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Sūrah 17 · Āyāt 6177

The verses

  1. 61

    وَإِذْ قُلْنَا لِلْمَلَائِكَةِ اسْجُدُوا لِآدَمَ فَسَجَدُوا إِلَّا إِبْلِيسَ قَالَ أَأَسْجُدُ لِمَنْ خَلَقْتَ طِينًا

    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?’

  2. 62

    قَالَ أَرَأَيْتَكَ هَـٰذَا الَّذِي كَرَّمْتَ عَلَيَّ لَئِنْ أَخَّرْتَنِ إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ لَأَحْتَنِكَنَّ ذُرِّيَّتَهُ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا

    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.’

  3. 63

    قَالَ اذْهَبْ فَمَن تَبِعَكَ مِنْهُمْ فَإِنَّ جَهَنَّمَ جَزَاؤُكُمْ جَزَاءً مَّوْفُورًا

    Said He, ‘Begone! Whoever of them follows you, indeed the hell shall be your requital, an ample reward.

  4. 64

    وَاسْتَفْزِزْ مَنِ اسْتَطَعْتَ مِنْهُم بِصَوْتِكَ وَأَجْلِبْ عَلَيْهِم بِخَيْلِكَ وَرَجِلِكَ وَشَارِكْهُمْ فِي الْأَمْوَالِ وَالْأَوْلَادِ وَعِدْهُمْ ۚ وَمَا يَعِدُهُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ إِلَّا غُرُورًا

    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.

  5. 65

    إِنَّ عِبَادِي لَيْسَ لَكَ عَلَيْهِمْ سُلْطَانٌ ۚ وَكَفَىٰ بِرَبِّكَ وَكِيلًا

    ‘As for My servants, you shall have no authority over them.’ And your Lord suffices as trustee.

  6. 66

    رَّبُّكُمُ الَّذِي يُزْجِي لَكُمُ الْفُلْكَ فِي الْبَحْرِ لِتَبْتَغُوا مِن فَضْلِهِ ۚ إِنَّهُ كَانَ بِكُمْ رَحِيمًا

    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.

  7. 67

    وَإِذَا مَسَّكُمُ الضُّرُّ فِي الْبَحْرِ ضَلَّ مَن تَدْعُونَ إِلَّا إِيَّاهُ ۖ فَلَمَّا نَجَّاكُمْ إِلَى الْبَرِّ أَعْرَضْتُمْ ۚ وَكَانَ الْإِنسَانُ كَفُورًا

    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.

  8. 68

    أَفَأَمِنتُمْ أَن يَخْسِفَ بِكُمْ جَانِبَ الْبَرِّ أَوْ يُرْسِلَ عَلَيْكُمْ حَاصِبًا ثُمَّ لَا تَجِدُوا لَكُمْ وَكِيلًا

    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.

  9. 69

    أَمْ أَمِنتُمْ أَن يُعِيدَكُمْ فِيهِ تَارَةً أُخْرَىٰ فَيُرْسِلَ عَلَيْكُمْ قَاصِفًا مِّنَ الرِّيحِ فَيُغْرِقَكُم بِمَا كَفَرْتُمْ ۙ ثُمَّ لَا تَجِدُوا لَكُمْ عَلَيْنَا بِهِ تَبِيعًا

    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.

  10. 70

    وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِي آدَمَ وَحَمَلْنَاهُمْ فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ وَرَزَقْنَاهُم مِّنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ وَفَضَّلْنَاهُمْ عَلَىٰ كَثِيرٍ مِّمَّنْ خَلَقْنَا تَفْضِيلًا

    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.

  11. 71

    يَوْمَ نَدْعُو كُلَّ أُنَاسٍ بِإِمَامِهِمْ ۖ فَمَنْ أُوتِيَ كِتَابَهُ بِيَمِينِهِ فَأُولَـٰئِكَ يَقْرَءُونَ كِتَابَهُمْ وَلَا يُظْلَمُونَ فَتِيلًا

    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.

  12. 72

    وَمَن كَانَ فِي هَـٰذِهِ أَعْمَىٰ فَهُوَ فِي الْآخِرَةِ أَعْمَىٰ وَأَضَلُّ سَبِيلًا

    But whoever has been blind in this [world], will be blind in the Hereafter, and [even] more astray from the [right] way.

  13. 73

    وَإِن كَادُوا لَيَفْتِنُونَكَ عَنِ الَّذِي أَوْحَيْنَا إِلَيْكَ لِتَفْتَرِيَ عَلَيْنَا غَيْرَهُ ۖ وَإِذًا لَّاتَّخَذُوكَ خَلِيلًا

    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.

  14. 74

    وَلَوْلَا أَن ثَبَّتْنَاكَ لَقَدْ كِدتَّ تَرْكَنُ إِلَيْهِمْ شَيْئًا قَلِيلًا

    And had We not fortified you, certainly you might have inclined toward them a bit.

  15. 75

    إِذًا لَّأَذَقْنَاكَ ضِعْفَ الْحَيَاةِ وَضِعْفَ الْمَمَاتِ ثُمَّ لَا تَجِدُ لَكَ عَلَيْنَا نَصِيرًا

    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.

  16. 76

    وَإِن كَادُوا لَيَسْتَفِزُّونَكَ مِنَ الْأَرْضِ لِيُخْرِجُوكَ مِنْهَا ۖ وَإِذًا لَّا يَلْبَثُونَ خِلَافَكَ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا

    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.

  17. 77

    سُنَّةَ مَن قَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا قَبْلَكَ مِن رُّسُلِنَا ۖ وَلَا تَجِدُ لِسُنَّتِنَا تَحْوِيلًا

    A precedent concerning those We have sent before you from among Our apostles, and you will not find any change in Our precedent.

English translation: Ali Quli Qarai

✦ Synthesisopus-4.8every claim cited to a source below

Synthesis: Sūrat al-Isrāʾ 61–77

Triangulating five present sources: Ṭabarsī, Majmaʿ al-Bayān [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan]; ʿAlī b. Ibrāhīm al-Qummī [qummi]; al-Ṭūsī, al-Tibyān [tusi_al_tibyan]; al-Baḥrānī, al-Burhān [bahrani_al_burhan]; al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan]; plus the published Enlightening Commentary [enlightening_commentary].

Human-review flags: al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan] is flagged. Its units are coarse (covering 56–65, 66–72, 73–81); its long disputation on the relative excellence of man and the angels, and its extended critique of the views on "imām," were faithfully condensed. The Arabic in original_ar is the exact text worked from; no content was added.

What the passage says. Iblīs refuses to prostrate to Adam, scorns one "created of clay," and vows to bridle Adam's progeny "save a few" (61–65); God's mercy drives ships at sea, met by ingratitude on land (66–69); the Children of Adam are honoured (70); on the Day, every people is summoned "with their imām" (71); the blind here are blind hereafter (72); an attempt to tempt the Prophet from the revelation is foiled by God's firming (73–75); and a plot to expel him closes with the unchanging "precedent" (sunna) toward earlier messengers (76–77).

Iblīs (61–65). The exegetical sources read Iblīs's refusal as proof he grasped Adam's preferment. Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and Ṭūsī [tusi_al_tibyan] supply the lexicon: iḥtanaka = bridle/uproot (locusts devouring a crop; a rope under the jaw), with early glosses (Ibn ʿAbbās "master," al-Jubbāʾī "uproot by leading-astray"); Ṭūsī [tusi_al_tibyan] notes the Imāmī position that the exception of Iblīs from the angels is disjoined. On "share with them in wealth and children," Qummī [qummi], al-Burhān [bahrani_al_burhan], and al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan] cluster Imām-narrations that unlawful wealth and unions admit a "partnership of Satan"; al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan] reads these as concrete instances of one principle — co-sharing in benefit — and as illustrative figures, not literal procreation. The Enlightening Commentary [enlightening_commentary] adds the social register (illicit income, corrupting offspring, enmity to the Ahl al-Bayt). On 65, al-Burhān [bahrani_al_burhan] uniquely attaches the Ghadīr-Khumm narration in which Iblīs cries out at ʿAlī's designation, reporting that "My servants… you have no authority over them" was revealed concerning ʿAlī.

Sea, land, honouring (66–70). The sources agree the sea-passage is a tawḥīd proof: only God answers in extremity. Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and Ṭūsī [tusi_al_tibyan] distinguish ḥāṣib (destructive wind on land, flinging gravel) from qāṣif (the ship-smashing gale at sea) — echoed by the Enlightening Commentary [enlightening_commentary]. On the honouring (70), a shared cluster (eating with the hand, erect stature) appears across Ṭabarsī, Ṭūsī, al-Burhān, and al-Mīzān; Imāmī narrations in Qummī [qummi] and al-Burhān [bahrani_al_burhan] add that the "wholesome provision" is knowledge and that God honours only believers' spirits. Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan], Ṭūsī [tusi_al_tibyan], and al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan] rebut the Muʿtazilī inference (from "over many") that angels outrank prophets; al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan] argues the verse concerns kawnī existence, leaving angels outside its scope.

The imām verse (71). This is the center of gravity for the Shīʿī sources, rendered here as-attributed. Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] lists five views (prophet, Book, followed leaders, record of deeds, "mothers") and crowns them with the al-Riḍā ḥadīth — transmitted by "the Special and the General" via sound chains — that each people is summoned "with the imām of their age, the Book of their Lord, and the Sunna of their Prophet." Al-Burhān [bahrani_al_burhan] amasses some twenty-six narrations: the Prophet/ʿAlī/al-Ḥasan/al-Ḥusayn each coming with their people, "whoever dies without an imām dies a death of jāhiliyya," the imām as the very "book" given in the right hand, and Ibn ʿAbbās contrasting the imāms of guidance with those of iniquity (Yazīd named). Al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan] argues philologically that "imām" must mean the followed exemplar — of truth or falsehood — and that "summoning" means being brought present with him, since the verse's branching into saved and blind depends on whom one followed. On 72, Qummī [qummi] and al-Burhān [bahrani_al_burhan] preserve the famous ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn report (the deferred Ḥajj; the Throne) and a "Return" (rajʿa) reading.

Tempting and expulsion (73–77). Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and Ṭūsī [tusi_al_tibyan] gather the Sunnī occasions (touching the idols; the Thaqīf delegation), affirming the Prophet's infallibility ("an intimidation for his community"). Qummī [qummi] and al-Burhān [bahrani_al_burhan] give the distinctively Imāmī reading that the "tempting" concerned the matter of ʿAlī. Al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan] insists the verses negate even the approach of inclining, and (with al-Burhān [bahrani_al_burhan]) cites al-Riḍā's "I mean you but hear, O neighbour" principle. On 76–77, all agree the threatened "little" tarrying was fulfilled at Badr, and that the unchanging sunna is the destruction of those who expel their prophet.

Sources present: tabarsi_majma_al_bayan, qummi, tusi_al_tibyan, bahrani_al_burhan, tabatabai_al_mizan, enlightening_commentary; silent: none.

The tafsīr (6 sources)