The Night Journey (al-Isra’)

8 minutes • 1606 words

When you read the Quran, We place between you and those who do not believe in the Hereafter an invisible barrier.
And We drape veils over their hearts, preventing them from understanding it, and heaviness in their ears. And when you mention your Lord alone in the Quran, they turn their backs in aversion.
We know well what they listen to, when they listen to you, as they conspire, when the wrongdoers say, “You only follow a man bewitched.”
Note what they compared you to. They are lost, and unable to find a way.
And they say, “When we have become bones and fragments, shall we really be resurrected as a new creation?”
Say, “Even if you become rocks or iron. some substance, which, in your minds, is even harder.” Then they will say, “Who will restore us?” Say, “The One who originated you the first time.” Then they will nod their heads at you, and say, “When will it be?” Say, “Perhaps it will be soon.”
On the Day when He calls you, you will respond with His praise, and you will realize that you stayed only a little.
Tell My servants to say what is best. Satan sows discord among them. Satan is to man an open enemy.
Your Lord knows you best. If He wills, He will have mercy on you; and if He wills, He will punish you. We did not send you as their advocate.
Your Lord knows well everyone in the heavens and the earth. We have given some prophets advantage over others; and to David We gave the Psalms.
Say, “Call upon those you claim besides Him. They have no power to relieve your adversity, nor can they change it.”
Those they call upon are themselves seeking means of access to their Lord, vying to be nearer, and hoping for His mercy, and fearing His punishment. The punishment of yourLord is to be dreaded.
There is no city but We will destroy before the Day of Resurrection, or punish it with a severe punishment. This is inscribed in the Book.
Nothing prevents Us from sending miraculous signs, except that the ancients called them lies.

We gave Thamood the she-camel, a visible sign, but they mistreated her. We do not send the signs except to instill reverence.

We said to you that your Lord encompasses humanity. We did not make the vision We showed you, except as a test for the people, and the tree cursed in the Quran. We frighten them, but that only increases their defiance.
When We said to the angels, “Bow down before Adam,” they bowed down, except for Satan. He said, “Shall I bow down before someone You created from mud?”
He said, “Do You see this one whom You have honored more than me? If You reprieve me until the Day of Resurrection, I will bring his descendants under my sway, except for a few.”
He said, “Begone! Whoever of them follows you—Hell is your reward, an ample reward.”
“And entice 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.
“As for My devotees, you have no authority over them.” Your Lord is an adequate Guardian.
Your Lord is He who propels for you the ships at sea, that you may seek of His bounty.

When harm afflicts you at sea, those you pray to vanish, except for Him. But when He saves you to land, you turn away.

The human being is ever thankless.

Are you confident that He will not cause a track of land to cave in beneath you, or unleash a tornado against you, and then you find no protector?
Or are you confident that He will not return you to it once again, and unleash a hurricane against you, and drown you for your ingratitude? Then you will find no helper against Us.
We have honored the Children of Adam, and carried them on land and sea, and pro- vided them with good things, and greatly favored them over many of those We created.
On the Day when We call every people with their leader. Whoever is given his record in his right hand—these will read their record, and they will not be wronged one bit.
But whoever is blind in this, he will be blind in the Hereafter, and further astray from the way.
They almost lured you away from what We have revealed to you, so that you would in- vent something else in Our name. In that case, they would have taken you for a friend.
Had We not given you stability, you might have inclined towards them a little.
Then We would have made you taste double in life, and double at death; then you would have found for yourself no helper against Us.
They almost provoked you, to expel you from the land. In that case, they would not have lasted after you, except briefly.
The tradition of the messengers We sent before you—you will find no change in Our rules.
Perform the prayer at the decline of the sun, until the darkness of the night; and the Quran at dawn. The Quran at dawn is witnessed.
And keep vigil with it during parts of the night, as an extra prayer. Perhaps your Lord will raise you to a laudable position.
And say, “My Lord, lead me in through an entry of truth, and lead me out through an exit of truth, and grant me from You a sup- porting power.”
And say, “The truth has come, and false- hood has withered away; for falsehood is bound to wither away.”
We send down in the Quran healing and mercy for the believers, but it increases the wrongdoers only in loss.
When We bless the human being, he turns away and distances himself. But when adversity touches him, he is in despair.
Say, “Each does according to his disposition. Your Lord knows best who is better guided in the way.”
And they ask you about the Spirit. Say, “The Spirit belongs to the domain of my Lord; and you were given only little knowledge.”
If We willed, We could take away what We revealed to you. Then you will find for your- self no protecting guardian against Us.
Except through a mercy from your Lord. His favors upon you have been great.
Say, “If mankind and jinn came together to produce the like of this Quran, they could never produce the like of it, even if they backed up one another.”
We have displayed for mankind in this Quran every kind of similitude, but most people insist on denying the truth.
And they said, “We will not believe in you unless you make a spring burst from the ground for us.
Or you have a garden of palms and vines; then cause rivers to gush pouring through them.
Or make the sky fall on us in pieces, as you claim, or bring Allah and the angels before us.
Or you possess a house of gold. Or you ascend into the sky. Even then, we will not believe in your ascension, unless you bring down for us a book that we can read.” Say, “Glory be to my Lord. Am I anything but a human messenger?”
Nothing prevented the people from believ- ing, when guidance has come to them, except that they said, “Did Allah send a human messenger?”
Say, “If there were angels on earth, walking around in peace, We would have sent down to them from heaven an angel messenger.”
Say, “Allah is enough witness between you and me. He is fully aware of His servants, and He sees them well.”
Whomever Allah guides is the guided one. And whomever He leaves astray—for them you will find no protectors apart from Him.

And We will gather them on the Day of Resurrection, on their faces, blind, dumb, and deaf. Their abode is Hell; whenever it abates, We intensify the blaze for them.

This is their repayment for having blasphemed against Our revelations, and having said, “Shall we, when we have become bones and fragments, be resurrected as a new creation?”
Do they not consider that Allah, Who created the heavens and the earth, is Able to create the likes of them? He has assigned for them a term, in which there is no doubt.
Say, “If you possessed the treasuries of my Lord’s mercy, you would have withheld them for fear of spending.” The human being has always been stingy.
We gave Moses nine clear signs—ask the Jews. When he went to them, Pharaoh said to him, “I think that you, Moses, are bewitched.”
He said, “You know that none sent these down except the Lord of the heavens and the earth—eye openers; and I think that you, Pharaoh, are doomed.”
He resolved to scare them off the land, but We drowned him, and those with him, altogether.
After him, We said to the Children of Israel, “Inhabit the land, and when the promise of the Hereafter arrives, We will bring you all together.”
With the truth We sent it down, and with the truth it descended. We sent you only as abearer of good news and a warner.
A Quran which We unfolded gradually, that you may recite to the people over time. We revealed it in stages.
Say, “Believe in it, or do not believe.” Those who were given knowledge before it, when it is recited to them, they fall to their chins, prostrating.