TAFSIR SURAH BANI ISRA'IL  

By Allamah Rasheed Turabi

Translated by

Syed Hyder Mehdi
Ramadan 1391 (Oct-Nov 1971)



(17:1) Glory be to Him Who did take His servant for a Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the farthest Mosque, whose precincts We did bless, - in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: Indeed He is the All-hearing, the All-seeing.

All thanks to Allah swt that by Divine Grace all of us have readied ourselves for that sincere worship, ibadah, in which the earlier people had also participated and this ibadah was also made obligatory on earlier Nations too. This ibadah is such a test where the sincerity can easily be set apart from pretence.  And because the Holy Qur’an was revealed during this month, it is commanded that along with fasting, recitation of Qur’an also be attended to as far as possible. Obviously, the Muslim Nation, ummah, is engaged in recitation of Qur’an and it is also an ibdah; we also consider ourselves included in this worship like in previous years, but with a little difference of a minor change. That is, where the majority recites the Verses cursorily, we want to proceed there slowly, dwelling on the content, understanding it according to our capacity and potentiality; this is the method with us because He (God) who has revealed it is boundless and what has been sent down also has no limits. Therefore, where the boundaries cannot be fixed, the passage of time also does not place any boundary and it is far from the fact if we think that now, in the current year, we would understand it. On the contrary, the Qur’an is such a miracle for which the human intellect with all its persistent endeavours is given time until the Resurrection to understand it, if possible, and during this interval if you ever think you are up to the task, try to say something similar. That challenge was not meant only for the time when the revelation of Qur’an started; on the other hand for every eloquent and intelligent Arab, everyone who speaks and understand their language and for masters of accidence and syntax, it is a permanent challenge (2:23), to come up with a work comparable to a single Chapter of the Book. So that it can be said that man has really understood Qur’an and now he is presenting something similar to it. Hence I said that Qur’an has no boundaries and limitless is Its Sender.  As it could not be encompassed, fresh exegeses are being produced and in every period and every era the thinkers have tried to master the Qur’an, but even after a bit of effort they recognize their helplessness and humility and realize that it is not possible to do justice to the task. 

The Chapter, surah, selected for this year is the Chapter of Bani Isra’il or surah Isra, and it is the need of the time that this Chapter is discussed gainfully. It is a strange coincidence that this Chapter starts with that Verse of ample guidance, which our thinkers have discussed according to the individual ambition and taste, some writing 50-60 pages about it. However, since the matter is related to Ascension, mi‘raj, evidently justice could not be done and today also the discussion has not progressed much from where it was started. But we propose this sentence as the last part of the introduction and find it necessary to present a short premise about the disposition of Qur’an. That is, when you are reciting Qur’an, please always keep in mind that you should ponder deeply into the meanings and connotations of the starting (word or phrase) of a Chapter. Because, It is the Speech of the Necessary Being and perhaps, perhaps, that single word may be the key to disclose the secrets of the entire Chapter. For instance, last year we had expounded the Chapter Tawbah (or Bara’at), and the first Verse started with --- bara’at is a declaration of repudiation or denial of a treaty, or immunity or freedom from obligation --- and if you understand the first word bara’at you would recognize the direction in which the Chapter is pointing. An example from poetry may be given from eulogies; here, the poet uses a certain word in the first line/couplet itself, which gives away the purpose and expectations of the poet by the time the eulogy ends; or that word shows what is the motive of the poet. In exactly the same way is the first word  : subhana, of the Chapter Isra. If this  subhana is understood, then surely you would not only understand the Verse of Ascension but you would grasp the entire sequence of the Chapter of Bani Isra’il, which starts with tasbih, glorification and ends with tahmeed, praise to the Lord. The Surah starts withGlory be to Him and ends withPraise be to Allah!  Due to this feature there is a continuity in this Chapter resembling a miracle; although Noah (a.s.) is described in here, Moses (a.s.) is mentioned; the Israelites are described and in this Surah there are some of the most thought provoking Verses; that is, those Verses that have stimulated the thinkers to employ their gifts of contemplation to the utmost. In spite of all these aspects, it appears there is a permanent flow; there is a lasting coherence and continuity that is present in this Surah.

For the present we are talking about one word and if our discussion on this word is over by today’s discourse I would be satisfied; otherwise we cannot help it. You are invited to ponder on it and then give me the chance to present its exegesis some more.
Subhan, as the root, the lexicographers say means, “I do tasbih, I glorify or sanctify Allah”. But the thinkers and the translators said it is indeed masdar, (a verbal root) but in the sense of clearness or cleanness, i.e., free from every defect and where there is no possibility of any deficiency. Please be a little more attentive because the word is a difficult one.  Subhan is a station of tanzih andmeans incomparability; that means, think of anything in relation to Allah, and He is not that; He is neither this nor that! The Holy Qur’an says,(23:91), Glory be to Allah, He is free of what they allege; He transcends that, which you say even in His glorification. Or as in (17:43), Glory be to Him! He is Exalted and Great above what they say! Whatever you may brag, He transcends that. (2:116), And they say: Allah has taken to himself a son. Glory be to Him (He is free from such family connections); look at the usage of subhan in Qur’an! (36:83),  Therefore glory be to Him in Whose hand is the dominion of all things: and to Him will you be all brought back…Free of all constraints is He in whose hands is the connection and the hold of entire Universe; His is the authoritative control over the Universe. He is subhan, Immaculate. Again in Surah Yaseen we read, (36:36),
Glory be to Him who has created all the kinds (or all the pairs) of what the earth grows, and of themselves, and what they do not know. Immaculate is He who has created pairs of every kind, and of humans such that there were three parts in their creation. One part is  that which the earth grows; the second part is  and that which is their own nafs, their psyche or soul and the third part,  and one part that they do not know! You may be surprised that even the human psyche or soul cannot be comprehended, but the Necessary Being has explained it as a constituent of all kinds of pairs but there is still a third part in the creation of man that you do not know; today you do not know what it is, you shall not know it tomorrow nor know it come the Day of Resurrection. This is the challenge of Qur’an; no one discusses this topic; until now man is still entangled with the subject of nafs, the human soul. And we have this wise saying from Ali (a.s.) ‘man ‘arafa nafsahu faqad ‘arafa rabbahu’ one who knows his soulknows his Sustainer. Although it is difficult for you to understand the soul or psyche of man, your inner sense or intuition guesses there is an “I”, an Ego . You can deduce the presence of ‘ego’ but the third thing, which is the greatest part in your creation, and that which you do not know.

You have no knowledge, , He is Immaculate, He is above everything. The word subhanoccurs in Qur’an forty-one times (including its derivatives). And in this Chapter that contains one hundred eleven (111) Verses, the word  occurs three times. And it belongs to the station of tanzih. Let us approach the sayings of the Infallibles and try to understand and know its meanings from the Imam (a.s.). This remarkable narration is recorded from Imam Hasan Mujtabah a.s. He reports that once he was with his grandfather when a learned Jewish person who considered himself to be a scholar of previously revealed Books visited the Holy Apostle. He addressed the Messenger (s.a.w.a) and said, “You claim to be a Prophet but my queries can be answered only by a Prophet or his nominee or successor; please inform me why did Abraham made the ka‘bah a square or a four cornered structure?” The Messenger (S) replied, Abraham a.s. made it a square based on four proclamations ---
 --- ‘ ‘‘ 
subhan Allah, al-hamdo lilah, la ilaha il l’lah and Allahu akbar!  The wahi, revelation was sent to Abraham a.s. to base the House of Allah on these four statements. That learned man objected, “Why would God Himself say He is Great?” The Messenger said it is so because none can guess the order of His greatness hence He says Allahu akbar himself demonstrating His greatness. That man asked, “Greater than whom?” The Apostle (S) answered, “We tire describing His virtues but He is Greater than what we may say. The Universe tires of glorifying Him, He is beyond, the aw’liya, the Saints in the field of ma‘rifah, the gnosis, were found to lag behind in their wayfaring; the Prophets spent a lifetime in preaching His Word, He is above their attempts. The Jewish scholar posed, “And He has to declare himself,  --- la ilaha il l’lah?” The Messenger (S) said, “Yes! It suits Him only to announce His Oneness because if He does not declare it, it is not possible for human intellect to create (to bring to ‘being’) His Oneness.” Intellect has not installed God as One. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle or any other great philosopher has not said, “God is One” based on their deliberation. The Messenger told the Jew Scholar, (21:108), :  It is not but the truth that it was revealed to me that your God is the One God; so it is for Him to sayla ilaha il l’lah! That Jewish inquirer said, what about al-hamdu lilah? The Messenger of God said, “The All-Knowing was aware that none could do justice to His praise hence He said himself,  al-hamdu lilah!

We will look into Subhan Allah in a shortwhile.

With us every Chapter starts from , and bismi Allahi r’Rhmani r’Rahim is an integral part of the Surah; it cannot be separated from the Chapter. Possibly, the Muslim world in general has some other theories about this but wherever Qur’an may be published, will be published as the part of the Chapter. Evidently, it is not a part of the Surah Tawbah or bara’at; then is not seen in this Chapter in any copy of the Book anywhere. Therefore, tens of thousands of Qur’an, wherever published, do not contain bismi Allahi r’Rhmani r’Rahim in Surah Tawbah.

In our worldly affairs, if we want to start some work in any enterprise, which is somewhat of a higher level we try to inaugurate the work by some big shot known to us so that people would remember that a dignitary had initiated the project. Now, there cannot be any work nobler than Qur’an in the annals of universal history; therefore who could dare to begin this heavenly feat in his name! The beginning suited only for Him who sent down the wahi, the revelation, saying, “In My Name” --- I the Beneficent the Merciful; this opening is becoming only for Him, “Allah, Rahman, Rahim”. The point is that as He cannot be encompassed by anyone, He praises himself, declares His Oneness and Himself says “”, He sends this as a revelation. There is another Verse in Qur’an telling the Messenger (S) that the same revelation, that the God is One, was also sent to the other Apostles. Surely it is not the outcome of the thought processes of anyone. Of course man would always dwell in the darkness and light; man would always wrestle in the dispute of ahriman and yazdan ; man would always be entangled between the powers of virtue and vice and man would always feel disturbed and troubled by the duality of good and bad. The Unity of Truth was revealed as the proclamation la ilaha il l’lah.

When the Messenger (S) had clarified the matters this far, the Jewish scholar asked, “Now, what about subhan Allah?” The Apostle said, “Subhan Allah is the station of tanzih, thatmeans Allah is All-venerable, He is Supreme and Exalted, He is munazzah --- Transcendent, He is ‘Free’ and ‘Above’ every conceivable thing. The man of learning asked, “Transcendent or Above or munazzah with respect to what?”  The Chief of Apostles (S) answered, “God had the Knowledge that the people would belie and deny many a things so He himself proclaimed, ‘subhan Allah’ --- “I am munazzah” if you think it is a lie, then Allah is Free from lies.

Thus the Verse of Ascention, ayah-e-mi‘raj starts with  so that none should say that it is a lie; Allah is above what you say, He is munazzah. Note that the Verse does not start with or ‘He is Allah’ who took His servant---. On the contrarythe ayah-e-mi‘raj starts with  ‘Immaculate is He’! The point is that the first word shows that if there are 1,533 words in this Chapter then every word is ruled by  subhana. If you try to misunderstand it, remember that God is munazzah. This is the miracle of Qur’an that the first word makes it clear that whoever doubts the fact of Ascention, they should first decide on whose command mi‘raj took place? It happened on the command of One who Himself says,
, He is Immaculate! He is Exalted and Great above what they say! Now you may think whether the Ascension was bodily (physical) or spiritual; or else if it was a dream and the body remained behind --- with every doubt just go on whispering  , subhan al-lazi! Now, let there be the exegeses of Kushshaf or Razi or anyone for that matter, whoever wants to expound the Ascension, he should first diligently look into those 41 places where the Holy Qur’an uses the word of Subhan. Mary (S) gave birth to a son. Some people cast aspersions on her and some said the child is the Son of God. (10:18)Allah is above your polytheism. And Jesus (a.s.) announced immediately, I am a slave of Allah! Still if you insist that ‘Jesus is son of God it shows that you may believe in God but do not believe in His words --- !

God is munzzah and if He says, “I took my servant” and you say it is a myth, remember subhan al-lazi! Now one is free to think or say whatever but the first word of the Verse demonstrates that the Necessary Being is independent of all people and all are dispensable against His Words.   --- He is subhan and the other one is His slave. But a slave is not made up of only the spirit; it is a construction of body and spirit that is called ‘abd; a servant is an ordered system of body and spirit. Thus in the Verse of Ascension firstly He grandly declares His Transcendence then informs that He took His servant. In the case of Moses, he is ordered to come to the meeting place, (7:143)  and when Moses came to Our appointed tryst then His Lord manifested His glory …But in the case of the Seal of the Prophets, he was taken along or he was ordered to follow, to come along. Allah is munazzah and if He is taking someone with Him, the Slave is also munazzah. One who is ordered to come to the tryst is a slave and he who is taken on the journey is also a slave but obviously there is a difference between servitude-to-servitude, ábdiyyat. And the Nation, ummah, that has to last until the Resurrection does not recite the testimony, kalimah of Mose’s ‘abdiyyat; it proclaims artlessly  I bear witness that Muhammad (S) is His slave and His Messenger. Firstly he is Allah’s servant then His Apostle. Allah is Immaculate,  He who did take His servant transcends your thinking ability, your consciousness, your intellect, your restlessness and your waywardness; Allah is Above the doubts you are inventing in relation to mi‘raj, the Ascension. And the kinds of doubts are also strange. It is said that it was only a dream, a vision and illusion or a mystical experience; the fact of going (proceeding) and coming back is doubted; from whose residence he went for mi‘raj is also a doubt. Nay, but whatever may be the nature of doubts, one should keep that subhan in view.

There are two narrators who have quite naturally influenced other narrators; one of the two was Ummul Mo’minin, Hazrat ‘Ayeshah and the other was the ruler of Shaam (Syria), Muawiyah ibn abi Sufyan.  Both influenced the later narrators by saying that the corporal body was in bed but the (Apostle’s) spirit had left for mi‘raj. However, the fact is that Ascension is an event that happened seven years before the migration hijrath (to Madinah) and this lady entered the house of the Messenger about two years after the hijrath. The second narrator, Muawiyah accepted Islam after the conquest of Mecca after the Battle of Khaibar in the year 8 A.H. So it was either the last part of 8th H. or the first month of the 9th H that Muawiyah and his father joined the Muslims. The point is that how can anyone say anything so categorically about what happened 10-15 years ago that the body was reposed in bed. Now should this narration affect us, or what Umme Hani daughter of Abu Talib (a.s.) spoke under oath?

Umme Hani said, “That night Muhammad (S) was staying at my home. She challenges if there was anyone besides her who could claim that Ascension took place from his or her house? It is wonderful that the event is dated seven years before Migration and except Umme Hani there is none who could say that Muhammad (S) was at their home. At that time her brothers Ja‘far and Ali were also sleeping in her dwelling; according to some reports Hazrat Hamzah ibn Abdul Muttalib was also staying there for the night. In such circumstances, Umme Hani said she noticed that the Messenger was offering supplications after the night prayer and in a moment, when she glanced again, she did not see the Messenger in his place. Now in her account there is no mention of either the body or the spirit. She rushed nervously and woke up her brothers. Her brothers ran to Abu Talib (a.s.).

Hazrat Abu Talib drew his sword and ran through the localities of Mecca calling through the streets. Finally he reached the ka’bahall the time warning the inhabitants loudly, “If anyone has removed Muhammad (S) from his bed and if anyone tries to harm him even slightly, then beware the streets of Mecca would be flooded with blood!” Abu Talib was shouting thus and all the people were hiding in their homes scared of facing him. Eventually the time for the Morning Prayer approached when Umme Hani said, “Go to the father and tell him Muhammad has returned.”

Abu Talib came back and looked at his nephew and asked him where he had been. The Messenger (S) said, “God had called me.” Now, Abu Talib does not get any doubt listening to this sentence --- how the nephew had gone and how did he return; did he leave bodily; how did he crossed the heavens? Hazrat Abu Talib poses no question. The Nephew said that God had called him and Abu Talib confirms it (by his silence). Now! Should I believe this or other’s words!

O Allah! For the love of Muhammad and Aal’e Muhammd (s.a.w.a.) facilitate the understanding of Qur’an for us. O Sustainer! This blessed month is starting; keep us fit to spend it in Your worship day in and day out. O Lord! Bestow total health on the sick and suffering--- hasten the emergence of our Imam (a.s.) from occultation.

(Quote from Alamah’s Majlis regarding God’s Knowledge):  All Knowledge is for the Essential Being. He knows about each particle; each particle is itself in His presence. His Knowledge is by presence as against the knowledge that is acquired. The whole Universe is ever present in front of the Creator. Therefore His Knowledge does not mutate due to the mutations of the known; His Knowledge does not become extinct due to extinction of the known neither It becomes amplified due to amplification of the known. There are no alterations in His Absolute Knowledge. [F.N. His knowledge does not metamorphose as if it had to change from what it was earlier or as if it is controlled by the changes in the things known to Him by their presence; the things known may change, become extinct or become abundant, all such changes are written in the Loh-e-Mahfooz with Him.]

What you are seeing in the sphere of Creation is nothing but an evident effect and an obvious outcome of His Knowledge. The manifestation of the peak of Knowledge at any given time is in this sphere of creation. As I said earlier (7th Majlis) there is an internal link, a concordance (tawafuq) between the desert and the hills, the day and the night, in the sun, moon and the stars; all are concatenated or interconnected; there is continuity amongst every thing. The consistency and the connectivity of the whole sphere of Creation declare that the Creator is One, He is Just, All-Knowing and Absolute Knowledge (in Himself); He knows the reality of every thing hence He places/puts everything at its right or correct position.  So, please understand that He is Absolute Knowledge and the Manifestation of His Absolute Knowledge is the sphere of Creation.