Surah 17. Al-Israa

or until you have a garden of palm trees and vineyards, and cause rivers to flow abundantly in it,

  - Mustafa Khattab

"Or (until) thou have a garden of date trees and vines and cause rivers to gush forth in their midst carrying abundant water; ²²⁹³

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

This ill-assorted and crude jumble of the sort of miracles which the Unbelievers wanted is in very appropriate contrast to the sober and reasoned argument which has begun in the last sentence of verse 93 and continued in sections 11 and 12, which close this Sura. It is throughout reminiscent of the materialistic imagination of Jewish sceptics, which was mainly responsible for the fall of the Jewish nation (see verse 104 below). For a thirsty people sojourning in a dry land, the finding of a spring of water as in the story of Moses or of the well of Zamzam is an appropriate miracle. But miracles are not for faithless crowds to gape at. A beautiful well-watered Garden is a symbol of Felicity: but a sceptic cannot order Allah to produce it for his pleasure. The same may be said about a house adorned with gold, except that its symbolism is even more materialistic. The fall of the sky or producing Allah face to face or climbing to the skies by a ladder, or bringing down a book of parchment which men could handle, are all irreverent suggestions that make no distinction between spiritual and material things.

or cause the sky to fall upon us in pieces, as you have claimed, or bring Allah and the angels before us, face to face,

  - Mustafa Khattab

"Or thou cause the sky to fall in pieces as thou sayest (will happen) against us; or thou bring Allah and the angels before (us) face to face; ^{2294 2295}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Contrast the sublime passages like the beginning with lxxxii. 1 or that in xxv. 25, where the final breaking up of the firmaments as we know them is referred to in the world's catastrophe, with the ridiculous demand that it should be done for the sport of the sceptics!

Cf. ii 55 and iv. 153 about the desire of the Israelites to see Allah face to face; and vi. 8-9, about angels coming down to convince men.

or until you have a house of gold, or you ascend into heaven- and even then we will not believe in your ascension until you bring down to us a book that we can read.' Say, 'Glory be to my Lord! Am I not only a human messenger?'

  - Mustafa Khattab

"Or thou have a house adorned with gold or thou mount a ladder right into the skies. No we shall not even believe in thy mounting until thou send down to us a book that we could read." Say: "Glory to my Lord! am I aught but a man an apostle?" ^{2296 2297 2298}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Cf. vi. 35 about a ladder to the skies.

Cf. vi. 7 for the foolish idea of materialistic sceptics that a spiritual revelation could come down from the heavens on a piece of parchment that they can touch.

A prophet or messenger of Allah is a man at the command of Allah, and not to satisfy the disingenuous whims and fancies of Unbelievers. Miracles greater than any that their foolish fancies could devise were before them. The Qur-an was such a miracle, and it is a standing miracle that lasts through the ages. Why did they not believe? The real reason was spite and jealousy like that of Iblis. See next verse.

And nothing has prevented people from believing when guidance comes to them except their protest: 'Has Allah sent a human as a messenger?'

  - Mustafa Khattab

What kept men back from Belief when Guidance came to them was nothing but this: they said "Has Allah sent a man like us) to be (His) Apostle?" ²²⁹⁹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

When a man is raised to honour and dignity, his sincere brothers rejoice, for it is an honour that reflects its glory on them. But those with evil in their hearts are jealous like their prototype Iblis, (xvii. 61, n. 2251). To such men the mere fact that their own brother receives the grace of Allah is enough to turn them against that brother. Any other reasons they may devise are mere make-believe.

Say, 'O Prophet,' 'Had there been angels walking the earth, well settled, We would have surely sent down for them an angel from heaven as a messenger.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

Say "If there were settled on earth angels walking about in peace and quiet We should certainly have sent them down from the heavens an angel for an apostle." ²³⁰⁰

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The argument is that if angels inhabited this earth, an angel from heaven could be sent down as a messenger to them, as they could mutually understand each other, and the Message of Allah could be explained without difficulty. But the earth is inhabited by men, and the men themselves are divided into races, or groups, or nations. To each Group is sent a prophet from among their brethren: to 'Ad, their brother Hud (xi. 50); to Thamud, their brother Salih (xi. 61): and so on. As a matter of fact, with wicked men, constituted as they are, the appearance of an angel causes disturbance and an unseemly riot, as in the case of the angels that came to Lot (xi. 77-80). In any case they cannot carry out an effective mission among men (vi. 8-9).

Say, 'Sufficient is Allah as a Witness between me and you. He is certainly All-Knowing, All-Seeing of His servants.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

Say: "Enough is Allah for a witness between me and you: for He is well-acquainted with His servants and He sees (all things)." ²³⁰¹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

'If you want a real witness, it is not these sorts of fancy miracles, but the witness of the true ever-living God. Purify your hearts, and ask Him in true contrition and repentance, and He will guide you and show you the Way'.

Whoever Allah guides is truly guided. And whoever He leaves to stray, you will find no guardians for them besides Him. And We will drag them on their faces on the Day of Judgment- deaf, dumb, and blind. Hell will be their home. Whenever it dies down, We will flare it up for them.

  - Mustafa Khattab

It is he whom Allah guides that is on true guidance; but he whom He leaves astray for such wilt thou find no protector besides Him. On the Day of Judgment We shall gather them together prone on their faces blind dumb and deaf: their abode will be Hell: every time it shows abatement We shall increase for them the fierceness of the Fire. ^{2302 2303}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

'All your insincere subtleties are of no use. The only real guidance is the guidance of Allah. If you do not seek His grace, you will be lost. Besides Him, there is no true friend or protector'.

'If you still persist in your evil ways, what is to be your evil end? You will become more and more identified with the Company of Evil. You will come to shame and ignominy, like men thrown down prone on their faces. You will lose the use of all the faculties of judgment with which Allah has endowed you. Instead of seeing, you will be blind to Allah's Signs. Instead of having the power of seeking Him in prayer and rejoicing in His grace, you will be dumb. Instead of hearing the harmony and music of the spheres, as typified in the pure and harmonious lives of men, you will hear nothing or only hear dull or confused sounds like deaf men. The scorching fire of your punishment will not grow less, but grow more fierce as you go deeper into Hell'.

That is their reward for rejecting Our signs and asking 'mockingly', 'When we are reduced to bones and ashes, will we really be raised as a new creation?'

  - Mustafa Khattab

That is their recompense because they rejected Our Signs and said "When we are reduced to bones and broken dust should we really be raised up (to be) a new Creation?" ²³⁰⁴

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

This phrase is repeated from xvii. 49. The reminiscence rounds off the argument. After certain moral precepts to which Faith was linked, we have had a discussion of Unfaith. Its various motives have been analysed, and its penalties have been allegorically shadowed forth. After this, the example of Pharaoh is held as a type of Unfaith in the next section, and the Sura closed with an exhortation to faith and a declaration of the glory of Allah.

Have they not realized that Allah, Who created the heavens and the earth, can 'easily' re-create them? He has 'already' set for them a time, about which there is no doubt. But the wrongdoers persist in denial.

  - Mustafa Khattab

See they not that Allah Who created the heavens and the earth has power to create the like of them (anew)? Only He has decreed a term appointed of which there is no doubt. But the unjust refuse (to receive it) except with ingratitude. ^{2305 2306}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Allah, Who created all that is in the heavens and on earth, has surely the power to revive the life of individual souls after their bodies have perished,-and revive them with memories of their past life and for a continuation of their spiritual history. Only He has fixed a term for each stage of our existence, which we can neither prolong nor shorten.

This phrase carries us back to xvii. 89, after we began the argument about the real motives for the rejection of the Qur-an by sceptics. The argument is now closed in a sort of minor circle within the major circle sketched in n. 2304 above.

Say 'to them, O Prophet', 'Even if you were to possess the 'infinite' treasuries of my Lord's mercy, then you would certainly withhold 'them', fearing they would run out- for humankind is ever stingy!'

  - Mustafa Khattab

Say: "If ye had control of the Treasures of the Mercy of my Lord behold ye would keep them back for fear of spending them: for man is (ever) niggardly!" ²³⁰⁷

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

A fresh argument is now addressed to those who would confine Allah's revelations to a limited circle of men, such as they themselves belonged to. The immediate reference was to the Jews, who could not understand how any Gentiles could receive revelations and guidance even superior to what they considered their own birth-right. But the tendency is widespread in the human race. A particular race, or caste, or a particular kind of culture, claims to be the custodian of Allah's Message, whereas it is universal. Allah's Mercy is universal, and He scatters the priceless Treasures of His Mercy broadcast among His creatures. They are not exhausted by spending. It is only the misers who hoard their wealth for fear it should be used up by spending. 'Are you spiritual misers going to keep back Allah's holy Message from the multitude? Is that the reason why you deny the advent of the new Teacher, who comes as a Mercy to all men-to all Creation?'

We surely gave Moses nine clear signs.¹ 'You, O Prophet, can' ask the Children of Israel. When Moses came to them, Pharaoh said to him, 'I really think that you, O Moses, are bewitched.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

 The nine signs of Moses are: the staff, the hand (both mentioned in 20:17-22), famine, shortage of crops, floods, locusts, lice, frogs, and blood (all mentioned in 7:130-133). These signs came as proofs for Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Otherwise, Moses had some other signs such water gushing out of the rock after he hit it with his staff, and splitting the sea.

To Moses We did give nine Clear Signs: ask the Children of Israel: when he came to them Pharaoh said to him: "O Moses! I consider thee indeed to have been worked upon by sorcery!" ^{2308 2309 2310}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Nine Clear Signs: see vii. 133, n. 1091. The story of Pharaoh (or a phase of it) is here told with a view to exhibiting the decline of a soul on account of pride in outward power and dignity.

To them: i.e., to Pharaoh, as sitting in his Council, with the Chiefs of his people. Cf. vii. 103. The whole scene is described in some detail from the point of view of nations or Ummats in vii. 103-133.

At a different and later stage in the scene, Pharaoh's Chiefs call Moses a "sorcerer well-versed" (vii. 109). Here Moses, who had come with the Nine Signs but had not yet shown them, is reproached with being the object of sorcery: he is practically told that he is mad!

Moses replied, 'You know well that none has sent these 'signs' down except the Lord of the heavens and the earth as insights. And I really think that you, O Pharaoh, are doomed.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

Moses said "Thou knowest well that these things have been sent down by none but the Lord of the heavens and the earth as eye-opening evidence: and I consider thee indeed O Pharaoh to be one doomed to destruction!" ²³¹¹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

We can well suppose Moses to ask Pharaoh to recall all the past history of Moses, for Moses had been brought up in Pharaoh's palace in all the learning of the Egyptians. He could not therefore be mad, or a simpleton worked on by Egyptian magic. What he was going to show was something far greater; it was not the deceptive magic of Pharaoh's sorcerers, but true Signs that came from Allah, the Lord of all power. They were to open the eyes of his people, and if Pharaoh resisted faith. Moses warns him that Pharaoh in that case was doomed to destruction. This is the course of the soul that sinks down by Pride!

So Pharaoh wanted to scare the Israelites out of the land 'of Egypt', but We drowned him and all of those with him.

  - Mustafa Khattab

So he resolved to remove them from the face of the earth: but We did drown him and all who were with him. ²³¹²

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Pharaoh on this tries various subterfuges and plans for removing not only Moses but all his people by doing away with them. The detailed story is not told here but may be read in S. vii. But Allah's Wrath descended on Pharaoh and those who were with him in body and mind. The Egyptians who repented were subject to Pharaoh's wrath but were saved from the Wrath of Allah (vii. 121-126).

And We said to the Children of Israel after Pharaoh, 'Reside in the land, but when the promise of the Hereafter comes to pass,¹ We will bring you all together.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

 This may also refer to the second warning in 17:7.

And We said thereafter to the Children of Israel "Dwell securely in the land (of promise)": but when the second of the warnings came to pass We gathered you together in a mingled crowd. ^{2313 2314}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The Israelites were taken to the Promised Land in Palestine, and they established their own kingdom there, but they forfeited Allah's favour by their sins and backslidings and will have to answer like all souls by the law of personal responsibility at the Day of Judgment.

The second of the warnings: the first was probably that mentioned above, in xvii. 5 and the second that mentioned in xvii. 7 (middle). When this second warning due to the rejection of Jesus came to pass, the Jews were gathered together in a mingled crowd. Some Commentators understand the second warning to be the Day of Judgment, the Promise of the Hereafter.

We have sent down the Quran in truth, and with the truth it has come down. We have sent you 'O Prophet' only as a deliverer of good news and a warner.

  - Mustafa Khattab

We sent down the (Qur'an) in Truth and in Truth has it descended: and We sent thee but to give Glad Tidings and to warn (sinners). ^{2315 2316}

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

The Qur-an was sent down by Allah in Truth: it was not forged by any mortal. It has descended in Truth: it was not and has not been falsified or corrupted in the process of being communicated to mankind.

The part of the Prophet was that of a Messenger: he was not responsible if the ungodly rejected it. He fulfilled his mission in promulgating and explaining it and leaving it as a legacy to the world.