SURAH (17) AL-ISRAA' (AYA 1 to 10)
Sura (17) ‘AL-‘ISRAA’
(The Children of Israel) Aya
1 to 111 verses in 12 sections Revealed at Makka
This chapter begins and ends with prominent
reference to Israelites. It has been named ‘Bani Israel’ or the Israelites.
This chapter contains a great amount of admonition with reference to the power
and prosperity of the Israelites. How they were given and how they lost the
goodness which earned for them the favour of their Lord. When they were blessed
with prosperity, they forget ALLAH (SWT), their real Benefactor and returned to
the evil ways which brought upon them the calamities displeasure of ALLAH (SWT).
The chapter opens with the refrence to ‘Me’raj’ the Ascension of the Holy
Prophet (ALLAHuma sali ala Muhammad wa ala ali Muhammad) into the heavens at the
invitation from the Lord, where he was shown the wonders of the Universe and
the high positions of unique excellence in store for him and the distinctive
status of his Vicegerent Ali ibne Abi Talib and his divinely chosen issues and
the blissful abode of his faithful followers. There are references to the
ministry of Moses and the guidance afforded for the Israelites, how Noah with
his faithful adherents was granted safety in the Ark. If anyone does any good he
does it for his own self. Qur’an gives a firm guidance and glad tidings to the
believers. None shall bear the burden of the other. A Faithful is one who is
always mindful of the Hereafter and strives for it. It is the decree of the
Lord that He alone should be worshipped and that only goodness be done to
parents with utmost kindness and humidity. The nearest of kin be given their
due. One should neither be niggardly nor extravagent. Infanticide forbidden.
The heir of a slain one be helped by law and punishment should not exceed the
limits. Measures and weights to be used correctly. Vain and the idle talk to be
avoided. Every organ of the physical body of a human being shall be brought to
account about it usage. Gentleness and modesty in gait, prescribed. Repeated
guidance to the people of Noah increased only the adamance and the persistence
among the disbelievers. Everything in the Universe sings only the glory to ALLAH
(SWT). The Qoriesh’s harted against hearing the Word os ALLAH (SWT). The
infidels’ disbelief in the Resurrection. To talk gently. Some Apostles of ALLAH
(SWT) being graded higher than the others. The Ascension of the Holy Prophet (ALLAHuma
sali ala Muhammad wa ala ali Muhammad) --- The Cursed Tree -- Reference to Iblees’
refusal to do obeisance to Adam and Satan’s vow to lead the issues of Adam
astray. Satan having no hold upon the chosen ones of ALLAH (SWT). He who is
blind of faith in this world shall be deprived of seeing the Light of Salvation
of the Day of Judgment. The Five Times Prayers prescribed. The ‘Tahajjud’.
i.e., the midnight prayers highly commended --- Truth firmly established and
falsehood gone --- Spirit being only the Command of the Lord. ALLAH (SWT) alone
is the Reckoner. The impossibility of bringing anything similar to Qur’an even
if men and the Jinn joined together. The Almighty ALLAH (SWT) can create
similar worlds. Moses given the nine miracles --- ALLAH (SWT) to be remembered
with His Excellent names. The grace and the glory of ALLAH (SWT), man should
always celebrate.
SECTION
1
The
Apostle Muhammad’s visit the Heavens
Apostle
Muhammad taken on a visit to the Heavens—His Triumph foretold—The Israelites
punished.
سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي أَسْرَىٰ بِعَبْدِهِ لَيْلًا مِنَ
الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ إِلَى الْمَسْجِدِ الْأَقْصَى الَّذِي بَارَكْنَا حَوْلَهُ
لِنُرِيَهُ مِنْ آيَاتِنَا ۚ إِنَّهُ هُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ {17:1}
[Q17:1] Subhaanal lazeee asraa
bi'abdihee lailam minal Masjidil Haraami ilal Masjidil Aqsal-lazee baaraknaa
haw lahoo linuriyahoo min aayaatinaa; innahoo Huwas Samee'ul-Baseer.
[Q17:1] Glory be to Him Who made His servant to go on a night from the Sacred Mosque to the remote mosque of which We have blessed the precincts, so that We may show to him some of Our signs; surely He is the Hearing, the Seeing.
[Q17:1] Glory be to Him Who made His servant to go on a night from the Sacred Mosque to the remote mosque of which We have blessed the precincts, so that We may show to him some of Our signs; surely He is the Hearing, the Seeing.
[Q17:1] Maha Suci ALLAH (SwT) yang telah menjalankan
hambaNya (Muhammad) pada malam hari dari Masjidilharam (di Mekah) ke Masjid
Al-Aqsa (di Palestin), yang Kami berkati sekelilingnya, untuk memperlihatkan
kepadanya tanda-tanda (kekuasaan dan kebesaran) Kami. Sesungguhnya ALLAH (SwT)
jualah Yang Maha Mendengar, lagi Maha Mengetahui.
THIS
VERSE IS ABOUT THE PHYSICAL ASCENSION (MI-RAJ) OF
THE HOLY PROPHET (ALLAHUMA SALI ALA MUHAMMAD WA ALA ALI
MUHAMMAD) TO THE HIGHEST STATION IN THE HEAVEN.
r
The mi-raj;
is usually dated to the 27th night of
the month of Rajab in the year before hijrat. While the
Holy Prophet (ALLAHuma sali ala Muhammad wa ala ali Muhammad) finished his night prayers
in the house of his cousin, Ummi Hani,
the sister of Ali ibn Abu Talib, the angel Jibra-il came to him with the
invitation of the Lord of the worlds to have a journey to the highest heaven.
r
Jibrail first took him to the
Ka-bah (the Masjid al Haram) and from there he was taken to the farthest masjid in the heavens. Although aqsa means
"the farthest" but most of the
translators and commentators confuse this
word with the name of Masjid al Aqsa in Jerusalem. Farthest is an adjective used to refer to the masjid in
the most distant heaven. [The distance between the
Masjid al Haram and the Masjid al Aqsa in Jerusalem is not more than a few
hundred miles which cannot be described as farthest. MOREOVER, the journey to Jerusalem was meaningless when the divine
purpose was to show the Holy Prophet (ALLAHuma
sali ala Muhammad wa ala ali Muhammad) the wonders of the glory of the kingdom
of ALLAH (SWT).] If ALLAH (SWT) had selected an earthly place to do this He could have
chosen the Masjid al Hama.
After all, what is the origin of the Mosque at Jerusalem? *Originally
it is a Mosque which is said to have been originally built by Solomon about
1004 B.C. in 586 B.C., the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar destroy it. *It was
rebuilt under Ezra and Nehemiah about 515 B.C. In 167 B.C. *Antiochus Epiphanes, one of the successors of
Alexander turned it into an idol-worshippers temple for the heathens. *In about 17 B.C. to 29 A.D. Herod restored it and *in 70 A.D. the Emperor Titus completely leveled it to
the ground.
r
And when the journey of ‘Mi’raj’ took
place, the place which was once the Mosque of Solomon, was the temple of the
Roman Catholic Chistians, with idols of Jesus and Mary in them. No doubt since it was built by Solomon, one of the Apostles
of ALLAH (SWT), it has its sanctity, BUT COMMON SENSE would never agree to hold it in the place of all the heavens
together and the ‘Arsh’ ---the
Central Seat of the Supreme Authority of ALLAH (SWT).
According to
the Ahlul Bayt the mi-raj was a
physical ascension, not a vision or dream in sleep or slumber, BECAUSE even
ordinary men see such things in their dreams. IT WAS NO DOUBT
A SPIRITUAL REALISATION BUT ATTAINED
BY AN ACTUAL JOURNEY.
Ì To bring the position of the
Holy Prophet (ALLAHuma sali ala Muhammad wa ala ali Muhammad) to the level of ordinary
mortals, A-isha and Mu-awiyah had reported that the mi-raj; was only a vision. [In view of
what history and traditions say about the credibility of these two reporters, a
large number of Sunni authorities have rejected their point of view and have
accepted the fact that it was a physical ascension.]
§ Please refer to Aqa Puya's
essay "Genuineness of the Holy Qur’an" to know about what is written
about A-isha in Sahih Bukhari, and
as for Mu-awiyah there are no two
opinions about his hostility towards the Holy Prophet (ALLAHuma
sali ala Muhammad wa ala ali Muhammad) and his Ahlul Bayt, and for his deceit, cunning
and falsehood refer to At Tahrim 66:4 and Muhammad 47:22.
§ Those who doubt the great miracle of ** the
physical ascension of the Holy Prophet (ALLAHuma sali ala Muhammad wa ala ali
Muhammad) wrought by ALLAH (SWT) should also doubt as to
§ [1] how ALLAH (SWT) could create
the universe out of nothing, or
§ [2] how He could make virgin Maryam give birth to
Prophet Isa, or
§ [3] how could Isa preach the message of ALLAH (SWT)
from his cradle as a just born infant, or
§ [4] how could ALLAH (SWT) split the sea to save Musa; and
§ [5] how could the several other miracles mentioned in
the Qur’an take place if the doubters insist upon empirical justifications.
The physical journey of the Holy
Prophet (ALLAHuma sali ala Muhammad wa ala ali Muhammad) to the arsh in the highest
heaven known as mi-raj;
is an unheard of wonder of the world since its
beginnings and shall remain so to its end as the greatest miracle of the
Almighty Lord of the worlds.
[1] Among the celestial lights, [a] where he received from ALLAH (SWT) order for
the five daily prayers, [b] he saw his own name together with that of Ali inscribed in the kalimah.
"There is no ALLAH (SWT) save ALLAH (SWT),
Muhammad is His Prophet and Ali is His wali."
[2] In the heaven ALLAH (SWT)
showed him and Ali and said:
"O my Prophet Muhammad, I have given you
Ali to be your vicegerent and successor. Peace be on you from your Lord, and
His grace and His bounties."
[3] Then all the secrets of
creation and what happened in the world since its creation and what will take
place were disclosed to the Holy Prophet (ALLAHuma sali ala Muhammad
wa ala ali Muhammad). The Holy Prophet (ALLAHuma sali ala Muhammad wa ala ali
Muhammad) said:
"Peace from the Lord be on all the
righteous servants of ALLAH (SWT), and peace be on all of you (O angels), and
His grace and His bounties."
[4] When the Holy Prophet (ALLAHuma
sali ala Muhammad wa ala ali Muhammad) returned to Makka from his journey, before he
related his experience, Ali began to
give every detail of his journey, which proves that in every single step the Holy
Prophet (ALLAHuma sali ala Muhammad wa ala ali Muhammad) had taken during his
journey Ali was with him; and this
is the reason on account of which the Holy Prophet (ALLAHuma
sali ala Muhammad wa ala ali Muhammad) said: "I and Ali are of one and the same
light."
IN THE BYGONE DAYS ignorance might
have prevented people to believe in the physical ascension of the Holy Prophet
(ALLAHuma sali ala Muhammad wa ala ali Muhammad) as the most
beloved friend of ALLAH (SWT) -habiballah, and his having attained the
highest and the subtlest realisation of ALLAH (SWT)'s being, and seeing Ali face to face in the highest heaven, but there is no ground
for the people of this age to deny it in the midst of advancement of science
and technology, the step by step awareness of the laws, made by ALLAH
(SWT), governing the operation of the universe, with the help of which man is
exploring the so far unknown frontiers in the space.
Ä Also refer to the commentary
of An Najm
53:8 and 9 and books of history
for the event of mi-raj.
The
terms ascension and descension are used to explain the order of
creation and the movement of cognitive self through the various spheres of
finite beings to the absolute and from there coming down again through the
various spheres of abstract and spiritual beings, of more comprehensive nature,
to the lowest finite world.
THIS JOURNEY
IS INTELLECTUAL AS WELL AS VISUAL.
n THE INTELLECTUAL JOURNEY is experienced by all seekers of truth with the
help of spiritual faculties, not bound by the physical senses.
n THE VISUAL JOURNEY begins from the highest point of the intellectual achievement, using it
as a base, and proceeds upwards through the various spheres of the spiritual
beings to higher and still higher levels till it reaches the absolute, and
again comes down to its base.
There was no prophet who did not have this visual
experience of ascension and descension, and, as
said in al
Baqarah 2:253, each had it in
keeping with his potential, during sleep or wakefulness or in a state in
between them, once in a lifetime or often times as the Holy Prophet (ALLAHuma
sali ala Muhammad wa ala ali Muhammad) had done being the superior-most of them all.
Not
only the Holy Prophet (ALLAHuma sali ala Muhammad wa
ala ali Muhammad) but also his divinely commissioned successors (the Imams of the Ahlul
Bayt) who, in soul and body, were from him and the Holy Prophet (ALLAHuma Sali ala Muhammad wa ala ali Muhammad) from them, and all of them were of one and the same divine light and
origin, had the visual experience of ascension to the absolute many a time.
Ø The Qur’an in verse 55:33 of Ar-Rahman says that man can cross the bounds of the heavens and the earth if he
possesses the authority and has the power (knowledge of the laws enforced by ALLAH
(SWT)) to do so. Therefore the theories based on ignorance from the laws
made by ALLAH (SWT) should not be given any importance when they are put
forward to deny not only the physical ascension of the Holy Prophet (ALLAHuma
sali ala Muhammad wa ala ali Muhammad) but also all the miracles wrought by the prophets
of ALLAH (SWT) and His chosen representatives .
Besides
Ali ibne Abi Talib and the Imams of the Ahlul Bayt, a great number
of reliable companions and scholars such as Ibn Abbas, Ibn
Masud, Jabir bin Abdullah Ansari, Hudhayfah and Ummi Hani have
confirmed the disappearance of the Holy Prophet (ALLAHuma sali ala Muhammad wa ala ali Muhammad) from his bed in
the house of Ummi Hani. So far as the physical and the dimensional aspect of
the journey is concerned, it was undoubtedly physical. There is no logical,
reasonable and scientific argument to prove its impossibility. As the end of the ascension was the full realisation of
the absolute, while passing the boundaries of physical realm, under the
influence of divine light, his whole physical aspect was totally spiritualised
and transcended the properties of substance and corporeality. It was a total
transcendence of the Holy Prophet (ALLAHuma sali
ala Muhammad wa ala ali Muhammad) into a spiritual entity. DESCENSION means his
reappearance in his physical form. ONLY THOSE WHO KNOW AND BELIEVE THAT HE
WAS A LIGHT, THE FIRST CREATED BEING, AND THE LAST AND FINAL MESSENGER OF
ALLAH (SWT) CAN UNDERSTAND HIS ASCENSION TO THE FARTHEST STAGE WHERE ALLAH
(SWT)'S COGNITION IS ACHIEVED IN THE HIGHEST REALM OF CREATION, REFERRED TO IN
THIS VERSE AS THE MASJID AL AQSA, THE ENVIRONMENT OF
WHICH IS BLESSED BY HIS SIGNS SHOWN TO THE HOLY PROPHET (ALLAHUMA
SALI ALA MUHAMMAD WA ALA ALI MUHAMMAD).
Ø Many a
traditionists and commentators has dealt with his ascension at length in detail. A
few points discussed by the great scholar Tabrasi in his
commentary, Majma-ul Bayan, are stated as “The physical ascension in the state of wakefulness has to be accepted.
There is no doubt in it.”
SOME OF THE
DETAILS GIVEN BY THE TRADITIONISTS AND COMMENTATORS ABOUT WHAT THE HOLY PROPHET (ALLAHUMA SALI ALA MUHAMMAD WA ALA ALI MUHAMMAD) DID AND SAID DURING HIS ASCENSION JOURNEY ARE NOT
REASONABLE AND IN AGREEMENT WITH THE ARTICLES OF THE FAITH.
n There is no room for any proper interpretation except that [1] He visited the heavens, [2]
Met all the prophets, [3] Saw paradise
and hell, and [4] Fully comprehended the operation of the absolute omnipotent authority of
ALLAH (SWT),
n BUT all that which is narrated about **his
talking to ALLAH (SWT) **seeing Him and **sitting with Him on the arsh should be totally
rejected because it is out-and-out anthropomorphism which is far from the glory
and absoluteness of ALLAH (SWT).
n NEITHER was **his chest opened nor
washed, BECAUSE he was free from all evil (dirt), AND
IF there was any spiritual dirt, washing with water would have not served the
purpose.
n ALL THIS NONSENSE was evidently
borrowed from anthropomorphist theories of the pagan and Christian creeds by
the thoughtless narrators who thought that they should also attribute to their
prophet all that which the others had done to their religious leaders.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
(17:1) Glory
be to Him, Who transported His Servant one night from the Masjid-i-Haram to the
distant Temple, whose surroundings We have blessed, so that we might show him
some of Our Sings: *1 the
fact is that He alone is All-Hearing and All-Seeing.
*1 The event referred to in this
verse is known "Mi`raj"
and "Isra"'.
According to authentic traditions, this took place a year before Hijrah. In the
traditional and biographical literature, its details have been related by a
large number (25) of the Companions. Anas bin Malik, Malik bin Sa`asa`ah,
Abuzar Ghifari, and Abu Hurairah (Allah be pleased with them all) have related
details of the event. Besides them, `Umar, `Ali, `Abdullah bin Mas`ud..........
.(Allah be pleased with them) have also related some parts of this event.
In this verse, the Qur'an mentions only a part of the Journey, i.e., from Masjid-i-Haram to the Temple at Jerusalem. The object of this journey as stated here was that Allah willed to show His servant some of His signs. The Qur'an does not give any details other than this but we find further details in the traditions, which are to this effect:
One night the Angel Jibril transported the Holy Prophet on al-Buraq from Masjid-I-Haram to Masjid-i-Aqsa (the Temple). There the Holy Prophet offered his prayers along with the other Prophets. Then he took him towards the higher spheres, where he met some of the great Prophets in different spheres. At last he reached the Highest Place in the Heavens, and was received in audience by AIlah. It was there that besides other important instructions five daily Prayers were prescribed. Then he returned to the Temple and from there came back to Masjid-iHaram. During this Journey, according to many traditions, Paradise and Hell were shown to him. We also learn from authentic traditions that on the following day when he mentioned this event, the disbelievers of Makkah scoffed at him, and some of the Muslims also were sceptical about this.
In this verse, the Qur'an mentions only a part of the Journey, i.e., from Masjid-i-Haram to the Temple at Jerusalem. The object of this journey as stated here was that Allah willed to show His servant some of His signs. The Qur'an does not give any details other than this but we find further details in the traditions, which are to this effect:
One night the Angel Jibril transported the Holy Prophet on al-Buraq from Masjid-I-Haram to Masjid-i-Aqsa (the Temple). There the Holy Prophet offered his prayers along with the other Prophets. Then he took him towards the higher spheres, where he met some of the great Prophets in different spheres. At last he reached the Highest Place in the Heavens, and was received in audience by AIlah. It was there that besides other important instructions five daily Prayers were prescribed. Then he returned to the Temple and from there came back to Masjid-iHaram. During this Journey, according to many traditions, Paradise and Hell were shown to him. We also learn from authentic traditions that on the following day when he mentioned this event, the disbelievers of Makkah scoffed at him, and some of the Muslims also were sceptical about this.
The
above additional details based on the traditions cannot be said to be against
the Qur'an, for these are additions to the details given in the Qur'an;
therefore, the details related in the traditions cannot be rejected on the plea
that they are against the Qur'an. NEVERTHELESS, IF ONE REJECTS ANY PART OF
THOSE DETAILS WHICH ARE GIVEN IN THE TRADITIONS, ONE CANNOT BE DECLARED A
RENEGADE. ON THE OTHER HAND, IF ONE REJECTS THE DETAILS GIVEN IN THE QUR'AN,
ONE DOES BECOME A RENEGADE.
There are different versions of this Journey. Some say that this happened in a dream, while others are of the opinion that the Holy Prophet was fully awake and went on the Journey with his own physical body; some others say that it was merely a mystic vision which was shown to him. The opening words of this verse: "Glory be to Him, who transported His Servant. . . . .... "however, clearly show that it was a super-natural event which was brought about by the unlimited power of Allah. It is quite obvious that if the event had been merely a mystic vision, it would not have been introduced by the words which imply that the Being Who brought about this event is free from each and every kind of weakness and defect. Again the words "transported His servant one night" also show that this was not a dream or a vision but a physical journey in which Allah arranged that the Holy Prophet should make observation of His Signs with his physical eyes. Therefore, one is bound to admit that this was not a mere spiritual experience but a physical journey and visual observation which AIIah arranged for His Prophet.
It is strange that some people are of the opinion that this extraordinary journey could not be possible, but now when man with his limited-very limited power has been able to reach the moon, it is absurd to deny that Allah with His limitless powers could enable His Messenger to make this journey in the extraordinary short time it took.
Above all, the question whether a thing is possible or not, can arise only in the `case of human beings whose powers are after all limited, but such questions cannot be raised where the AlI-Powerful Allah is concerned. Only such a person who does not believe that Allah is able to do everything can raise objections against this wonderful Journey about which AIIah Himself says that He transported His Servant one night from Masjid-i-Haram to Masjid-i-Aqsa. Likewise all the objections raised against the various details which are given in the traditions are frivolous, except two, which are plausible:
First, if we accept these details, then we shall have to admit that AIIah is confined to a certain place: otherwise there was no need that His Servant should be transported for this purpose to a certain place. Secondly, according to traditions, the Holy Prophet was enabled to observe Paradise and Hell where he saw some people suffering from torment. The objection is: why should some people be awarded punishments or rewards before the Final Judgement after Resurrection?
As regards the first objection, it is true that Allah is Infinite by Himself, but in dealing with His creation, He employs those means which suit His imperfect creation not because of any limitation of His, but because of the limitations of His creation. For instance, when He speaks to any of His creature, He adopts the same limited mode of conversation as the addressee can understand, though He has limitless modes of speech. Likewise, when He desires to show some of the wonderful Signs of His Kingdom to a servant. He transports him to the place where the' Signs are to be shown. It is obvious that the servant cannot see at one and the same time the whole of the universe as Allah does, for AIlah has no need to go to any place at all for this purpose but the servant has. The same applies to the appearance of the servant before the Creator. Though AIIah is not confined to any locality, it is necessary for the servant to go to the place where His manifestations have been concentrated for his observation because it is not possible for the servant with his limited powers to go in His Presence in His Infinite Capacity.
As regards the second objection, it is based on the lack of understanding the thing: many of the Signs which were shown to the Holy Prophet were symbolical. For instance, a small hole from which a fat ox came out but could not go back into it, represented mischief personified. In the same way the adulterers were shown as if they had fresh meat before them but instead of that they were eating rotten flesh. Similarly punishments for evil deeds shown to him were only symbolic observations of the punishments in the Hereafter so that he might see in advance the things which would take place in the Hereafter.
In regard to the Mi`raj it should be kept in view that aII the Prophets were enabled by AIlah to see His Signs in the heavens and the earth according to their ranks. And for this purpose all the material curtains were lifted so that they could see with their naked eyes the unseen realities, to which they were required to invite the people.
This was done so that the Prophets could say with full conviction what they had seen with their own eyes. For this experience would distinguish there from a philosopher who bases all his theories on guess-work and cannot say that he bears witness to what he claims. In contrast to philosophers, Prophets could say that they bore witness to the things which they presented because they had seen them with their own eyes.
There are different versions of this Journey. Some say that this happened in a dream, while others are of the opinion that the Holy Prophet was fully awake and went on the Journey with his own physical body; some others say that it was merely a mystic vision which was shown to him. The opening words of this verse: "Glory be to Him, who transported His Servant. . . . .... "however, clearly show that it was a super-natural event which was brought about by the unlimited power of Allah. It is quite obvious that if the event had been merely a mystic vision, it would not have been introduced by the words which imply that the Being Who brought about this event is free from each and every kind of weakness and defect. Again the words "transported His servant one night" also show that this was not a dream or a vision but a physical journey in which Allah arranged that the Holy Prophet should make observation of His Signs with his physical eyes. Therefore, one is bound to admit that this was not a mere spiritual experience but a physical journey and visual observation which AIIah arranged for His Prophet.
It is strange that some people are of the opinion that this extraordinary journey could not be possible, but now when man with his limited-very limited power has been able to reach the moon, it is absurd to deny that Allah with His limitless powers could enable His Messenger to make this journey in the extraordinary short time it took.
Above all, the question whether a thing is possible or not, can arise only in the `case of human beings whose powers are after all limited, but such questions cannot be raised where the AlI-Powerful Allah is concerned. Only such a person who does not believe that Allah is able to do everything can raise objections against this wonderful Journey about which AIIah Himself says that He transported His Servant one night from Masjid-i-Haram to Masjid-i-Aqsa. Likewise all the objections raised against the various details which are given in the traditions are frivolous, except two, which are plausible:
First, if we accept these details, then we shall have to admit that AIIah is confined to a certain place: otherwise there was no need that His Servant should be transported for this purpose to a certain place. Secondly, according to traditions, the Holy Prophet was enabled to observe Paradise and Hell where he saw some people suffering from torment. The objection is: why should some people be awarded punishments or rewards before the Final Judgement after Resurrection?
As regards the first objection, it is true that Allah is Infinite by Himself, but in dealing with His creation, He employs those means which suit His imperfect creation not because of any limitation of His, but because of the limitations of His creation. For instance, when He speaks to any of His creature, He adopts the same limited mode of conversation as the addressee can understand, though He has limitless modes of speech. Likewise, when He desires to show some of the wonderful Signs of His Kingdom to a servant. He transports him to the place where the' Signs are to be shown. It is obvious that the servant cannot see at one and the same time the whole of the universe as Allah does, for AIlah has no need to go to any place at all for this purpose but the servant has. The same applies to the appearance of the servant before the Creator. Though AIIah is not confined to any locality, it is necessary for the servant to go to the place where His manifestations have been concentrated for his observation because it is not possible for the servant with his limited powers to go in His Presence in His Infinite Capacity.
As regards the second objection, it is based on the lack of understanding the thing: many of the Signs which were shown to the Holy Prophet were symbolical. For instance, a small hole from which a fat ox came out but could not go back into it, represented mischief personified. In the same way the adulterers were shown as if they had fresh meat before them but instead of that they were eating rotten flesh. Similarly punishments for evil deeds shown to him were only symbolic observations of the punishments in the Hereafter so that he might see in advance the things which would take place in the Hereafter.
In regard to the Mi`raj it should be kept in view that aII the Prophets were enabled by AIlah to see His Signs in the heavens and the earth according to their ranks. And for this purpose all the material curtains were lifted so that they could see with their naked eyes the unseen realities, to which they were required to invite the people.
This was done so that the Prophets could say with full conviction what they had seen with their own eyes. For this experience would distinguish there from a philosopher who bases all his theories on guess-work and cannot say that he bears witness to what he claims. In contrast to philosophers, Prophets could say that they bore witness to the things which they presented because they had seen them with their own eyes.
وَآتَيْنَا مُوسَى الْكِتَابَ وَجَعَلْنَاهُ هُدًى
لِبَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ أَلَّا تَتَّخِذُوا مِنْ دُونِي وَكِيلًا {17:2}
[Q17:2] Wa aatainaa Moosal-Kitaaba wa
ja'alnaahu hudal-liBaneee Israaa'eel; allaa tat-takhizoo min doonee wakeelaa.
[Q17:2] And We gave Musa the Book and made it a guidance to the children of Israel, saying: Do not take a protector besides Me;
[Q17:2] And We gave Musa the Book and made it a guidance to the children of Israel, saying: Do not take a protector besides Me;
[Q17:2] Dan Kami
telah memberikan Nabi Musa Kitab Taurat dan Kami jadikan Kitab itu petunjuk
bagi Bani Israil (serta Kami perintahkan mereka): Janganlah kamu jadikan yang
lain daripadaKu sebagai Tuhan (untuk menyerahkan urusan kamu kepadanya).
After
stating the Ascension, Qur’an makes a comparison with Moses,
the way he received the Book from ALLAH (SWT) on the mountain and the receiving
of the highest knowledge including all that was given to all the previous
Prophets at the highest level and both
events are miracles if one is possible the other is also possible, i.e., the power which brings the Book to the mountain can
take a person up into heaven.
IT WAS A
MIRACLE as the ascension of the Holy Prophet (ALLAHuma
sali ala Muhammad wa ala ali Muhammad) was a
miracle. The object of both
the miracles is to make known to the people that ALLAH (SWT) is all-in-all, and
He, as the omnipotent authority, controls all affairs.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
(17:2) Before
this We had given the Book to Moses and made it a means of guidance for the
Israelites *2 with
this Command: "Do not make .any other guardian than Myself. *3
*2 As this verse has no apparent
connection with the event of Mi'raj, it may appear to a cursory reader that
either of the two verses has been misplaced here. But if we try to understand
the matter in the context of the theme of the whole Surah, we can easily
understand the connection between the two. .The main object of this Surah is to
give a warning to the disbelievers of Makkah. That is why the mention of Mi`raj
has been made in the very first verse, as if to say, "The person whom you dub as an impostor and reject the Book sent
down to him, has just now seen with his naked eyes great Signs of Allah. So you
should learn a lesson from the history of the Israelites who discarded the Book
of Allah and therefore, were given painful punishment. "
*3 The Arabic word "vakil" (guardian) denotes a person who is trustworthy and can be depended upon in regard to one's affairs and may be turned to for guidance and help.
*3 The Arabic word "vakil" (guardian) denotes a person who is trustworthy and can be depended upon in regard to one's affairs and may be turned to for guidance and help.
ذُرِّيَّةَ مَنْ حَمَلْنَا مَعَ نُوحٍ ۚ إِنَّهُ
كَانَ عَبْدًا شَكُورًا {17:3}
[Q17:3] Zurriyyata man hamalnaa ma'a
Nooh innahoo kaana 'abdan shakooraa.
[Q17:3] The offspring of those whom We bore with Nuh; surely he was a grateful servant.
[Q17:3] The offspring of those whom We bore with Nuh; surely he was a grateful servant.
[Q17:3] (Wahai) keturunan orang-orang yang telah Kami bawa
bersama-sama dengan Nabi Nuh (di dalam bahtera)! Sesungguhnya dia adalah
seorang hamba yang bersyukur.
NUH WAS A GRATEFUL DEVOTEE OF ALLAH (SWT). Bani Israil
were the descendants of those faithful followers of Nuh who were saved in the ark with him
when the great flood came, BUT INSTEAD of celebrating
the praises of ALLAH (SWT) they relapsed into idolatry, sin, and abominations.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
(17:3) You are the descendants of those - whom We bore
in the Ark with Noah, *4 and he was truly a grateful servant".
*4 That
is, "You are the descendants of Noah and his companions;" therefore
,you should behave in a manner as behoves such people. You should make Allah
alone your Guardian, for your ancestors escaped death from the flood only
because they had made Allah their Guardian. "
وَقَضَيْنَا إِلَىٰ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ فِي
الْكِتَابِ لَتُفْسِدُنَّ فِي الْأَرْضِ مَرَّتَيْنِ وَلَتَعْلُنَّ عُلُوًّا
كَبِيرًا {17:4}
[Q17:4] Wa qadainaaa ilaa Baneee
Israaa'eela fil Kitaabi latufsidunna fil ardi marratain; wa lata'lunna'uluwwan
kabeeraa.
[Q17:4] And We had made known to the children of Israel in the Book: Most certainly you will make mischief in the land twice, and most certainly you will behave insolently with great insolence.
[Q17:4] And We had made known to the children of Israel in the Book: Most certainly you will make mischief in the land twice, and most certainly you will behave insolently with great insolence.
[Q17:4] Dan Kami menyatakan kepada Bani Israil dalam Kitab
itu: Sesungguhnya kamu akan melakukan kerosakan di bumi (Palestin) dua kali dan
sesungguhnya kamu akan berlaku sombong angkuh dengan melampau.
As said in verse 5:78 of
al Ma-idah prophet Dawud and prophet Isa had cursed the Jews because they used
to belie, persecute and even kill their prophets.
‘Twice’: i.e., Once slaying the Apostle Usha and disobeying the Apostle Ermia. And
Two slaying the Apostle Yahya (John) and plotting to kill Jesus.
µ
Jerusalem
was destroyed once by the Babylonians and again by the Romans.
For warning
from Jesus see Math. 23:38 and Luke 21:24 and the Pslams are also full of the warnings. Regarding the repeated destruction which
Jerusalem suffered--- see note on verse 1 of this Surah.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
(17:4) Besides this, We forewarned the Israelites in
the Scriptures: *5 You will work great mischief twice in the land
and will become over-bearingly arrogant. *6
*5 The
original Arabic word "Al-kitab"does not stand here for the Torah but
for alI the Divine Books.
*6 Such warnings have been given in different Books of the Bible. As regards their first mischief and its evil consequences, the Israelites were warned in the Psalms, lsaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the warnings about their second mischief and its severe punishments are found in Matthew and Luke. Below are given extracts to confirm this statement of the Qur'an.
Prophet David was the first to warn the Israelites in his Psalms of their first mischief:
"They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the Lord commanded them: But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works. And they served their idols which were a snare unto them. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils. And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters ....Therefore, was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance. And he gave them into the hand of the heathen;" Psalms: Chapter 106, vv. 34-38, 40; 41. The above events have been described in the past tense as if they had already actually happened. The Scriptures employ this mode of expression to emphasize the importance of the prophesies.
When this mischief actually carne to pass, Prophet lsaiah warned them of its ruinous consequences: "Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? Ye will revolt more and more: How is the faithful city become an harlot! It was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: everyone loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them. Therefore, saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, The mighty One of Israel. Ah I will case me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies: they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers. Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made: Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: Therefore, the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts. Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. And her gates shall lament and mourn: and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground. Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over alI his banks: That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord: Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon: Therefore, this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, . . . . And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a shred to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit." (lsaiah, Chapter 1:verses 4-5; 21-24,Chapter 2:verses 6,8; Chapter 3: verses 16-17, 25-26; Chapter 8: verse 7; Chapter 30: verses 9-10, 12-14.)
After this Prophet Jeremiah raised his voice when the flood of corruption swept away everything before it.
"Thus saith the Lord, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity and are become vain?
And I brought you into a plentiful country to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination. For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy hands: and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot. As the thief is ashamed when he is found. so is the house of Israel ashamed: they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets, Saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us. But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? Let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble; for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah. The Lord said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Has’t thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? She is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. And I saw, when for aII the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with sticks. Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgments that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it. How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses. They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour's wife. Shall I not visit for these things? Saith the Lord: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the Lord: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither, understand what they say. Their quiver is an open sepulchre, they arc all mighty men. And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should cat: they shall cat up thy flocks and thine herds; they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees: they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with the sword. And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away. Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of- the bridegroom and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.
And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith the Lord; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity. And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the Lord: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy." (Jeremiah, Chapter 2: verses 5-7, 20, 26-28; Chapter 3: verses 6-9; Chapter 5: verses 1,7-9 15-17; Chapter 7: verses 33, 34; Chapter 15: verses 2, 3.)
Then Prophet Ezekiel was raised to warn them in time. Addressing Jerusalem he said:
The city sheddeth blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and maketh idols against herself to defile herself. Behold, the princes of Israel, every one were in thee to their power to shed blood. In thee they have set light by father and mother: in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow. Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my Sabbaths. In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood: and in thee they eat upon the mountains: in the midst of thee they commit lewdness. In thee have they discovered their fathers' nakedness: in thee have they humbled her that was set apart for pollution. And one hath committed abomination with his neighbour's wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father's daughter. In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion and hast forgotten me, can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of thee. And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself in the sight of the heathen, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord." (Ezekiel, Chapter 22: verses 3, 6-12, 14-16.)
Besides the above mentioned warnings which were given to Israelites at the time of their first mischief, Prophet Jesus Christ warned them of the consequences of their second' great mischief. In a forceful address he criticized their morel degeneration like this:
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gatherth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. Verily I say unto you. There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down." (Matthew, Chapter 23: verses 37, 38; Chapter 24: verse 2.)
Then, when the Roman officials were taking Prophet Jesus out for crucifixion, and a great company of people including women were following him bewailing and lamenting, he addressed them and gave his final warnings:
But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For, behold, the days are coming, in which they shall say; Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the paps which never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains. Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. (Luke, Chapter 23: verses 2830.)
*6 Such warnings have been given in different Books of the Bible. As regards their first mischief and its evil consequences, the Israelites were warned in the Psalms, lsaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the warnings about their second mischief and its severe punishments are found in Matthew and Luke. Below are given extracts to confirm this statement of the Qur'an.
Prophet David was the first to warn the Israelites in his Psalms of their first mischief:
"They did not destroy the nations, concerning whom the Lord commanded them: But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works. And they served their idols which were a snare unto them. Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils. And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters ....Therefore, was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance. And he gave them into the hand of the heathen;" Psalms: Chapter 106, vv. 34-38, 40; 41. The above events have been described in the past tense as if they had already actually happened. The Scriptures employ this mode of expression to emphasize the importance of the prophesies.
When this mischief actually carne to pass, Prophet lsaiah warned them of its ruinous consequences: "Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? Ye will revolt more and more: How is the faithful city become an harlot! It was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: everyone loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them. Therefore, saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, The mighty One of Israel. Ah I will case me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies: they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers. Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made: Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: Therefore, the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts. Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. And her gates shall lament and mourn: and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground. Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over alI his banks: That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord: Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon: Therefore, this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, . . . . And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a shred to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit." (lsaiah, Chapter 1:verses 4-5; 21-24,Chapter 2:verses 6,8; Chapter 3: verses 16-17, 25-26; Chapter 8: verse 7; Chapter 30: verses 9-10, 12-14.)
After this Prophet Jeremiah raised his voice when the flood of corruption swept away everything before it.
"Thus saith the Lord, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity and are become vain?
And I brought you into a plentiful country to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination. For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy hands: and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot. As the thief is ashamed when he is found. so is the house of Israel ashamed: they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets, Saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us. But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? Let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble; for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah. The Lord said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Has’t thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? She is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. And I saw, when for aII the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with sticks. Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgments that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it. How shall I pardon thee for this? Thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses. They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour's wife. Shall I not visit for these things? Saith the Lord: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the Lord: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither, understand what they say. Their quiver is an open sepulchre, they arc all mighty men. And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should cat: they shall cat up thy flocks and thine herds; they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees: they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with the sword. And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away. Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of- the bridegroom and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.
And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith the Lord; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity. And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the Lord: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy." (Jeremiah, Chapter 2: verses 5-7, 20, 26-28; Chapter 3: verses 6-9; Chapter 5: verses 1,7-9 15-17; Chapter 7: verses 33, 34; Chapter 15: verses 2, 3.)
Then Prophet Ezekiel was raised to warn them in time. Addressing Jerusalem he said:
The city sheddeth blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and maketh idols against herself to defile herself. Behold, the princes of Israel, every one were in thee to their power to shed blood. In thee they have set light by father and mother: in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow. Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my Sabbaths. In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood: and in thee they eat upon the mountains: in the midst of thee they commit lewdness. In thee have they discovered their fathers' nakedness: in thee have they humbled her that was set apart for pollution. And one hath committed abomination with his neighbour's wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father's daughter. In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion and hast forgotten me, can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of thee. And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself in the sight of the heathen, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord." (Ezekiel, Chapter 22: verses 3, 6-12, 14-16.)
Besides the above mentioned warnings which were given to Israelites at the time of their first mischief, Prophet Jesus Christ warned them of the consequences of their second' great mischief. In a forceful address he criticized their morel degeneration like this:
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gatherth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. Verily I say unto you. There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down." (Matthew, Chapter 23: verses 37, 38; Chapter 24: verse 2.)
Then, when the Roman officials were taking Prophet Jesus out for crucifixion, and a great company of people including women were following him bewailing and lamenting, he addressed them and gave his final warnings:
But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For, behold, the days are coming, in which they shall say; Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the paps which never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains. Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. (Luke, Chapter 23: verses 2830.)
فَإِذَا جَاءَ وَعْدُ أُولَاهُمَا بَعَثْنَا
عَلَيْكُمْ عِبَادًا لَنَا أُولِي بَأْسٍ شَدِيدٍ فَجَاسُوا خِلَالَ الدِّيَارِ ۚ
وَكَانَ وَعْدًا مَفْعُولًا {17:5}
[Q17:5] Fa-izaa jaaa'a wa'duoolaahumaa
ba'asnaaa 'alykurr 'ibaadai-lanaaa ulee baasin shadeedin fajaasoo khilaalad
diyaar; wa kaana wa'dam maf'oolaa.
[Q17:5] So when the promise for the first of the two came, We sent over you Our servants, of mighty prowess, so they went to and fro among the houses, and it was a promise to be accomplished.
[Q17:5] So when the promise for the first of the two came, We sent over you Our servants, of mighty prowess, so they went to and fro among the houses, and it was a promise to be accomplished.
[Q17:5] Maka apabila sampai masa janji (membalas
kederhakaan kamu) kali yang pertama dari dua (kederhakaan) itu, Kami datangkan
kepada kamu hamba-hamba Kami yang kuat gagah dan amat ganas serangannya lalu
mereka menjelajah di segala ceruk rantau (membunuh dan membinasakan kamu) dan
(sebenarnya peristiwa itu) adalah satu janji yang tetap berlaku.
Please refer to Jeremiah 25:9 where
it is stated that the Lord said:
"I will send for my servant
Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon. I will exterminate them and make them a thing
of horror and derision, a scandal for ever."
In Jeremiah 52:4 to 27
the annihilation of the Jews along with their
king Zedekiah and his sons and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian
Nebuchadrezzar in 586 B.C. is mentioned in detail. The Babylonians penetrated
through their lands, their temple, and their homes, and carried away the Jews,
men and women, into captivity.
Jalut tortured the Israelites and
plundered their habitations and there he was defeated by Talut and was killed by David.
Some commentators say that the reference is to
the punishment which was inflicted through violent winds and dreadful
thunderous sound.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
(17:5) When the occasion of the first of the two
mischiefs came, O Israelites, We raised against you such of Our servants who
were very mighty and formidable; so they penetrated through all parts of your
country. This was a warning that was bound to be fulfilled. *7
*7 This
refers to the terrible destruction that the Israelites suffered at the hands of
the Assyrians and Babylonians. One cannot fully appreciate the historical
background of this merely from the extracts that have been reproduced above
from the Books of the Prophets. A brief history of the Israelites is also
needed so that a student may become acquainted with all the causes and
circumstances on account of which AIIah removed this nation, that professed to
believe in a revealed Book, from the leadership of mankind and turned it into a
humiliated, condemned and backward community.
When, after the death of Prophet Moses, the Israelites entered Palestine it was inhabited by the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzittes, Hivites, Jebusites, the Philistines, etc. These communities had adopted the worst kind of idolatry, their supreme deity being Ayl whom they regarded as the father of gods and who was usually represented by the bull-images. His consort was called Asherah from whom had descended a whole line of gods and goddesses, about 70 in number. The most powerful god among them was Baal who was regarded as the god of rain and growth and the lord of the earth and heavens. In the northern regions his consort was called Anathoth and in Palestine Ashtaroth. These two were the goddesses of love and procreation. Besides them, there was a god of death, a god of disease and famine, and a goddess of health, and thus all the worldly powers and agencies stood divided among a large number of deities. The people had ascribed such dirty and base qualities and acts to these deities that even a worst offender against morality would shun being known by them. Obviously the people who have adopted such mean deities for worship and devotion cannot remain secure from the worst kind of moral degeneration and the modern excavations have shown this conclusively.
Child sacrifice was a common thing among them. Their places of worship had turned into brothels, where women were kept as religious prostitutes and illicit relations with them were regarded as a part of worship and devotion. The Israelites had clearly been told in the instructions given in the Torah that they should destroy those communities and wrest the land of Palestine from them, and that they should avoid mixing up with those people and ward off their moral and ideological weaknesses:
But when the Israelites entered Palestine they set this guidance aside. They not only did not establish a united kingdom of their own but fell a prey to tribal parochialism. Each of their tribes was content to take a part of the captured land and become a separate and independent state. This disunity among them did not leave any of the tribes strong enough to purge its territory completely of the idolaters, and therefore they had to allow them to live side by side with them in the same land. Not only this, but there had remained in the conquered territories a cumber of small city states of these idolatrous communities which the Israelites had nor been able to subjugate. It is this very thing which has been complained against in the extract of the Psalms reproduced above in the beginning of E.N. 6.
The first consequence of intermixing with those communities, was that the Israelites also became idolatrous, and gradually began to adopt other moral evils also. This has been complained about in the Book of Judges as below: "And the children of Israel did evil, in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim: And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger. And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth". (Judges, 2: 11-13.)
The second consequence suffered by the Israelites was that the communities whose city-states they had left unconquered and the Philistines whose land they had not at all touched set up a united front against them and drove them out of a major part of Palestine by incessant attacks, so much so that they deprived them of the Holy Ark of their Lord. At last, the Israelites felt the need of Establishing a united kingdom of their own under one ruler, and on their request Prophet Samuel appointed Saul as their king in 1020 B.C. (For details see vv. 246-48 and E.N.'s. 268-270 of AI-Baqarah.)
This United kingdom was ruled by three kings: Saul (1020 B.C. to 1004. B.C.), Prophet David (1004 to 965 B.C.) and Prophet Solomon (365 to 926 B.C.). These kings brought to completion the mission that had been left incomplete by the Israelites after the death of Prophet Moses. They annexed all the territories except the Phoenician state on the northern and the Philistine state on the southern coast, which, of course, became tributaries.
After the death of Prophet Solomon the Israelites again adopted the ways of the world and fought among themselves and split into two independent kingdoms, the kingdom of Israel in the northern Palestine and Jordan with Samaria as its capital, and the kingdom of Judah in the southern Palestine and Edom with Jerusalem as its capital. These kingdoms were strife-ridden from the very beginning and this state of affairs persisted till the end.
The rulers and people of the kingdom of Israel were the first to be affected grievously by the ideological and moral weaknesses of the neighbouring communities. Specially after the marriage of its ruler, Ahab, with the idolatrous princess Jezebel of Zidon, idolatry and other evils began to spread unchecked among the Israelites under the official patronage. Prophets Elias and Elisha tried their very best to check this deluge but the Israelites who were rapidly degenerating, did not heed their warning. At last the wrath of AIIah overtook the kingdom of Israel in the shape of the Assyrians who started subjecting Palestine to incessant attacks from 900 B.C. downward. During this period, Prophet Amos (787-747 B.C.) and them Prophet Hosea(747-735 B.C.) rose and warned the Israelites again and again but the wretched, depraved people did not heed their warnings at all, and transgressed all limits. Prophet Amos was banished by the king of Israel from the realm of Samaria and warned not to preach his mission in the country Not very long after this the wrath of Allah burst upon the kingdom of Israel and its people. The Assyrian king Sargon took Samaria in 721 B.C.and put an end to this northern kingdom. Thousands of Israelites were put to the sword and 27 thousand of their leading men were driven out of their homeland and scattered in the eastern districts of the Assyrian empire and replaced by settlers from other parts of the empire. When the remaining Israelites intermixed with the settlers they also lost gradually their national and cultural identity.
The other kingdom of the Israelites, called the kingdom of Judah, which was set up in southern Palestine also began to adopt godless ways soon after the death of Prophet Solomon, though its moral degeneration took place at a slower pace than that of Israel. Therefore, it was allowed to exist for a longer period. Then, like the kingdom of Israel, it also began to be subjected to continual attacks, its cities ruined and its capital besieged, but this kingdom could not be wholly destroyed by the Assyrians; it only became a tributary. Afterwards, when inspite of the best reformatory efforts of Prophets lsaiah and Jeremiah the people of Judah did not give up idol-worship and other moral evils, king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked and captured the whole of Judah in 598 B.C.including Jerusalem and took the king of Judah as prisoner. Even then the Israelites did not mend their ways and paid no heed to the warnings and guidance of Prophet Jeremiah: Instead of reforming their ways, they started making plans to change their fate by revolting against Babylon. At last in 587 B.C.Nebuchadnezzar punished them heavily by invading Judah and destroyed all its important cities. He razed Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple to the ground and did not leave a wall of it standing in place. He drove a large part of the Israelite population out of their land and scattered them into the adjoining countries. The people who were left behind were cursed and subjected to all kinds of humiliations by the neighbouring communities.
This was the first calamity that came as a warning to the Israelites and the first chastisement that they suffered as a result therof.
When, after the death of Prophet Moses, the Israelites entered Palestine it was inhabited by the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzittes, Hivites, Jebusites, the Philistines, etc. These communities had adopted the worst kind of idolatry, their supreme deity being Ayl whom they regarded as the father of gods and who was usually represented by the bull-images. His consort was called Asherah from whom had descended a whole line of gods and goddesses, about 70 in number. The most powerful god among them was Baal who was regarded as the god of rain and growth and the lord of the earth and heavens. In the northern regions his consort was called Anathoth and in Palestine Ashtaroth. These two were the goddesses of love and procreation. Besides them, there was a god of death, a god of disease and famine, and a goddess of health, and thus all the worldly powers and agencies stood divided among a large number of deities. The people had ascribed such dirty and base qualities and acts to these deities that even a worst offender against morality would shun being known by them. Obviously the people who have adopted such mean deities for worship and devotion cannot remain secure from the worst kind of moral degeneration and the modern excavations have shown this conclusively.
Child sacrifice was a common thing among them. Their places of worship had turned into brothels, where women were kept as religious prostitutes and illicit relations with them were regarded as a part of worship and devotion. The Israelites had clearly been told in the instructions given in the Torah that they should destroy those communities and wrest the land of Palestine from them, and that they should avoid mixing up with those people and ward off their moral and ideological weaknesses:
But when the Israelites entered Palestine they set this guidance aside. They not only did not establish a united kingdom of their own but fell a prey to tribal parochialism. Each of their tribes was content to take a part of the captured land and become a separate and independent state. This disunity among them did not leave any of the tribes strong enough to purge its territory completely of the idolaters, and therefore they had to allow them to live side by side with them in the same land. Not only this, but there had remained in the conquered territories a cumber of small city states of these idolatrous communities which the Israelites had nor been able to subjugate. It is this very thing which has been complained against in the extract of the Psalms reproduced above in the beginning of E.N. 6.
The first consequence of intermixing with those communities, was that the Israelites also became idolatrous, and gradually began to adopt other moral evils also. This has been complained about in the Book of Judges as below: "And the children of Israel did evil, in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim: And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger. And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth". (Judges, 2: 11-13.)
The second consequence suffered by the Israelites was that the communities whose city-states they had left unconquered and the Philistines whose land they had not at all touched set up a united front against them and drove them out of a major part of Palestine by incessant attacks, so much so that they deprived them of the Holy Ark of their Lord. At last, the Israelites felt the need of Establishing a united kingdom of their own under one ruler, and on their request Prophet Samuel appointed Saul as their king in 1020 B.C. (For details see vv. 246-48 and E.N.'s. 268-270 of AI-Baqarah.)
This United kingdom was ruled by three kings: Saul (1020 B.C. to 1004. B.C.), Prophet David (1004 to 965 B.C.) and Prophet Solomon (365 to 926 B.C.). These kings brought to completion the mission that had been left incomplete by the Israelites after the death of Prophet Moses. They annexed all the territories except the Phoenician state on the northern and the Philistine state on the southern coast, which, of course, became tributaries.
After the death of Prophet Solomon the Israelites again adopted the ways of the world and fought among themselves and split into two independent kingdoms, the kingdom of Israel in the northern Palestine and Jordan with Samaria as its capital, and the kingdom of Judah in the southern Palestine and Edom with Jerusalem as its capital. These kingdoms were strife-ridden from the very beginning and this state of affairs persisted till the end.
The rulers and people of the kingdom of Israel were the first to be affected grievously by the ideological and moral weaknesses of the neighbouring communities. Specially after the marriage of its ruler, Ahab, with the idolatrous princess Jezebel of Zidon, idolatry and other evils began to spread unchecked among the Israelites under the official patronage. Prophets Elias and Elisha tried their very best to check this deluge but the Israelites who were rapidly degenerating, did not heed their warning. At last the wrath of AIIah overtook the kingdom of Israel in the shape of the Assyrians who started subjecting Palestine to incessant attacks from 900 B.C. downward. During this period, Prophet Amos (787-747 B.C.) and them Prophet Hosea(747-735 B.C.) rose and warned the Israelites again and again but the wretched, depraved people did not heed their warnings at all, and transgressed all limits. Prophet Amos was banished by the king of Israel from the realm of Samaria and warned not to preach his mission in the country Not very long after this the wrath of Allah burst upon the kingdom of Israel and its people. The Assyrian king Sargon took Samaria in 721 B.C.and put an end to this northern kingdom. Thousands of Israelites were put to the sword and 27 thousand of their leading men were driven out of their homeland and scattered in the eastern districts of the Assyrian empire and replaced by settlers from other parts of the empire. When the remaining Israelites intermixed with the settlers they also lost gradually their national and cultural identity.
The other kingdom of the Israelites, called the kingdom of Judah, which was set up in southern Palestine also began to adopt godless ways soon after the death of Prophet Solomon, though its moral degeneration took place at a slower pace than that of Israel. Therefore, it was allowed to exist for a longer period. Then, like the kingdom of Israel, it also began to be subjected to continual attacks, its cities ruined and its capital besieged, but this kingdom could not be wholly destroyed by the Assyrians; it only became a tributary. Afterwards, when inspite of the best reformatory efforts of Prophets lsaiah and Jeremiah the people of Judah did not give up idol-worship and other moral evils, king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked and captured the whole of Judah in 598 B.C.including Jerusalem and took the king of Judah as prisoner. Even then the Israelites did not mend their ways and paid no heed to the warnings and guidance of Prophet Jeremiah: Instead of reforming their ways, they started making plans to change their fate by revolting against Babylon. At last in 587 B.C.Nebuchadnezzar punished them heavily by invading Judah and destroyed all its important cities. He razed Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple to the ground and did not leave a wall of it standing in place. He drove a large part of the Israelite population out of their land and scattered them into the adjoining countries. The people who were left behind were cursed and subjected to all kinds of humiliations by the neighbouring communities.
This was the first calamity that came as a warning to the Israelites and the first chastisement that they suffered as a result therof.
ثُمَّ رَدَدْنَا لَكُمُ الْكَرَّةَ عَلَيْهِمْ
وَأَمْدَدْنَاكُمْ بِأَمْوَالٍ وَبَنِينَ وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ أَكْثَرَ نَفِيرًا {17:6}
[Q17:6] Summa radadnaa lakumul karrata
'alaihim wa amdad-naakum-bi amwaalinuw wa baneen; wa ja'alnaakum aksara nafeeraa.
[Q17:6] Then We gave you back the turn to prevail against them, and aided you with wealth and children and made you a numerous band.
[Q17:6] Then We gave you back the turn to prevail against them, and aided you with wealth and children and made you a numerous band.
[Q17:6] Kemudian (setelah kamu bertaubat), Kami kembalikan
kepada kamu kekuasaan untuk mengalahkan mereka dan Kami beri kepada kamu dengan
banyaknya harta kekayaan dan anak pinak, serta Kami jadikan kamu kaum yang
lebih ramai pasukannya.
The return of the Jews from the captivity was about 520 B.C. They started life afresh. They rebuilt their temple. They
carried out various reforms and developed a new Judaism under the guidance of
prophet Uzayr. Refer to Ezra 1:1, 2 and 9 to 11; Ezra 2:64 and 65.
The return of fortune
referred to is the return of the Israelites to Jerusalem and their building the
temple under Zurubbabel and their once again leading prosperous.
This is the second promise, i.e., The Roman onslaught and the
destruction of Jerusalem when the Jews could not establish any dominion of
their own anywhere until the recent Israelite republic--- to which verse 8 of this
Surah refer
to, with a warning that should they repeat the mischief, ALLAH (SWT) will
repeat the punishment after which there will be no more respite---
excepting conviction to Hell. THIS IS A PROPHECY.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
(17:6) Then after this We afforded you an opportunity
to over-power them and helped you with abundance of riches and children and
increased you far more in numbers than before. *8
*8 This
refers to the lease of time that the Israelites (That is the people of Judah)
got after their release from the captivity of Babylon. As for the people of
Israel and Samaria, they did not rise again after their moral and spiritual
degeneration. But among the people of Judah there still were some people who
practised the truth and invited others also to follow it. They carried on their
work of invitation to the truth among the remaining Israelites in Judah and
exhorted those also to repent and follow the truth who had been driven out into
Babylon and other lands. At last the mercy of AIIah came to their help. The
downfall of Babylon started. The Persian king, Cyrus, took Babylon in 539
B.C.and in the following year issued a decree allowing the Israelites to return
to and re-settle in their homeland. The Israelites began to return home in
caravan after caravan, and ties continued for along time. Cyrus also allowed
the Israelites to rebuild the Temple of Solomon but the neighbouring communities
who had settled in this land resisted it. At last Darfius I appointed
Zerubbabel, a grandson of the last king of Judah, governor of Judah in 522
B.C.who got the Temple rebuilt under the care of Prophet Haggai, Prophet
Zechariah and Joshua. In 458 B.C. Ezra arrived in Judah along with an exiled
group and the persian king Artaxerxes made the following decree.
"And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God that is in thine hand, set magistrates and judges, which may judge aII the people that are beyond the river, aII such as know the laws of thy God; and teach ye them that know them not.
And whosoever will not do the law of thy God and the law of the king let judgment be executed speedily upon him whether it be unto death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment. "(Ezra, 7:25-26).
Taking advantage of this decree, Ezra carried out the revival of the religion of Prophet Moses. He gathered together all the righteous and good people from the Israelites and set up a strong organisation. He compiled and spread the Pentateuch which contained the Torah, made arrangements for the religious education of the Israelites, enforced the law and started purging the people of moral and ideological weaknesses which the had adopted by intermixing with the other communities. He compelled they Jews to divorce the idolatrous wives they had married, and took a covenant from them that they would worship God alone and follow His Law only.
In 455 B.C.an exiled group came back to Judah under Nehemiah whom the Persian king appointed as the ruler of Jerusalem and ordered him to build the wall round the city. Thus, after 150 years the Holy city was fully restored and became the centre of Jewish religion and culture, But the Israelites of northern Palestine, and Samaria did not benefit by the work of revival done by Ezra.They built a rival sanctuary on Mount Gerizim, and tried to make it the religious centre for the people of the Book. This caused a further, and perhaps the final, split Between the Jews and the Samaritans.
The Jews suffered a set-back for a while with the fall of the Persian Empire and the conquests of Alexander the Great and the rise of the Greeks. After the death of Alexander, his kingdom was subdivided into three empires. Syria tell to the lot of the Seleucide empire, with Antioch as its capital, whose ruler Antiochus III incorporated Palestine into his dominions in 198 B.C. These Greek conquerors who were idolatrous by precept and freelance morally felt greatly ill at ease with the Jewish religion and culture. So, they began to propagate the rival Greek way of life and culture by political and economic pressure, and were able to win over a strong section of the Israelites who became their helpers. This external interference caused a split in the Jewish nation. One group among them readily adopted the Greek dress, the Greek language, the Greek way of life and the Greek sports, while the other persistently stuck to their own culture and way of life.
In 175 B.C. when Antiochus IV (who was called Epiphanes, that is, the manifestation of God) came to the throne, he used all his power and authority to stamp out the Jewish religion and culture. He got idols installed in the Holy Temple at Jerusalem and forced the Jews to prostrate themselves before them. He strictly forbade the rite of offering the sacrifices at the altar, and commanded the Jews to offer sacrifices to idolatrous deities instead. He proposed death penalty for those who would keep the Torah in their houses, or observe the Sabbath or perform circumcision of their children. But the Jews did not yield to this coercion, and started a powerful resistance movement, known in history as the revolt of the Maccabees. Though in this struggle the sympathies of the Greece-oriented Jews were with the Greeks, and they fully cooperated with the despots of Antioch to crush the Maccabean revolt, the common Jews who still retained the religious fervour of the days of Ezra sided with the Maccabees, who were ultimately able to drive out the Greeks and establish a free religious state which remained in power till 67 B.C This state prospered and in time extended to alI those territories which had once been under the control the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. It was able to annex a part of the land of the Philistines which had remained unconquered even in the days of Prophets David and Solomon (Peace be upon them).
This is the historical background of the verse of the Qur'an under commentary.
"And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God that is in thine hand, set magistrates and judges, which may judge aII the people that are beyond the river, aII such as know the laws of thy God; and teach ye them that know them not.
And whosoever will not do the law of thy God and the law of the king let judgment be executed speedily upon him whether it be unto death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment. "(Ezra, 7:25-26).
Taking advantage of this decree, Ezra carried out the revival of the religion of Prophet Moses. He gathered together all the righteous and good people from the Israelites and set up a strong organisation. He compiled and spread the Pentateuch which contained the Torah, made arrangements for the religious education of the Israelites, enforced the law and started purging the people of moral and ideological weaknesses which the had adopted by intermixing with the other communities. He compelled they Jews to divorce the idolatrous wives they had married, and took a covenant from them that they would worship God alone and follow His Law only.
In 455 B.C.an exiled group came back to Judah under Nehemiah whom the Persian king appointed as the ruler of Jerusalem and ordered him to build the wall round the city. Thus, after 150 years the Holy city was fully restored and became the centre of Jewish religion and culture, But the Israelites of northern Palestine, and Samaria did not benefit by the work of revival done by Ezra.They built a rival sanctuary on Mount Gerizim, and tried to make it the religious centre for the people of the Book. This caused a further, and perhaps the final, split Between the Jews and the Samaritans.
The Jews suffered a set-back for a while with the fall of the Persian Empire and the conquests of Alexander the Great and the rise of the Greeks. After the death of Alexander, his kingdom was subdivided into three empires. Syria tell to the lot of the Seleucide empire, with Antioch as its capital, whose ruler Antiochus III incorporated Palestine into his dominions in 198 B.C. These Greek conquerors who were idolatrous by precept and freelance morally felt greatly ill at ease with the Jewish religion and culture. So, they began to propagate the rival Greek way of life and culture by political and economic pressure, and were able to win over a strong section of the Israelites who became their helpers. This external interference caused a split in the Jewish nation. One group among them readily adopted the Greek dress, the Greek language, the Greek way of life and the Greek sports, while the other persistently stuck to their own culture and way of life.
In 175 B.C. when Antiochus IV (who was called Epiphanes, that is, the manifestation of God) came to the throne, he used all his power and authority to stamp out the Jewish religion and culture. He got idols installed in the Holy Temple at Jerusalem and forced the Jews to prostrate themselves before them. He strictly forbade the rite of offering the sacrifices at the altar, and commanded the Jews to offer sacrifices to idolatrous deities instead. He proposed death penalty for those who would keep the Torah in their houses, or observe the Sabbath or perform circumcision of their children. But the Jews did not yield to this coercion, and started a powerful resistance movement, known in history as the revolt of the Maccabees. Though in this struggle the sympathies of the Greece-oriented Jews were with the Greeks, and they fully cooperated with the despots of Antioch to crush the Maccabean revolt, the common Jews who still retained the religious fervour of the days of Ezra sided with the Maccabees, who were ultimately able to drive out the Greeks and establish a free religious state which remained in power till 67 B.C This state prospered and in time extended to alI those territories which had once been under the control the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. It was able to annex a part of the land of the Philistines which had remained unconquered even in the days of Prophets David and Solomon (Peace be upon them).
This is the historical background of the verse of the Qur'an under commentary.
إِنْ أَحْسَنْتُمْ أَحْسَنْتُمْ لِأَنْفُسِكُمْ ۖ
وَإِنْ أَسَأْتُمْ فَلَهَا ۚ فَإِذَا جَاءَ وَعْدُ الْآخِرَةِ لِيَسُوءُوا
وُجُوهَكُمْ وَلِيَدْخُلُوا الْمَسْجِدَ كَمَا دَخَلُوهُ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ
وَلِيُتَبِّرُوا مَا عَلَوْا تَتْبِيرًا {17:7}
[Q17:7] In ahsantum ahsantum li
anfusikum wa in asaatum falahaa; fa izaa jaaa'a wa'dul aakhirati liyasooo'oo
wujoo hakum wa liyadkhulul masjida kamaa dakhaloohu awwala marratinw wa
liyutabbiroo mass'alaw tatbeera.
[Q17:7] If you do good, you will do good for your own souls, and if you do evil, it shall be for them. So when the second promise came (We raised another people) that they may bring you to grief and that they may enter the mosque as they entered it the first time, and that they might destroy whatever they gained ascendancy over with utter destruction.
[Q17:7] If you do good, you will do good for your own souls, and if you do evil, it shall be for them. So when the second promise came (We raised another people) that they may bring you to grief and that they may enter the mosque as they entered it the first time, and that they might destroy whatever they gained ascendancy over with utter destruction.
[Q17:7] Jika kamu berbuat kebaikan, (maka faedah) kebaikan
yang kamu lakukan adalah untuk diri kamu dan jika kamu berbuat kejahatan, maka
(kesannya yang buruk) berbalik kepada diri kamu juga. Oleh itu, apabila sampai
masa janji (membalas perbuatan derhaka kamu) kali kedua, (Kami datangkan
musuh-musuh kamu) untuk memuramkan muka kamu (dengan penghinaan dan
keganasannya) dan untuk memasuki masjid (BaitulMaqdis) sebagaimana mereka telah
memasukinya pada kali yang pertama dan untuk menghancurkan apa sahaja yang
mereka telah kuasai, dengan sehancur-hancurnya.
The Jews again showed a stiff-necked resistance to ALLAH (SWT)'s message
in the time of prophet Isa; and the
inevitable doom followed in the complete and final destruction of the temple
under Titus in 70 A.D, when they rejected the message of Isa. See Matthew 23:37 to 39 and 24:1 and 2.
THE OPENING SENTENCE OF THIS VERSE LAYS DOWN THE CARDINAL PRINCIPLE OF
THE RELIGION OF ISLAM -MAN HAS FULL FREEDOM TO DO
WHAT HE CHOOSES TO DO, SHOULDERING FULL RESPONSIBILITY OF HIS ACTIONS. IF HE DOES GOOD, HE DOES IT FOR HIMSELF; AND IF HE DOES
EVIL, HE DOES IT FOR HIMSELF. THERE
IS NO COMPULSION OR DETERMINISM -it is
strictly followed by the followers of the School of Ahlul Bayt. Also see al Baqarah 2:48, 123, 254; An-am 6:165; Bani Israil 17:15;
Ankabut 29:12 and 13; Fatir 35:18; Zumar 39:7; Ha Mim 41:46; Jathiya 45:15 ;
and Najm 53:38.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
(17:7) Beholdl If you did good it proved to be good
for yourselves and if you committed evil it proved to be bad for your own
selves. Then, when the time came for the fulfilment of the second warning, We
set other enemies on you so that they might disfigure your faces and enter into
the Temple just as the former enemies had entered and destroyed whatever they
could lay their hands on *9 . . . . . .
*9 The
historical background of the second degeneration and its chastisement is as
follows:
The moral and religious fervour with which the Maccabees had started their movement gradually cooled down and was replaced by love of the world and empty external form. A split appeared among them and they themselves invited the Roman General, Pompey, to come to Palestine. Pompey turned his attention to this land in 63 B.C. and, taking Jerusalem, put an end to the political freedom of the Jews. But the Roman conquerors preferred to rule their dominions through the agency of the local chiefs rather than by direct control. Therefore, a local government was set up in Palestine which eventually passed into the hand of Herod, a clever Jew, in 40 B.C. This ruler is well known as Herod the Great. He ruled over the whole of Palestine and Jordan from 40 to 4 B.C. On the one hand Herod patronised the religious leaders to please the Jews, and on the other, he propagated the Roman culture and won the goodwill of Caesar by showing his loyalty and faithfulness to the Roman Empire. During, his reign, the Jews degenerated and fell to the lowest ebb of moral and religious life.
On the death of Herod his kingdom was subdivided into three parts.His son, Archelaus, became the ruler of Samaria, Judaea and northern Edom. In A.D. 6. However, Caesar Augustus deprived him of his authority and put the state under his Roman governor, and this arrangement continued up till A.D. 41. This was precisely the time when Prophet Jesus (Peace be upon him) appeared to reform the Israelites whose religious leaders opposed him tooth and nail and even tried to get him the death sentence by the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.
The second son of Herod, Herod Antipas, became the ruler of Galilee and Jordan in northern Palestine, and he was the person who got Prophet John (Peace be upon him) beheaded at the request and desire of a dancing girl.
Herod's third son, Philip, succeeded to the territories bounded on one side by river Yermuk and on the other by Mount Hermon. Philip had been much more deeply influenced by the Roman and Greek cultures than his father and brothers. Therefore the preaching of the truth could not have even so much effect in his land as it had in the other parts of Palestine.
In A.D. 41, the Romans appointed Herod Agrippa, the grandson of Herod the Great, ruler of the territories that had once been under Herod himself. Coming into power this man did whatever he could to persecute the followers of Prophet Jesus (Peace be upon him) and used aII the forces at his disposal to crush the movement that was functioning under the guidance of the Disciples to inculcate fear of God in the people and reform their morals.
In order to have a correct estimate of the condition of the common Jews and their religious leaders, one should study the criticisms levelled by Prophet Jesus on them in his sermons contained in the four Gospels. Even a religious man like Prophet John was beheaded before their eyes and not a voice was raised in protest against this barbarity. Then aII the religious leaders of the community unanimously demanded death sentence for Prophet Jesus, and none but a few righteous men were there to mourn this depravity. Above aII, when Pontius Pilate asked these depraved people, ' which condemned prisoner he should release, according to the custom, at Passover, Jesus or Barabbas the robber', they aII cried with one voice 'Barabbas'. This was indeed the last chance Allah gave to the Jews, and then their fate was sealed.
Not long after this, a serious conflict started between the Jews and the Romans, which developed into an open revolt by the former between A.D. 64 and G6. Both Herod Agrippa II and the Roman procurator Floris failed to put down the rebellion. At last, the Romans crushed it by a strong military action and in A.D. 70 Titus took Jerusalem by force. About 133,000 people were put to the sword, 67 thousand made slaves, and thousands sent to work in the Egyptian trines and to other cities so that they could be used in amphitheatres for being torn by wild beasts or become the "practice-target" for the sword fighters. AlI the tall and beautiful girls were picked out for the army of conquest and the Holy City of Jerusalem and the Temple were pulled down to the ground. After this the Jewish influence so disappeared from Palestine that the Jews could not regain power for two thousand years, and the Holy Temple could never be rebuilt. Afterwards the Roman Emperor, Hadrian, restored Jerusalem but renamed it Aelia. The Jews, however, were not allowed to enter it for centuries. This was the calamity that the Jews suffered on account of their degeneration for the second time.
The moral and religious fervour with which the Maccabees had started their movement gradually cooled down and was replaced by love of the world and empty external form. A split appeared among them and they themselves invited the Roman General, Pompey, to come to Palestine. Pompey turned his attention to this land in 63 B.C. and, taking Jerusalem, put an end to the political freedom of the Jews. But the Roman conquerors preferred to rule their dominions through the agency of the local chiefs rather than by direct control. Therefore, a local government was set up in Palestine which eventually passed into the hand of Herod, a clever Jew, in 40 B.C. This ruler is well known as Herod the Great. He ruled over the whole of Palestine and Jordan from 40 to 4 B.C. On the one hand Herod patronised the religious leaders to please the Jews, and on the other, he propagated the Roman culture and won the goodwill of Caesar by showing his loyalty and faithfulness to the Roman Empire. During, his reign, the Jews degenerated and fell to the lowest ebb of moral and religious life.
On the death of Herod his kingdom was subdivided into three parts.His son, Archelaus, became the ruler of Samaria, Judaea and northern Edom. In A.D. 6. However, Caesar Augustus deprived him of his authority and put the state under his Roman governor, and this arrangement continued up till A.D. 41. This was precisely the time when Prophet Jesus (Peace be upon him) appeared to reform the Israelites whose religious leaders opposed him tooth and nail and even tried to get him the death sentence by the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.
The second son of Herod, Herod Antipas, became the ruler of Galilee and Jordan in northern Palestine, and he was the person who got Prophet John (Peace be upon him) beheaded at the request and desire of a dancing girl.
Herod's third son, Philip, succeeded to the territories bounded on one side by river Yermuk and on the other by Mount Hermon. Philip had been much more deeply influenced by the Roman and Greek cultures than his father and brothers. Therefore the preaching of the truth could not have even so much effect in his land as it had in the other parts of Palestine.
In A.D. 41, the Romans appointed Herod Agrippa, the grandson of Herod the Great, ruler of the territories that had once been under Herod himself. Coming into power this man did whatever he could to persecute the followers of Prophet Jesus (Peace be upon him) and used aII the forces at his disposal to crush the movement that was functioning under the guidance of the Disciples to inculcate fear of God in the people and reform their morals.
In order to have a correct estimate of the condition of the common Jews and their religious leaders, one should study the criticisms levelled by Prophet Jesus on them in his sermons contained in the four Gospels. Even a religious man like Prophet John was beheaded before their eyes and not a voice was raised in protest against this barbarity. Then aII the religious leaders of the community unanimously demanded death sentence for Prophet Jesus, and none but a few righteous men were there to mourn this depravity. Above aII, when Pontius Pilate asked these depraved people, ' which condemned prisoner he should release, according to the custom, at Passover, Jesus or Barabbas the robber', they aII cried with one voice 'Barabbas'. This was indeed the last chance Allah gave to the Jews, and then their fate was sealed.
Not long after this, a serious conflict started between the Jews and the Romans, which developed into an open revolt by the former between A.D. 64 and G6. Both Herod Agrippa II and the Roman procurator Floris failed to put down the rebellion. At last, the Romans crushed it by a strong military action and in A.D. 70 Titus took Jerusalem by force. About 133,000 people were put to the sword, 67 thousand made slaves, and thousands sent to work in the Egyptian trines and to other cities so that they could be used in amphitheatres for being torn by wild beasts or become the "practice-target" for the sword fighters. AlI the tall and beautiful girls were picked out for the army of conquest and the Holy City of Jerusalem and the Temple were pulled down to the ground. After this the Jewish influence so disappeared from Palestine that the Jews could not regain power for two thousand years, and the Holy Temple could never be rebuilt. Afterwards the Roman Emperor, Hadrian, restored Jerusalem but renamed it Aelia. The Jews, however, were not allowed to enter it for centuries. This was the calamity that the Jews suffered on account of their degeneration for the second time.
عَسَىٰ رَبُّكُمْ أَنْ يَرْحَمَكُمْ ۚ وَإِنْ
عُدْتُمْ عُدْنَا ۘ وَجَعَلْنَا جَهَنَّمَ لِلْكَافِرِينَ حَصِيرًا {17:8}
[Q17:8] 'Asaa rabbukum anyyarhamakum; wa
in 'uttum 'udnaa; wa ja'alnaa jahannama lilkaafireena haseera.
[Q17:8] It may be that your Lord will have mercy on you, and if you again return (to disobedience) We too will return (to punishment), and We have made hell a prison for the unbelievers.
[Q17:8] It may be that your Lord will have mercy on you, and if you again return (to disobedience) We too will return (to punishment), and We have made hell a prison for the unbelievers.
[Q17:8] Mudah-mudahan
Tuhan kamu akan mengasihani kamu (kalau kamu bertaubat) dan jika kamu kembali
(menderhaka), maka Kami pula akan kembali (menyeksa kamu di dunia); dan kami
telah jadikan Neraka: Penjara bagi orang-orang kafir (pada hari akhirat).
The misery of the Jews
lasted from the destruction of Jerusalem
by Titus to the establishment of
their state in 1948. If they again make mischief in the world, there will be no
respite for them. IT IS A PROPHECY.
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(17:8) Now again your Lord may show compassion on you;
but if you again repeat your former behaviour; We will again visit you with.
Our punishment, for We have prepared Hell to serve as a prison-house for the
ungrateful people. *10
*10 Though this
admonition has been given as a parenthesis at the end of the address to the
children of Israel, it does not mean that this and the address itself are
solely meant for them. As a chatter of fact, the whole address is really
directed towards the disbelievers of Makkah but, instead of addressing them
directly, some important historical events from the history of the children of
Israel have been cited in order to serve as admonition for them.
إِنَّ هَٰذَا الْقُرْآنَ يَهْدِي لِلَّتِي هِيَ
أَقْوَمُ وَيُبَشِّرُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ الَّذِينَ يَعْمَلُونَ الصَّالِحَاتِ أَنَّ
لَهُمْ أَجْرًا كَبِيرًا {17:9}
[Q17:9] Inna haazal Quraana yahdee
lillatee hiya aqwamu wa yubashshirul mu'mineenal lazeena ya'maloonas saalihaati
anna lahum ajran kabeeraa;
[Q17:9] Surely this Qur’an guides to that which is most upright and gives good news to the believers who do good that they shall have a great reward.
[Q17:9] Surely this Qur’an guides to that which is most upright and gives good news to the believers who do good that they shall have a great reward.
[Q17:9] Sesungguhnya
Al-Quran ini memberi petunjuk ke jalan yang amat betul (agama Islam) dan
memberikan berita yang menggembirakan orang-orang yang beriman yang mengerjakan
amal-amal soleh, bahawa mereka beroleh pahala yang besar.
First the ascension of the Holy Prophet (ALLAHuma sali ala Muhammad wa ala ali
Muhammad) to
the highest stage of the finite state, beyond which is nothing save absolute
infinity, was stated, and then the partial book given to Musa was mentioned, and in this verse THE QUR’AN IS
INTRODUCED TO MAN AS THE UNIVERSAL BOOK OF GUIDANCE, BECAUSE IT WAS REVEALED TO A PROPHET WHO REACHED THE HIGHEST
PERFECTION OF qaba qawsayni aw
adna (Najm 53:9).
Compared to all other books, sent down on other
prophets whose ascension was upto lower stages, the Qur’an is the most comprehensive book of
guidance and as perfect as the height to which the Lord of the worlds allowed
His most beloved friend, the Holy Prophet (ALLAHuma sali ala Muhammad wa ala
ali Muhammad), to ascend.
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(17:9) Indeed
the Qur'an shows that way which is perfectly straight: To those who believe in
it and do good deeds, it gives the good news that there is a great reward for
them
وَأَنَّ الَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْآخِرَةِ
أَعْتَدْنَا لَهُمْ عَذَابًا أَلِيمًا {17:10}
[Q17:10] Wa annal lazeena laa yu'minoona
bil aakhirati a'tadnaa lahum 'azaaban aleemaa.
[Q17:10] And that (as for) those who do not believe in the hereafter, We have prepared for them a painful chastisement.
[Q17:10] And that (as for) those who do not believe in the hereafter, We have prepared for them a painful chastisement.
[Q17:10] Dan bahawa orang-orang yang tidak beriman kepada
hari akhirat, Kami sediakan bagi mereka azab seksa yang tidak terperi
sakitnya.
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(17:10) and
to those who do not believe in the Hereafter, it gives the warning that a
painful torment has been made ready for them. *11
*11 This
means to warn those persons or people or nations who do not take a lesson from
the admonitions of the Qur'an to be ready to undergo that chastisement which
Israelites had to suffer.
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