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English - Chapter 17 - Al-Isra

Translation by Muhammad Taqi Usmani — Permalink

Verse 1 — Surah Al-Isra 17:1

Glorious is He Who made his servant travel by night from Al-Masjid-ul-Haram to Al-Masjid-ul-AqSa whose environs We have blessed, so that We let him see some of Our signs. Surely, He is the All-Hearing, the All- Seeing

Verse 2 — Surah Al-Isra 17:2

And We gave Musa the Book and made it guidance for the children of Isra‘il (bearing the command) .Do not take anyone other than Me as guardian

Verse 3 — Surah Al-Isra 17:3

O you, the progeny of those whom We put on board with NuH. Surely, He was a very grateful servant

Verse 4 — Surah Al-Isra 17:4

And We declared to the children of Isra‘il in the Book: .You will surely spread mischief on the earth twice, and you will surely show utmost haughtiness

Verse 5 — Surah Al-Isra 17:5

So, when came the time appointed for the first of the two, We dispatched against you some servants belonging to us having strong aggressive power, who combed through the houses; and it was a promise, bound to be fulfilled

Verse 6 — Surah Al-Isra 17:6

Then We gave you your turn to overpower them, and increased your strength with wealth and sons, and made you greater in number

Verse 7 — Surah Al-Isra 17:7

(saying) ‘If you do good, you will do it for your own benefit, and if you do evil, it will be against yourselves‘. Later, when came the time appointed for the second, (We sent others,) so that they spoil your faces, and so that they enter into the Mosque as the former ones entered it the first time, and utterly destroy whatever they prevail upon

Verse 8 — Surah Al-Isra 17:8

May be your Lord would bestow mercy upon you. But if you do this again, We shall do that again, and We have made Jahannam (Hell) a prison for the disbelievers

Verse 9 — Surah Al-Isra 17:9

Surely, this Qur‘an guides to something that is most straightforward, and gives glad tidings to the believers who do good deeds that ready for them there is a great reward

Verse 10 — Surah Al-Isra 17:10

and that We have prepared a painful punishment for those who do not believe in the Hereafter

Verse 11 — Surah Al-Isra 17:11

Man prays for evil like his prayer for good, and man is so hasty

Verse 12 — Surah Al-Isra 17:12

We have made the night and the day two signs, then We made the sign of night marked by darkness and the sign of day bright, so that you may seek grace from your Lord, and that you may know how to number the years and how to compute, and We have expounded everything in detail

Verse 13 — Surah Al-Isra 17:13

We have tied up every human‘s fortune to his neck, and on the Day of Resurrection, We will bring forth a book for him that he will find wide open

Verse 14 — Surah Al-Isra 17:14

(and We will say to him) .Read your book. Enough are you today to take your own account

Verse 15 — Surah Al-Isra 17:15

Whoever adopts the right path does so for his own benefit, and whoever goes astray does so to his own detriment, and no bearer of burden shall bear the burden of another, and it is not Our way to punish (anyone) unless We send a Messenger

Verse 16 — Surah Al-Isra 17:16

And when We intend to destroy a habitation, We command its affluent people (to do good), then they commit sins therein, and thus the word (of punishment) becomes applicable to it (habitation), and We annihilate it totally

Verse 17 — Surah Al-Isra 17:17

How many a generation have We destroyed after NuH! And enough is your Lord to know, (and) watch the sins of His servants

Verse 18 — Surah Al-Isra 17:18

Whoever opts for the immediate (benefits from) life herein, We give him, right here in this life, as much as We will, to whomever We intend. Then We assign Jahannam for him where he shall enter condemned, discarded

Verse 19 — Surah Al-Isra 17:19

And whoever opts for the Hereafter and makes efforts for it as due, while he is a believer, then, the effort of such people is appreciated

Verse 20 — Surah Al-Isra 17:20

To all of them - both these and those - We extend the grants of your Lord. And the grant of your Lord is not barred (for anyone)

Verse 21 — Surah Al-Isra 17:21

See how We made some of them excel some others (in this world) and, of course, the Hereafter is much higher in ranks and much greater in degrees of merit

Verse 22 — Surah Al-Isra 17:22

Do not set up any other god along with Allah, otherwise you will sit condemned, forsaken

Verse 23 — Surah Al-Isra 17:23

Your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him, and do good to parents. If any one of them or both of them reach old age, do not say to them: uff (a word or expression of anger or contempt) and do not scold them, and address them with respectful words

Verse 24 — Surah Al-Isra 17:24

and submit yourself before them in humility out of compassion, and say, .My Lord, be merciful to them as they have brought me up in my childhood

Verse 25 — Surah Al-Isra 17:25

Your Lord knows best what is in your hearts. If you are righteous, then He is Most-Forgiving for those who turn to Him in repentance

Verse 26 — Surah Al-Isra 17:26

Give the relative his right, and the needy and the wayfarer. And do not squander recklessly

Verse 27 — Surah Al-Isra 17:27

Surely, squanderers are brothers of satans, and the Satan is very ungrateful to his Lord

Verse 28 — Surah Al-Isra 17:28

And if you turn away from them looking for a bounty from your Lord you are expecting, then speak to them in polite words

Verse 29 — Surah Al-Isra 17:29

And do not keep your hand tied to your neck, nor extend it to the full extent, lest you should be sitting reproached, empty-handed

Verse 30 — Surah Al-Isra 17:30

Indeed, your Lord expands sustenance for whomsoever He wills, and constricts (for whomsoever He wills). Surely, He is All-Aware of His servants, All-Seeing

Verse 31 — Surah Al-Isra 17:31

Do not kill your children for fear of poverty. We provide sustenance to them and to you, too. Killing them is a great sin indeed

Verse 32 — Surah Al-Isra 17:32

Do not even go close to fornication. It is indeed a shameful act, and an evil way to follow

Verse 33 — Surah Al-Isra 17:33

Do not kill any person the life of whom is sanctified by Allah, except for a just reason. And whoever is killed unjustly, We have invested his heir with authority (of equal retaliation), but he must not cross the limit in the matter of killing. Surely, he will be helped

Verse 34 — Surah Al-Isra 17:34

Do not go near the property of an orphan, except in a manner that is good, until he comes to his maturity. And fulfill the covenant. Surely, the covenant shall be asked about (on the Day of Reckoning)

Verse 35 — Surah Al-Isra 17:35

And give full measure when you measure, and weigh with a straight balance. That is fair, and better at the end

Verse 36 — Surah Al-Isra 17:36

And do not follow a thing about which you have no knowledge. Surely, the ear, the eye and the heart - each one of them shall be interrogated about

Verse 37 — Surah Al-Isra 17:37

Do not walk on the earth in haughty style. You can neither tear the earth apart, nor can you match the mountains in height

Verse 38 — Surah Al-Isra 17:38

That which is evil, of all these, is detestable in the sight of your Lord

Verse 39 — Surah Al-Isra 17:39

This is part of the Wisdom your Lord has revealed to you. And do not set up any other god along with Allah, lest you should be thrown into Jahannam , reproached, rejected

Verse 40 — Surah Al-Isra 17:40

Is it, then, that your Lord has chosen you people to have sons, and has Himself opted for females from among the angels? Surely, you are uttering a serious statement

Verse 41 — Surah Al-Isra 17:41

Surely, We have explained things in various ways in this Qur‘an, so that they may pay heed to the advice; but it increases nothing in them except aversion

Verse 42 — Surah Al-Isra 17:42

Say, .Had there been other gods along with Him., as they say, .then they would have found out a way to the Lord of the Throne

Verse 43 — Surah Al-Isra 17:43

Pure is He, and Exalted, immensely above what they say

Verse 44 — Surah Al-Isra 17:44

All the seven skies and the earth and all those therein extol His purity. And there is not a single thing that does not extol His purity along with His praise, but you do not understand their extolling. Surely He is Forbearing, Most-Forgiving

Verse 45 — Surah Al-Isra 17:45

When you recite the Qur‘an, We place an invisible curtain between you and those who do not believe in the Hereafter

Verse 46 — Surah Al-Isra 17:46

and We put covers on their hearts barring them from understanding it, and (We put) deafness in their ears; and when you refer to your Lord alone (without referring to their presumed deities,) in the Qur‘an, they turn their backs in aversion

Verse 47 — Surah Al-Isra 17:47

We are fully aware of the reason for which they listen, when they listen to you, and when they are in secret consultation: when the transgressors say, .You are following none but a bewitched man

Verse 48 — Surah Al-Isra 17:48

See how they have made (silly) statements about you; so they have gone astray and cannot find a way

Verse 49 — Surah Al-Isra 17:49

And they say, .Once we are reduced to bones and dust, is it then that we will be raised, created anew

Verse 50 — Surah Al-Isra 17:50

Say, .Be you stones or iron

Verse 51 — Surah Al-Isra 17:51

or any creation you deem harder in your hearts. Thereupon they will ask, .Who will bring us back?. Say, .The One who created you for the first time. So, they will shake their heads before you and say, .When shall that be?. Say, .May be, it is near

Verse 52 — Surah Al-Isra 17:52

(It will be) on a day when He will call you, and you will respond praising Him, and you will think you did not stay (on the earth) but for a short while

Verse 53 — Surah Al-Isra 17:53

Tell My servants that they should speak that which is best. Surely, Satan creates discord among them. Indeed, Satan is an open enemy to mankind

Verse 54 — Surah Al-Isra 17:54

Your Lord knows you best. If He so wills, He will have mercy on you, and if He so wills, He will punish you, and We did not send you (O Prophet,) to become responsible for them

Verse 55 — Surah Al-Isra 17:55

Your Lord knows best about all those in the heavens and the earth, and We have certainly granted excellence to some prophets over some others, and We gave Dawud the Zabur (the Psalms)

Verse 56 — Surah Al-Isra 17:56

Say, .Call those whom you assume (to be gods), besides Him, while they have no power to remove distress from you, nor to change it

Verse 57 — Surah Al-Isra 17:57

Those whom they invoke, do themselves seek the means of access to their Lord as to which of them becomes the closest, and they hope for His Mercy and fear His punishment. The punishment of your Lord is really something to be feared

Verse 58 — Surah Al-Isra 17:58

There is no town but We are to destroy it before the Doomsday, or punish it with severe punishment. That is what stands written in the Book

Verse 59 — Surah Al-Isra 17:59

Nothing made us refrain from sending the signs (demanded by the pagans,) except that the earlier people had rejected them. (For example,) We gave Thamud the she-camel, as an eye-opener, then they did wrong to her, and We do not send signs but as a warning

Verse 60 — Surah Al-Isra 17:60

(Remember) when We said to you that your Lord encompasses all humans. And We did not make the vision We showed to you, but a test for the people — and the tree cursed in the Qur‘an as well. And We warn them, yet it adds nothing to them but enormous rebellion

Verse 61 — Surah Al-Isra 17:61

(Remember) when We said to the angels, .Prostrate yourself before ‘Adam. So, they all prostrated, except Iblis (Satan). He said, .Shall I prostrate before the one You have created from mud

Verse 62 — Surah Al-Isra 17:62

He (Iblis) added, .Tell me, this one whom You have honored more than me, if You give me respite till the Doomsday, I will subdue his progeny, except a few of them

Verse 63 — Surah Al-Isra 17:63

He (Allah) said, .Go then, for whoever of them follows you, the Hell shall be the recompense of you all, a full recompense

Verse 64 — Surah Al-Isra 17:64

Entice with your voice those of them whom you can, and rally against them your horsemen and your footmen, and share with them in their wealth and their children, and make promises to them. – and Satan promises them nothing but delusion

Verse 65 — Surah Al-Isra 17:65

As for My servants, you have no control over them, and your Lord is enough to look after (everything)

Verse 66 — Surah Al-Isra 17:66

Your Lord is the One who causes ships to sail for you through the sea, so that you may go in quest of His bounty; surely, He is Ever-Merciful for you

Verse 67 — Surah Al-Isra 17:67

you face a hardship at sea, vanished are those whom you used to invoke, except Him (Allah). Then, once He brings you safe to the land, you turn away (from Him); man is so ungrateful

Verse 68 — Surah Al-Isra 17:68

Do you, then, feel secure from that He makes a part of the land sink down along with you, or that He sends down a rain of stones on you, whereupon you will find no one to protect you

Verse 69 — Surah Al-Isra 17:69

Or, do you feel secure from that He takes you back to it (the sea) once again, and sends a heavy storm of wind upon you which drowns you because of your disbelief, and then you will find no one to help

Verse 70 — Surah Al-Isra 17:70

And We bestowed dignity on the children of ‘Adam and provided them with rides on the land and in the sea, and provided them with a variety of good things and made them much superior to many of those whom We have created

Verse 71 — Surah Al-Isra 17:71

(Think of) the Day when We will call every people with their books of deeds. Then the ones who will be given their book in their right hands will read their book (happily) and will not be wronged even to the measure of a fine thread

Verse 72 — Surah Al-Isra 17:72

But whoever is (too) blind in this (world to see the right path) will be (too) blind in the Hereafter (to reach the salvation), and much more astray from the path

Verse 73 — Surah Al-Isra 17:73

(O Prophet,) Surely, they were about to lure you away from what We have revealed to you, so that you forge something else against Us, and in that case they would have certainly made you a bosom friend

Verse 74 — Surah Al-Isra 17:74

Had We not made you firm, it was likely that you would have inclined towards them a little bit

Verse 75 — Surah Al-Isra 17:75

In that case, We would have surely made you taste a double (punishment) in life and a double (punishment) after death, then you would not have found anyone to help you against Us

Verse 76 — Surah Al-Isra 17:76

And they were likely to harass you in the land, so that they could expel you from there, and in that case, they will have not lived (there) after you, but a little

Verse 77 — Surah Al-Isra 17:77

Such has been Our way with the messengers We sent before you. And you will find no change in Our way

Verse 78 — Surah Al-Isra 17:78

(O Prophet,) establish Salah between the decline of the sun and the darkness of the night, and (establish) the recital at dawn. Surely, the recital at dawn is well attended

Verse 79 — Surah Al-Isra 17:79

And during the night, wake up for Salah of tahajjud , an additional prayer for you. It is very likely that your Lord will place you at Praised Station

Verse 80 — Surah Al-Isra 17:80

And say, .O my Lord, make me enter a rightful entrance and make me exit a rightful exit, and grant me from Your Own a power, favored (by You)

Verse 81 — Surah Al-Isra 17:81

And say, .Truth has come and falsehood has vanished. Falsehood is surely bound to vanish

Verse 82 — Surah Al-Isra 17:82

We reveal the Qur‘an, which is cure and mercy for the believers; and it adds nothing to the unjust but loss

Verse 83 — Surah Al-Isra 17:83

When We bestow Our favor upon man, he avoids (to recognize it) and keeps himself far aside (from obedience), and when some evil touches him, he is in total despair

Verse 84 — Surah Al-Isra 17:84

Say, .Everyone acts in his own style. So, your Lord knows best which one is better guided in his way

Verse 85 — Surah Al-Isra 17:85

And they ask you about the soul. Say, .The soul is something from the command of my Lord, and you are not given from the knowledge but a little

Verse 86 — Surah Al-Isra 17:86

And if We so will, We will surely take away what We have revealed to you, then you shall find no one to rely upon against Us in this matter

Verse 87 — Surah Al-Isra 17:87

But it is a mercy from your Lord. Great is indeed His favor upon you

Verse 88 — Surah Al-Isra 17:88

Say, .If all the humans and jinns join together to produce anything like this Qur‘an, they will not (be able to) come up with anything like it, even if they assist one another

Verse 89 — Surah Al-Isra 17:89

Indeed We explained every subject in this Qur‘an in various ways for the benefit of mankind. Still, most of the people refused to do anything but reject

Verse 90 — Surah Al-Isra 17:90

They said, .We shall never believe in you unless you cause a spring to gush forth for us from the earth

Verse 91 — Surah Al-Isra 17:91

Or you have a garden of date palms and grapes, then you bring forth rivers from their midst in abundance

Verse 92 — Surah Al-Isra 17:92

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

Verse 93 — Surah Al-Isra 17:93

Or you have a house made of gold. Or you ascend to the sky, and we will not believe in your ascension unless you send down to us a book we may read. Say, .I proclaim the Purity of my Lord. I am nothing but human, a messenger

Verse 94 — Surah Al-Isra 17:94

Nothing prevented people from believing, when guidance came to them, except that they said, .Has Allah sent a man as a messenger

Verse 95 — Surah Al-Isra 17:95

Say, .Had there been angels (living) on the earth, walking about in peace, We would have certainly sent down an angel from the heavens as a messenger

Verse 96 — Surah Al-Isra 17:96

Say, .Allah is sufficient as witness between me and you. Surely, He is All-Aware, All-Watchful to His servants

Verse 97 — Surah Al-Isra 17:97

The one whom Allah guides is the guided one; and those whom He lets go astray, you will never find for them any helpers other than Him. And We shall gather them on the Day of Judgment, with their faces down—blind, dumb and deaf. Their abode is the Fire. Whenever it calms down, We increase its flames for them

Verse 98 — Surah Al-Isra 17:98

That is their punishment, because they rejected Our signs and said, .Is it that once we are reduced to bones and dust, is it then that we shall be raised, created anew

Verse 99 — Surah Al-Isra 17:99

Have they not seen that Allah who has created the heavens and the earth has the power to create them as they were? He has appointed a time for them in which there is no doubt. Still, the wrongdoers refused to do anything but reject

Verse 100 — Surah Al-Isra 17:100

Say, .If you were to own the treasures of my Lord‘s blessing, you would certainly hold them back, lest it should be spent. Man is so niggardly

Verse 101 — Surah Al-Isra 17:101

Surely we gave Musa nine clear signs. So, ask the children of Isra‘il, when he came to them, Pharaoh said to him, .I am afraid, O Musa, you are under the spell of magic

Verse 102 — Surah Al-Isra 17:102

He (Musa) said, .You know well that these (signs) are sent down by none but by the Lord of the heavens and the earth as eye-openers. And, I am afraid O Pharaoh, you are going to be destroyed

Verse 103 — Surah Al-Isra 17:103

Then he (Pharaoh) tried to harass them to drive them out of the land, so We drowned him and those with him altogether

Verse 104 — Surah Al-Isra 17:104

and thereafter We said to the children of Isra‘il, .Live in the land. So, when the appointed time of the Hereafter will come, We shall bring you all joined together

Verse 105 — Surah Al-Isra 17:105

With truth We have sent it (the Qur‘an) down and with truth it descended, and We did not send you but as a bearer of good tidings and as a warner

Verse 106 — Surah Al-Isra 17:106

We have divided the Qur‘an in portions, so that you may recite it to the people gradually, and We have revealed it little by little

Verse 107 — Surah Al-Isra 17:107

Say, .Believe in it or do not believe in it; when it is recited to those who were given knowledge before it, they fall down on their faces in prostration

Verse 108 — Surah Al-Isra 17:108

and say, .Pure is our Lord. Certainly, the word of our Lord was sure to be fulfilled

Verse 109 — Surah Al-Isra 17:109

They fall down on their faces weeping, and it increases humbleness in their hearts

Verse 110 — Surah Al-Isra 17:110

Say, .Call (Him by the name of) Allah or Ar-RaHman, in whichever way you call, His are the Best Names. Do not be (too) loud in your Salah, nor be (too) low in it, and seek a way in between

Verse 111 — Surah Al-Isra 17:111

Say, .Praise belongs to Allah who has neither had a son, nor is there any partner to Him in His kingdom, nor is anyone (needed) to protect Him from (any) weakness. And proclaim His greatness, an open proclamation