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Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verse 1One year before the migration (hijrah) of the Prophet Muhammad to Madinah, the conditions at Makkah were extremely adverse.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 2–3The implication of the above-mentioned event was that the Children of Israel, the Jews, were deposed from the position of the ‘bearers of the Scriptures’ in favour of the Children of Ishmael (Banu Isma‘il).Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 4–6The ‘corruption’, or fasad, referred to here occurred among the Children of Israel after the advent of Moses.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 7–8Various calamities inclined the Children of Israel to turn back to God once again.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 9–10The Quran calls upon all human beings to accept the Oneness of God, or tawhid, that is, belief in the one God and surrender to His will.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 11–12The Quran calls upon all human beings to accept the Oneness of God, or tawhid, that is, belief in the one God and surrender to His will.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 13–15In ancient times superstitious people tried to predict their fate by observing the flight of birds or the revolution of stars, or through different charms.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 16–17The conduct of the leading group of a community is the chief indicator of the level of honesty or corruption of the community’s members.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 18–19In the present world as man travels towards his ultimate destination, he finds himself standing before a fork in the road.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 20–21Be it in this world or in the Hereafter, success results from availing of the opportunities provided by God.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 22–25For the human being God is everything.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 26–28A man has a right to spend on himself whatever he earns by his own hard work.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 29–30Islam favours moderation in all matters.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 31–32It was the Lord who created all living creatures and it was He who made provision for their sustenance.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verse 33The killing of anybody without the sanction of the Islamic law is totally prohibited (haram).Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 34–35Whenever an orphan’s property is entrusted to the next of kin—the orphan being under age or not having reached maturity—it is incumbent upon the relatives to keep the orphan’s wealth intact and, as soon as he is able to understand matters of profit and loss, to hand over to him his entire wealth.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 36–38Qatada, one of the early commentators of the Quran, said, ‘Don’t say, “I have seen” when you have not seen, don’t say, “I have heard” when you have not heard, and don’t say “I know” when you do not know.’Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verse 39The injunctions given in the above verses come under the heading of ‘wisdom’ (hikmah).Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 40–44The truth is so complete and perfect in itself that, if any untruth is placed next to it, the truth immediately stands out as such.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 45–46When the Quran is recited to people, they fail to understand the message due to their deep conditioning.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 47–48The call of the Prophet Muhammad was supported by such strong arguments that the common people of Arabia were awed by it.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 49–52Man’s first existence clearly proves the possibility of his second existence, or re- creation, on the Day of Judgement.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verse 53This verse alludes to the delicate relationship between the preacher and his addressees.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 54–55When a preacher calls for the truth and his hearers pay no attention to him, then certainly the preacher becomes exasperated, especially when the truth is as clear as daylight.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 56–57The entities given the status of objects of worship by man are themselves creations of God, for instance, pious people or the angels.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verse 58Just as the law of annihilation (fana) applies to all individuals, similarly it applies to nations and civilizations.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verse 59The extraordinary incidents which took place in the lifetime of the prophets were of two kinds.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verse 60People often demanded some miracle of their own choice— a miracle, which they wanted in order to judge the veracity of the preacher, whereas if they had kept an open mind, they would have realized that they had already been given that miracle in the form of the special divine succour to the preacher.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 61–62The story of the angels and Satan shows the difference between the believers and the unbelievers.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 63–65In the face of his threat to thoroughly mislead ‘all but a few’ of Adam’s descendants, Satan has not been given any real power over man by God.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 66–67God has imposed certain laws upon our world.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 68–69Despite man’s insolence, God does not seize upon him immediately.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verse 70Of all the creatures in the world, man has been given special superiority.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 71–72In this world all human groups have their leaders.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 73–75The actual point of the divine task undertaken by the Prophet Muhammad in Makkah was that God is only one and anything else worshipped by people in the form of idols is false; although the Makkans acknowledged a greater God, they believed in other gods as well.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 76–77Whenever a preacher of truth, who represents a religion free of human interpolation, calls upon the people to the true religion, he has to face the obstructive attitude of those already in possession of hallowed religious seats.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verse 78The literal translation of this verse is, ‘keep up prayer from the declining of the sun till the darkness of the night.’Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verse 79Tahajjud, literally means keeping a vigil at night.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 80–81The Quraysh leaders wanted to denigrate the Prophet Muhammad by heaping all kinds of blame and abuses upon him, but God’s plan was to grant him an exalted status.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verse 82The Quran is a declaration of pure truth.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 83–84When man is granted ease and affluence, he demonstrates great self-confidence, becoming stubborn and unwilling to accept any new proposition, as if he were made of iron that cannot be bent.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verse 85‘The Spirit’ here means divine revelation.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 86–88The Quran used to be revealed to the Prophet Muhammad at particular times.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 89–93When the Prophet Muhammad called to the Truth, his contemporaries said that they would believe in him only if he could perform miracles for them.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 94–96Anyone studying such verses, will find the stubbornness of those who denied such a ‘great’ Prophet as Muhammad very strange.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 97–98In this world man leads his life according to his material status.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verse 99The earth and the sky exist before us as an undeniable reality.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verse 100Man is narrow-minded.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 101–104When clear signs were shown to the Pharaoh, he said that this was magic.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 105–106The Quran is a declaration of pristine truth.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 107–109Divine words require humility from man, for God does not come Himself to the present world to convey His message to man.Chapter 17, The Night Journey (Al-Isra’) · verses 110–111Those who have not found the truth at a deeper level always find themselves embroiled in petty, superficial things.