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Sura 12
Aya 53
53
۞ وَما أُبَرِّئُ نَفسي ۚ إِنَّ النَّفسَ لَأَمّارَةٌ بِالسّوءِ إِلّا ما رَحِمَ رَبّي ۚ إِنَّ رَبّي غَفورٌ رَحيمٌ

Muhammad Asad

And yet, I am not trying to absolve myself: for, verily, man's inner self does incite [him] to evil,1 and saved are only they upon whom my Sustainer bestows His grace.2 Behold, my Sustainer is much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace!"
  • Lit., "is indeed wont to command [the doing of] evil"- i.e., is filled with impulses which often conflict with what the mind regards as a moral good. This is obviously a reference to the statement in verse 24 above - "she desired him, and he desired her; [and he would have succumbed,] had he not seen [in this temptation] an evidence of his Sustainer's truth" - as well as to Joseph's prayer in verse 33, "unless Thou turn away their guile from me, I might yet yield to their allure". (See also note 23 above.) Joseph's stress on the weakness inherent in human nature is a sublime expression of humility on the part of one who himself had overcome that very weakness: for, as the sequence shows, he attributes his moral victory not to himself but solely to the grace and mercy of God.
  • Lit., "except those upon whom...", etc. According to most of the commentators, the pronoun and (lit., "that which") is here synonymous with man ("he who" or "those who").