17Al-Isrā’الإسراءVerse 1 of 111
The Night Journey
Immaculate is He who carried His servant on a journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque whose environs We have blessed, that We might show him some of Our signs. Indeed, He is the All-hearing, the All-seeing.
— Ali Quli Qarai
We gave Moses the Book, and made it a guide for the Children of Israel—[saying,] ‘Do not take any trustee besides Me’—
— Ali Quli Qarai
descendants of those whom We carried [in the ark] with Noah. Indeed, he was a grateful servant.
— Ali Quli Qarai
We revealed to the Children of Israel in the Book: ‘Twice you will cause corruption on the earth, and you will perpetrate great tyranny.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
So when the first occasion of the two [prophecies] came, We aroused against you Our servants possessing great might, and they ransacked [your] habitations, and the promise was bound to be fulfilled.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Then We gave you back the turn [to prevail] over them, and We aided you with children and wealth, and made you greater in number,
— Ali Quli Qarai
[saying,] ‘If you do good, you will do good to your [own] souls, and if you do evil, it will be [evil] for them.’ So when the occasion for the other [prophecy] comes, they will make your faces wretched, and enter the Temple just as they entered it the first time, and destroy utterly whatever they come upon.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Maybe your Lord will have mercy on you, but if you revert, We [too] will revert, and We have made hell a prison for the faithless.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Indeed this Quran guides to what is most upright, and gives the good news to the faithful who do righteous deeds that there is a great reward for them.
— Ali Quli Qarai
As for those who do not believe in the Hereafter, We have prepared a painful punishment for them.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Man prays for ill as [avidly as] he prays for good, and man is overhasty.
— Ali Quli Qarai
We made the night and the day two signs. Then We faded out the sign of the night, and made the sign of the day lightsome, so that you may seek from your Lord’s bounty and that you may know the number of years and calculation [of time], and We have elaborated everything in detail.
— Ali Quli Qarai
We have attached every person’s omen to his neck, and We shall bring it out for him on the Day of Resurrection as a book that he will find wide open.
— Ali Quli Qarai
‘Read your book! Today your soul suffices as your own reckoner.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Whoever is guided is guided only for [the good of] his own soul, and whoever goes astray, goes astray only to its detriment. No bearer shall bear another’s burden. We do not punish [any community] until We have sent [it] an apostle.
— Ali Quli Qarai
And when We desire to destroy a town We command its affluent ones [to obey Allah]. But they commit transgression in it, and so the word becomes due against it, and We destroy it utterly.
— Ali Quli Qarai
How many generations We have destroyed since Noah! Your Lord is sufficient as [a witness who is] well aware and percipient of His servants’ sins.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Whoever desires this transitory life, We expedite for him therein whatever We wish, for whomever We desire. Then We appoint hell for him, to enter it, blameful and spurned.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Whoever desires the Hereafter and strives for it with an endeavour worthy of it, should he be faithful,—the endeavour of such will be well-appreciated.
— Ali Quli Qarai
To these and to those—to all We extend the bounty of your Lord, and the bounty of your Lord is not confined.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Observe how We have given some of them an advantage over some others; yet the Hereafter is surely greater in respect of ranks and greater in respect of relative merit.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Do not set up another god besides Allah, or you will sit blameworthy, forsaken.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Your Lord has decreed that you shall not worship anyone except Him, and [He has enjoined] kindness to parents. Should any of them or both reach old age at your side, do not say to them, ‘Fie!’ And do not chide them, but speak to them noble words.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Lower the wing of humility to them, mercifully, and say, ‘My Lord! Have mercy on them, just as they reared me when I was [a] small [child]!’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Your Lord knows best what is in your hearts. Should you be righteous, He is indeed most forgiving toward penitents.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Give the relatives their [due] right, and the needy and the traveller [as well], but do not squander wastefully.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Indeed the wasteful are brothers of satans, and Satan is ungrateful to his Lord.
— Ali Quli Qarai
And if you have to hold off from [assisting] them [for now], seeking your Lord’s mercy which you expect [in the future], speak to them gentle words.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Do not keep your hand chained to your neck, nor open it altogether, or you will sit blameworthy and regretful.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Indeed your Lord expands the provision for whomever He wishes, and tightens it. Indeed, He is well aware of His servants and a keen observer.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Do not kill your children for the fear of penury: We will provide for them and for you. Killing them is indeed a great iniquity.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Do not approach fornication. It is indeed an indecency and an evil way.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Do not kill a soul [whose life] Allah has made inviolable, except with due cause, and whoever is killed wrongfully, We have certainly given his heir an authority. But let him not commit any excess in killing [the murderer], for he has been assisted [by law].
— Ali Quli Qarai
Do not approach the orphan’s property except in the best manner, until he comes of age. Fulfill the covenants; indeed all covenants are accountable.
— Ali Quli Qarai
When you measure, observe fully the measure, [and] weigh with an even balance. That is better and more favourable with respect to the outcome [in the Hereafter].
— Ali Quli Qarai
Do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge. Indeed hearing, eyesight, and the heart—all of these are accountable.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Do not walk exultantly on the earth. Indeed, you will neither pierce the earth, nor reach the mountains in height.
— Ali Quli Qarai
The evil of all these is detestable to your Lord.
— Ali Quli Qarai
These are among [precepts] that your Lord has revealed to you of wisdom. Do not set up another god besides Allah, or you will be cast into hell, being blameworthy and banished [from His mercy].
— Ali Quli Qarai
Did your Lord prefer you for sons, and [Himself] adopt females from among the angels? Indeed, you say a monstrous word!
— Ali Quli Qarai
Certainly We have variously paraphrased [the principles of guidance] in this Quran so that they may take admonition, but it increases them only in aversion.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Say, ‘Were there [other] gods besides Him, as they say, they would surely have encroached on the Lord of the Throne.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Immaculate is He, and greatly exalted above what they say!’
— Ali Quli Qarai
The seven heavens glorify Him, and the earth [too], and whoever is in them. There is not a thing but celebrates His praise, but you do not understand their glorification. Indeed, He is all-forbearing, all-forgiving.
— Ali Quli Qarai
When you recite the Quran, We draw a hidden curtain between you and those who do not believe in the Hereafter,
— Ali Quli Qarai
and We cast veils on their hearts, lest they should understand it, and a deafness into their ears. When you mention your Lord alone in the Quran, they turn their backs in aversion.
— Ali Quli Qarai
We know best what they listen for, when they listen to you, and when they hold their secret talks, when the wrongdoers say, ‘[If you follow him] You will be following just a bewitched man.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Look, how they coin epithets for you; so they go astray, and cannot find a way.
— Ali Quli Qarai
They say, ‘What, when we have become bones and dust, shall we really be raised in a new creation?’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Say, ‘[That is bound to happen] even if you should become stones, or iron,
— Ali Quli Qarai
or a creature more fantastic to your minds!’ They will say, ‘Who will bring us back?’ Say, ‘He who originated you the first time.’ They will nod their heads at you, and say, ‘When will that be?’ Say, ‘Maybe it is near!
— Ali Quli Qarai
The day He calls you, you will respond to Him, praising Him, and you will think you remained [in the world] only for a little while.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Tell My servants to speak in a manner which is the best. Indeed Satan incites ill feeling between them, and Satan is indeed man’s manifest enemy.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Your Lord knows you best. He will have mercy on you if He wishes, or punish you, if He wishes, and We did not send you to watch over them.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Your Lord knows best whoever is in the heavens and the earth. Certainly, We gave some prophets an advantage over the others, and We gave David the Psalms.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Say, ‘Invoke those whom you claim [to be gods] besides Him. They have no power to remove your distress, nor to bring about any change [in your state].
— Ali Quli Qarai
They [themselves] are the ones who supplicate, seeking a recourse to their Lord, whoever is nearer [to Him], expecting His mercy and fearing His punishment.’ Indeed your Lord’s punishment is a thing to beware of.
— Ali Quli Qarai
There is not a town but We will destroy it before the Day of Resurrection, or punish it with a severe punishment. That has been written in the Book.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Nothing keeps Us from sending signs except that the former peoples denied them. We gave Thamud the she-camel as an eye-opener, but they wronged her. We do not send the signs except as warning.
— Ali Quli Qarai
When We said to you, ‘Indeed your Lord encircles those people,’ We did not appoint the vision that We showed you except as a tribulation for the people and the tree cursed in the Quran. We warn them, but it only increases them in their outrageous rebellion.
— Ali Quli Qarai
When We said to the angels, ‘Prostrate before Adam,’ they [all] prostrated, but not Iblis: he said, ‘Shall I prostrate before someone whom You have created from clay?’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Said he, ‘Do You see this one whom You have honoured above me? If You respite me until the Day of Resurrection, I will surely lay my yoke on his progeny, [all] except a few.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Said He, ‘Begone! Whoever of them follows you, indeed the hell shall be your requital, an ample reward.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Instigate whomever of them you can with your voice; and rally against them your cavalry and your infantry, and share with them in wealth and children, and make promises to them!’ But Satan promises them nothing but delusion.
— Ali Quli Qarai
‘As for My servants, you shall have no authority over them.’ And your Lord suffices as trustee.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Your Lord is He who drives for you the ships in the sea that you may seek of His bounty. Indeed, He is most merciful to you.
— Ali Quli Qarai
When distress befalls you at sea, those whom you invoke besides Him are forsaken. But when He delivers you to land, you are disregardful [of Him]. Man is very ungrateful.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Do you feel secure that He will not make the coastland swallow you, or He will not unleash upon you a rain of stones? Then you will not find any defender for yourselves.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Do you feel secure that He will not send you back into it another time and unleash against you a shattering gale and drown you because of your unfaith? Then you will not find for yourselves any redresser against Us.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Certainly We have honoured the Children of Adam, and carried them over land and sea, and provided them with all the good things, and preferred them with a complete preference over many of those We have created.
— Ali Quli Qarai
The day We shall summon every group of people along with their imam, then whoever is given his book in his right hand—they will read it, and they will not be wronged so much as a single date-thread.
— Ali Quli Qarai
But whoever has been blind in this [world], will be blind in the Hereafter, and [even] more astray from the [right] way.
— Ali Quli Qarai
They were about to beguile you from what Allah has revealed to you so that you may fabricate something other than that against Us, whereat they would have befriended you.
— Ali Quli Qarai
And had We not fortified you, certainly you might have inclined toward them a bit.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Then We would have surely made you taste a double [punishment] in this life and a double [punishment] after death, and then you would have not found for yourself any helper against Us.
— Ali Quli Qarai
They were about to hound you out of the land, to expel you from it, but then they would not have stayed after you but a little.
— Ali Quli Qarai
A precedent concerning those We have sent before you from among Our apostles, and you will not find any change in Our precedent.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Maintain the prayer [during the period] from the sun’s decline till the darkness of the night, and [observe particularly] the dawn recital. Indeed the dawn recital is attended [by angels].
— Ali Quli Qarai
And keep vigil for a part of the night, as a supererogatory [devotion] for you. It may be that your Lord will raise you to a praiseworthy station.
— Ali Quli Qarai
And say, ‘My Lord! ‘Admit me with a worthy entrance, and bring me out with a worthy departure, and render me a favourable authority from Yourself.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
And say, ‘The truth has come, and falsehood has vanished. Indeed falsehood is bound to vanish.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
We send down in the Quran that which is a cure and mercy for the faithful; and it increases the wrongdoers only in loss.
— Ali Quli Qarai
When We bless man, he is disregardful and turns aside; but when an ill befalls him, he is despondent.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Say, ‘Everyone acts according to his character. Your Lord knows best who is better guided with regard to the way.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
They question you concerning the Spirit. Say, ‘The Spirit is of the command of my Lord, and you have not been given of the knowledge except a few [of you].’
— Ali Quli Qarai
If We wish, We would take away what We have revealed to you. Then you would not find for yourself any defender against Us,
— Ali Quli Qarai
except a mercy from your Lord. Indeed His grace has been great upon you.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Say, ‘Should all humans and jinn rally to bring the like of this Quran, they will not bring its like, even if they assisted one another.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
We have certainly interspersed this Quran with every [kind of] parable for the people, but most people are only intent on ingratitude.
— Ali Quli Qarai
They say, ‘We will not believe you until you make a spring gush forth for us from the ground.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Or until you have a garden of date palms and vines and you make streams gush through it.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Or until you cause the sky to fall in fragments upon us, just as you have averred. Or until you bring Allah and the angels [right] in front of us.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Or until you have a house of gold, or you ascend into the sky. And we will not believe your ascension until you bring down for us a book that we may read.’ Say, ‘Immaculate is my Lord! Am I anything but a human apostle?!’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Nothing has kept these people from believing when guidance came to them, but their saying, ‘Has Allah sent a human as an apostle?!’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Say, ‘Had there been angels in the earth, walking around and residing [in it like humans do], We would have sent down to them an angel from the heaven as apostle.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Say, ‘Allah suffices as witness between me and you. Indeed He is well aware His servants and a keen observer.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Whomever Allah guides is rightly guided, and whomever He leads astray—you will never for find them any guardians besides Him. On the Day of Resurrection, We shall muster them [scrambling] on their faces, blind, dumb, and deaf. Their refuge shall be hell. Whenever it subsides, We shall intensify the blaze for them.
— Ali Quli Qarai
That is their requital because they defied Our signs and said, ‘What, when we have become bones and dust, shall we really be raised in a new creation?’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Do they not see that Allah, who created the heavens and the earth, is able to create the like of them? He has appointed for them a term, in which there is no doubt; yet the wrongdoers are only intent on ingratitude.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Say, ‘Even if you possessed the treasuries of my Lord’s mercy, you would withhold them for the fear of being spent, and man is very niggardly.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Certainly We gave Moses nine manifest signs. So ask the Children of Israel. When he came to them, Pharaoh said to him, ‘O Moses, indeed I think you are bewitched.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
He said, ‘You certainly know that no one has sent these [signs] except the Lord of the heavens and the earth, as eye-openers, and I, O Pharaoh, indeed think you are doomed.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
He desired to exterminate them from the land, so We drowned him and all those who were with him.
— Ali Quli Qarai
After him We said to the Children of Israel, ‘Take up residence in the land, and when the occasion of the other [promise] comes, We shall gather you in mixed company.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
With the truth did We send it down, and with the truth did it descend, and We did not send you except as a bearer of good news and as a warner.
— Ali Quli Qarai
We have sent the Quran in [discrete] parts so that you may recite it for the people a little at a time, and We have sent it down piecemeal.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Say, ‘Whether you believe in it, or do not believe in it, indeed when it is recited to those who were given knowledge before it, they fall down in prostration on their faces,
— Ali Quli Qarai
and say, ‘‘Immaculate is our Lord! Indeed Our Lord’s promise is bound to be fulfilled.’’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Weeping, they fall down on their faces, and it increases them in humility.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Say, ‘Invoke ‘‘Allah’’ or invoke ‘‘the All-beneficent.’’ Whichever [of His Names] you may invoke, to Him belong the Best Names.’ Be neither loud in your prayer, nor murmur it, but follow a middle course between these,
— Ali Quli Qarai
and say, ‘All praise belongs to Allah, who has neither taken any son, nor has He any partner in sovereignty, nor has He any wali out of weakness,’ and magnify Him with a magnification [worthy of Him].
— Ali Quli Qarai
