God's gift to Joseph was in his beauty which was a source of trouble for him, and his first trouble was a source for the greatest gift for him and for his household, and some said: maybe gifts are in troubles, and his troubles started by the wife of the noble by looking at him and at his manners with his unusual beauty and so then he owned herself and she became a prisoner of his love and that increased by each time she used to see him until love took off her shyness and she started to flirt with Joseph but he was refusing for two things, his faith in God and God's protection for him and his sincerity to God and God's purification for him as well as for his fathers Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac and Jacob (PUT), and the second thing is that her husband was his master that was generous towards him and gave him a full control over the house and trusted him like no one else, and how come someone like him to face such gifts with such a great awful deed, and if some man does not have a religion and does not believe in the after-life, he would not face such gifts with such an awful deed.
Joseph was so careful for her tricks and kept of saving his dignity ad honour and his high place until she got excited by love and went on to satisfy her desires and said it frankly to him and called him to her as a master would command his servant to do something without refusing, and she prepared everything, and so she lifted up her veil and she appeared to him with her full ornaments and she was pretty, and was one of the prettiest women at her time, and then she closed the doors and said to him: come to me, but he denied and said: I seek refuge in God! Lo! he is my lord, who hath treated me honourably. Lo! wrong-doers never prosper. Look to this trouble and critical situation that shows the strong faith and honour. A young man is called by his beautiful lady but he refuses for the sake of his faith and religion and for the sake of his master as well, and then he faces the door to escape from the devil of her evil act while she was pulling his shirt until it was torn from behind, and he gets away from her and they both race toward the door, he wants to open it and she want to keep him away from that, and then shows up her master and her husband, this is a weird scene and a strange matter, so meditate and read the holy phrases that are related to this matter from the chapter of Yousof: And she, in whose house he was, asked of him an evil act. She bolted the doors and said: Come! He said: I seek refuge in Allah! Lo! he is my lord, who hath treated me honourably. Lo! wrong-doers never prosper. She verily desired him, and he would have desired her if it had not been that he saw the argument of his Lord. Thus it was, that We might ward off from him evil and lewdness. Lo! he was of Our chosen slaves(Yousof:23-24).
Maybe what is meant by "he is my lord, who hath treated me honourably" is the noble of Egypt, and he is Al-Rayyân ben Al-Waleed, the giant and the husband of Zalikhâ, and in Torah he is Qatfeer (Potiphar) as it had been told, and we've pointed out that before that he took care of him and educated him to be for him as a son, and for this his reward should not be dishonesty, and also for that God, his Creator, gifted him and made the heart of His servants so kind to him, so how should he do wrong against Him.
Many sayings had been told about the interpretation of God's saying "and he would have desired her if it had not been that he saw the argument of his Lord", for that everyone knows that he is infallible, and the best of interpretations is that he refused for he saw the argument of his Lord and it is understood from "would." What is attributed to Al-Sâdiq (PUH) is that the argument was the prophecy that prevents wrong-doings, and as attributed to Al-Ridhâ (PUH) in his answer to Al-Ma'mun's [an Abbasid ruler] question about the infallibility of the prophets and God's saying "and he would have desired her...etc" is that if he did not see the argument of his Lord he would desired her as she desired him but he was infallible and the infallible man would not desire a guilt and never do a wrong-doing.
It is said that he desired not to do while she desired to do [notice that the English translation for the holy phrase from quran differ a bit from that in Arabic], and in another saying: she desired the wrong-doing but Joseph desired her to kill her if she forced him, so God avoided him the killing and adultery, and it is God's saying: Thus it was, that We might ward off from him evil and lewdness(Yousof:24), which means killing and adultery. We've mentioned that when she desired him she went to an idol and covered him with a cloth, so then Joseph said to her: are you shy of what hears not, sees not, understand not, eats not and drinks not and I do not be shy of who created the man and taught him? And that is God's saying:  if it had not been that he saw the argument of his Lord(Yousof:24) as it is attributed to Al-Sajjâd (PUH). They attributed some things to Joseph and some tales that could not be mentioned by a muslim or believe in, most of them attributed to the interpretation of God's saying: She verily desired him, and he would have desired her..etc. Some of them said that the wife of the noble desired Joseph and he desired her and sat beside her and just before the doing Gabriel came down and told him that he will be a prophet and this is the argument of his Lord, and some said that the argument was that he saw the face of his father rebuking him for doing so, and another said that when Joseph was in that condition God called him and said to him: O Joseph you are destined to be with the prophets, and you are doing the deeds of wrong-doers? The saying that such a deed was done by him before he becomes a prophet and such a deed is not avoided by prophets before their prophecy and such cold sayings are all might be issued by foolish people or people that are not ashamed by themselves. Some scholars said: some of them who have relations to this story, and they are Joseph, the noble's wife and her husband, the women, and the witnesses, the devil and God, they all emphasized the innocence of Joseph so no muslim should discuss this matter. Joseph said: She it was who asked of me an evil act(Yousof:26), and also he said: O my Lord! Prison is more dear than that unto which they urge me(Yousof:33), and the woman (wife of the noble) said: I asked of him an evil act, but he proved continent(Yousof:32), and also she said: Now the truth is out. I asked of him an evil act(Yousof:51), and her husband said: Lo! this is of the guile of you women. Lo! the guile of you is very great(Yousof:28). The women said: The ruler's wife is asking of her slave-boy an ill-deed. Indeed he has smitten her to the heart with love. We behold her in plain aberration(Yousof:30), and also they said: Allah Blameless! We know no evil of him(Yousof:51), and the witnesses said: And a witness of her own folk testifie..etc(Yousof:26). God said: Thus it was, that We might ward off from him evil and lewdness. Lo! he was of Our chosen slaves(Yousof:24), and the Satan confirmed this by saying: Then, by Thy might, I surely will beguile them every one, Save Thy single-minded slaves among them(Sad:82-83), and so he admitted that he will not be able to beguile Joseph because he is one of His single-minded slaves (chosen slaves), as God said about Joseph before. We say that those silly people that attributed to Joseph such evil act or deed, if they were muslims and follow the religion of God, they must accept God's describion for Joseph for his purification and infallibility, and if they were followers for Satan they must also accept the confession of the Satan about the infallibility of Joseph as well.
About this matter, said Abdul-Wahâb Al-Najjâr: the people that said such things did not understand God's saying: Thus it was, that We might ward off from him evil and lewdness. Lo! he was of Our chosen slaves(Yousof:24), so how come He wards off from him evil while he was ready to do the evil-act and listened already to the devil and how come he did not stop as they said except after he saw things that made him keep away and then he is described as one of the chosen slaves? Then he continued: the one who said such sayings (about Joseph) is ignorant about God's saying:  Allah knoweth best with whom to place His message(Al-An`âm:124), so God's message is chosen for those who have the good deeds, and God does not choose for His message those people of evil-acts, and He choose them to carry on His message and prevents them from anything that can be a source of mocking at them, and what is greater in shame more than someone going to do an evil-act and never back until he sees something that makes him keep away, thus he (`Abdul-Wahâb Al-Najjâr) did say good, and he did good by pointing out that God's desire to guide people and teach them does not coincide with someone that did something bad or evil-act.
Zalikhâ, the wife of the noble, loved Joseph or his beauty but he did not care about it and did not change his position towards God who gave him the greatest of virtues, and she was defamed for the first time by her love and she lied to get rid of the shame and to take revenge of him for not obeying her commands, and so her excuse was worse than her guilt inspite of her love to him that reached the core of her heart, but she was not good in getting rid blame by doing this, and she had the chance to get to the right path again but love took over her again and she promised him to be imprisoned if he did not obey her wishes, and all of that got into the public and women started to talk about her and blame her for doing such a thing and then she started to plot against them, and she invited some of them who blamed her and prepared the fruit and knives and then she ordered him to show up for them and when they saw him they started cutting their hands and shared his love with her and to ask for the evil act, because his beauty is not something that human beings used to see, for his beauty is above the beauty of human beings, and then she said to them: She said: This is he on whose account ye blamed me. I asked of him an evil act, but he proved continent, but if he do not my behest he verily shall be imprisoned, and verily shall be of those brought low(Yousof:32).

---

Next: Getting Joseph Into The Jail