Yusuf Verse 42 | 12:42

وَقَالَ لِلَّذِيْ ظَنَّ اَنَّهٗ نَاجٍ مِّنْهُمَا اذْكُرْنِيْ عِنْدَ رَبِّكَۖ فَاَنْسٰىهُ الشَّيْطٰنُ ذِكْرَ رَبِّهٖ فَلَبِثَ فِى السِّجْنِ بِضْعَ سِنِيْنَ ࣖ ( يوسف: ٤٢ )

waqāla

وَقَالَ

And he said

lilladhī

لِلَّذِى

to the one whom

ẓanna

ظَنَّ

he thought

annahu

أَنَّهُۥ

that he

nājin

نَاجٍ

(would be) saved

min'humā

مِّنْهُمَا

of both of them

udh'kur'nī

ٱذْكُرْنِى

"Mention me

ʿinda

عِندَ

rabbika

رَبِّكَ

your master"

fa-ansāhu

فَأَنسَىٰهُ

But made him forget

l-shayṭānu

ٱلشَّيْطَٰنُ

the Shaitaan

dhik'ra

ذِكْرَ

(the) mention

rabbihi

رَبِّهِۦ

(to) his master

falabitha

فَلَبِثَ

so he remained

fī

فِى

l-sij'ni

ٱلسِّجْنِ

the prison

biḍ'ʿa

بِضْعَ

several

sinīna

سِنِينَ

years

Wa qaala lillazee zanna annahoo najim minhumaz kurnee 'inda rabbika fa-ansaahush Shaitaanu zikra Rabbihee falabisa fis sijni bad'a sineen (Yūsuf 12:42)

Sahih International:

And he said to the one whom he knew would go free, "Mention me before your master." But Satan made him forget the mention [to] his master, and he [i.e., Joseph] remained in prison several years. (Yusuf [12] : 42)

1 Mufti Taqi Usmani

And he (Yūsuf) said to the one whom he believed likely to be released out of the two, “Tell your master about me.” Then, the Satan made him forget to tell his master. So, he (Yūsuf) remained in prison for a few years.

2 Dr. Mustafa Khattab, the Clear Quran

3 Ruwwad Translation Center

4 A. J. Arberry

5 Abdul Haleem

6 Abdul Majid Daryabadi

7 Abdullah Yusuf Ali

8 Abul Ala Maududi

9 Ahmed Ali

10 Ahmed Raza Khan

11 Ali Quli Qarai

12 Ali Ünal

13 Amatul Rahman Omar

14 English Literal

15 Faridul Haque

16 Hamid S. Aziz

17 Hilali & Khan

18 Maulana Mohammad Ali

19 Mohammad Habib Shakir

20 Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall

21 Muhammad Sarwar

22 Qaribullah & Darwish

23 Safi-ur-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri

24 Wahiduddin Khan

25 Talal Itani

26 Tafsir jalalayn

Then he said to the one whom he deemed, [whom] he was certain, would be saved of the two -- and this was the cup-bearer; `Mention me to your lord', your master, and say to him, `There is a young man in jail who has been wrongly imprisoned'. So he [the cup-bearer] departed, but Satan caused him, that is, the cup- bearer, to forget the mention, of Joseph, before his master, so that he, Joseph, stayed, he remained, in prison for some years; it is said [that he remained] for seven years, or for twelve.

27 Tafseer Ibn Kathir

Yusuf asks the King's Distiller to mention Him to the King

Allah tells;

وَقَالَ لِلَّذِي ظَنَّ أَنَّهُ نَاجٍ مِّنْهُمَا اذْكُرْنِي عِندَ رَبِّكَ فَأَنسَاهُ الشَّيْطَانُ ذِكْرَ رَبِّهِ

فَلَبِثَ فِي السِّجْنِ بِضْعَ سِنِينَ

And he said to the one whom he knew to be saved;"Mention me to your king." But Shaytan made him forget to mention it to his master. So (Yusuf) stayed in prison a few (more) years.

Yusuf knew that the distiller would be saved. So discretely, so that the other man's suspicion that he would be crucified would not intensify, he said,
اذْكُرْنِي عِندَ رَبِّكَ
(Mention me to your King), asking him to mention his story to the king.

That man forgot Yusuf's request and did not mention his story to the king, a plot from the devil, so that Allah's Prophet would not leave the prison. This is the correct meaning of,
فَأَنسَاهُ الشَّيْطَانُ ذِكْرَ رَبِّهِ
(But Shaytan made him forget to mention it to his master),

that it refers to the man who was saved.

As was said by Mujahid, Muhammad bin Ishaq and several others.

As for, `a few years', or, Bida` in Arabic,

it means between three and nine, according to Mujahid and Qatadah.

Wahb bin Munabbih said,

"Ayub suffered from the illness for seven years, Yusuf remained in prison for seven years and Bukhtanassar (Nebuchadnezzar - Chaldean king of Babylon) was tormented for seven years."