۞

« itself (tark), that is for the sinner who recognises his sin. Being forsaken (khidhlān), however, is for the one who sins while believing that he is doing something good. This is God’s punishment it was pointed out to him that he had ninety-nine wives, whilst Uriah had had one wife, and that David had had Uriah killed in battle in order to take his one wife. David became deeply repentant at this. This version of the story appears in Ṭabarī, History of al-Ṭabarī, vol. 3, trans. William Brinner, The Children of Israel (Albany, 1991), pp. 145–7. 48 A reference to part of the story of Joseph narrated in 12:23–34, in which the wife of ʿAzīz, who is Joseph’s master, attempts »