناصيتها } ومن المعلوم أن من هذا شأنه ووصفه خير من الآلهة المتفرقة التي هي مجرد أسماء، لا كمال لها ولا أفعال لديها.

ثم إن يوسف عليه السلام أقبل على الفتيين بالمخاطبة والدعاء لهما إلى عبادة الله وحده لا شريك له وخلع ما سواه من الأوثان التي يعبدها قومهما فقال " أأرباب متفرقون خير أم الله الواحد القهار " أي الذي دل كل شيء لعز جلاله وعظمة سلطانه.

He Joseph then explicitly calls them to faith saying O my two fellow-prisoners! inmates of the prison Are several lords better or is God the One the Almighty better? an interrogative meant as an affirmative.

After that, he declares his abhorrence for disbelief and his disengagement from the community of disbelievers. Then, with it, he also stresses that he is a member of the House of Prophets and it is their Community that he adheres to and that he is a scion of the House of Ibrahim, Ishaq and Ya` qub (علیہم السلام) . We mentioned confidence a little earlier. Customarily, this kind of inherited nobility, a common family trait, is also a source of creating confidence in a person. After that he said: And it is not for us that we associate any partners with Allah. Then, he said that the Taufiq of following a true religion ('the favour of Allah upon us and upon all people' ) was nothing but the Fadl or grace of Allah Ta’ ala, for it was He who, by giving proper understanding, made the acceptance of truth easy on us. But, most of the people do not appreciate this blessing and do not show their gratitude for it. After having said that, he asked the same prisoners to tell him if it was better that human beings should be worshiping many gods, or was it better that one becomes a servant of one Allah alone - whose subduing power is all-dominant. Then he referred to idol worship from a different angle. He told them that their fathers and forefathers have taken some idols as their Lord. As for them, they are no more than a lot of names which they have coined on their own. They have no personal attributes which could become deserving of assigning to them the least fund of power - because all of them are inert. This is something one can see with one's own eyes. The only other method through which they could have been taken as true objects of worship would be that Allah Ta’ ala sends down specific injunctions or commandments to worship them. So, in that case, even if observation and reason had not been willing to accept their godhood but, because of the Divine command, we would have left our observation and reason aside and would have obeyed the command of Allah. But, this is not there either - because Allah Ta ala did not send down any argument or proof for their worship. Instead of that, what He said was but that Law and Sovereignty belonged to Allah Ta ala with no one having a right in it; and the command He gave was no other but that we should not worship anyone or anything other than Allah. Finally, he said: ` This is the only right path - which was bestowed on my forefathers by Allah Ta ala, but most of the people do not know this reality.'