سورة Al-Isra ( The Night Journey )

Holy is He who took His servant by night from the sacred place of worship [at Makkah] to the remote house of worship [at Jerusalem] -- the precincts of which We have blessed, so that We might show him some of Our signs. Surely, it is He who is All Hearing, and All Seeing.

We gave Moses the Book and made it a guide for the Children of Israel saying, \"Do not take anyone besides Me as a guardian,

you who are the descendants of those whom We carried in the Ark with Noah. He was a truly thankful servant.\"

We forewarned the Children of Israel in the Scripture, \"Twice you shall commit evil in the land. You shall become great transgressors.\"

When the time of the first of these warnings came, We sent against you servants of Ours, of great might, who ravaged your homes. So the warning was fulfilled,

and after a time We allowed you to prevail over them once again and aided you with wealth and offspring and made you greater in number.

[We said], \"If you persevere in doing good, you will be doing good to yourselves; but if you do evil, it will go against you.\" When the time of the second warning came, [We roused against you others] to disgrace you utterly and to enter the place of worship as they had entered it before, utterly destroying all that they laid their hands on.

We said, \"Your Lord may yet have mercy on you, but if you do the same again, so shall We: We have made Hell a prison for those who deny the truth.\"

Surely, this Quran guides to the most upright way and gives good news to the believers who do good deeds, so that they will have a great reward

and warns those who deny the life to come with grievous punishment.

Yet man asks for evil as eagerly as he should ask for good. Truly, man is indeed hasty.

We have made the night and the day as two signs. We blotted out the sign of night and made the sign of the day illuminating, so that you may seek the bounty of your Lord and learn to compute the seasons and the years. We have set everything forth in detail.

We have tied the fate of every man about his neck; and We shall produce a book for him on Resurrection Day that he will find spread open.

It will say, \"Read your record, today there will be none but yourself to call you to account!\"

Whoever chooses to follow the right path, follows it for his own good; and whoever goes astray, goes astray at his own peril; no bearer of burdens shall bear the burdens of another. Nor do We punish until We have sent forth a messenger to forewarn them.

When We decide to destroy a town, We command the affluent section of its people, but they transgress therein; thus the word [sentence of punishment] is justified, then We destroy the town utterly.

How many generations have We destroyed since Noah's time. Your Lord is well aware of the sins of His servants and observes them all.

We give whatever We will to whoever desires immediate gains; but then We have prepared Hell for him which he will enter, disgraced and rejected.

Anyone who desires the Hereafter and makes a proper effort to achieve it, being a true believer, shall find favour with God for his endeavours.

Upon all, both these [who desire the world] and those [who desire the Hereafter] We bestow the bounty of your Lord: none shall be denied the bounty of your Lord --

see how We have exalted some above others [in the present life]. Yet the Hereafter shall be greater in degrees of rank and greater in excellence.

Do not set up any other deity beside God, lest you incur disgrace, and be forsaken.

Your Lord has commanded that you should worship none but Him, and show kindness to your parents. If either or both of them attain old age with you, say no word of contempt to them and do not rebuke them, but always speak gently to them

and treat them with humility and tenderness and say, \"Lord, be merciful to them both, as they raised me up when I was little.\"

Your Lord knows best what is in your hearts; if you are righteous, He is most forgiving to those who constantly turn to Him.

Give to your relatives their due, and also to the needy and the wayfarer. Yet do not spend extravagantly;

spendthrifts are the brothers of Satan, and Satan is ever ungrateful to his Lord --

but if, while waiting for your Lord's bounty which you are expecting, you turn them down, then at least speak to them kindly.

Be neither miserly, nor so open-handed that you suffer reproach and become destitute.

Your Lord gives abundantly to whom He will and sparingly to whom He pleases. He is informed and observant about His servants.

You shall not kill your offspring for fear of want. It is We who provide for them, and for you. Indeed, killing them is a great sin.

Do not commit adultery, for it is an indecent thing and an evil course.

Do not take life which God has made inviolate -- except by right. If anyone is killed wrongfully, We have given authority to his heirs to demand retribution, but let them not transgress the prescribed limits in exacting retribution; for then he will be assisted [by the law].

Do not go near the orphans' property, except with the best of intentions, until they reach maturity. Keep your promises; you will be called to account for every promise which you have made!

Give full measure, when you measure, and weigh with accurate scales. That is fair, and better in the end.

Do not follow what you do not know; for the ear and the eye and the heart shall all be called to account.

Do not walk proudly on the earth. You cannot cleave the earth, nor can you rival the mountains in height.

All that is evil in the sight of your Lord, and is detestable.

This is part of the wisdom that your Lord has revealed to you. Do not set up any other deity with God, lest you be cast into Hell, condemned and rejected.

What! Has your Lord then favoured you with sons and Himself adopted females from among the angels? What you say is monstrous.

We have explained [the truth] in this Quran in various ways, so that they may take heed, but it has only increased their aversion.

Say, \"If there were [other] deities along with Him, as they claim, then they would surely have tried to find a way to the Lord of the Throne.

Glory be to Him! Exalted above all that they say!

The seven heavens and the earth and all who dwell therein glorify Him. There is not a single thing but glorifies Him with His praise; but you do not understand their glorification. Truly, He is forbearing and most forgiving.\"

When you recite the Quran, We place an invisible barrier between you and those who do not believe in the Hereafter.

We put veils over their hearts to prevent them from comprehending it, and We afflict their ears with deafness. When you mention your one and only Lord in your recitation of the Quran, they turn their backs in aversion.

We are fully aware of what they wish to hear when they listen to you; and what they say when they converse in private; and when the wrongdoers say, \"You are only following a man who is bewitched!\"

See to what they liken you! But they are lost and cannot find the right path.

\"What!\" they say, \"When we are turned to bones and dust, shall we be restored to life?\"

Say, \"[yes] even if you turned to stones or iron,

or any other substance which you think unlikely to be given life.\" Then they will ask, \"Who is it that shall restore us to life?\" Answer them, \"He who created you the first time.\" They will then shake their heads at you and say, \"When will that be?\" Say, \"It may well be very soon.\"

On that Day He will call you, and you will answer by praising Him, thinking that you have stayed for only a little while.\"

Tell My servants that they should always say what is best. Satan stirs up discord among them. Surely, Satan is an outright enemy to man.

Your Lord is fully aware of you. He may show you mercy if He will, or punish you if He will. We have not sent you as their guardian.

Your Lord knows best about everyone in the heavens and on the earth. We gave some prophets more than others: We gave David the Psalms.

Call upon those you claim to be deities besides God and you will know that they have no power to remove affliction from you or to bring about any change [that you may desire].

Those whom they invoke are themselves seeking a way of approach to their Lord, vying with each other to be near Him. They hope for His mercy and fear His punishment. Surely, the punishment of your Lord is to be feared:

there is not a town [community] but We shall destroy or sternly punish it before the Day of Judgement. That is recorded in the Book.

Nothing has prevented Us from sending signs, except the fact that previous peoples denied them. We gave the people of Thamud the she-camel as a clear sign, yet they mistreated her. We give signs only by way of warning.

We told you that your Lord encompasses mankind. We granted the vision which We showed you, as well as the tree that is cursed in the Quran, only as a test for mankind. We warn them, but this only increases their insolence.

When We said to the angels, \"Prostrate yourselves before Adam,\" they all prostrated themselves except Iblis. He said, \"Am I to prostrate myself to someone You have created out of clay?\"

and [further] said, \"Do you see this being whom You have exalted above me? If You reprieve me until the Day of Resurrection, I will bring all but a few of his descendents under my sway.\"

God said, \"Go away! Hell will be your reward and the reward of any of them who follow you -- an ample recompense.

Go ahead and entice whomsoever of them you can, with your voice, and mount assaults against them with your cavalry and infantry and be their partner in wealth and offspring, and make promises to them, Satan promises nothing but delusion,

but over My true servants you shall have no power. Your Lord will be their all-sufficient guardian.\"

Your Lord is He who causes the ships to move onward for you across the sea, so that you may go in quest of His bounty: He is most merciful towards you.

When danger threatens you at sea, you call upon Him, and forget all others you are wont to invoke. But when He brings you safe to land, you turn away from Him. Man is ever ungrateful.

Do you then feel secure against His causing you to be swallowed up by the earth when you are back on land, or His sending a deadly sand storm upon you? Then you will find none to protect you.

Or do you feel secure against His sending you back to sea once again, and raising a fierce gale against you and causing you to drown in requital for your ingratitude? You will find no helper against Us there.

We have honoured the children of Adam, and have borne them on the land and the sea, given them for sustenance things which are good and pure; and exalted them above many of Our creatures.

The Day will surely come when We shall summon every people with their leader. Then those who are given their records in their right hands will read their records [eagerly] and shall not in the least be wronged:

but whoever has been blind in this life will be blind in the life to come, and still farther astray from the path [of truth].

They indeed sought to entice you away from what We revealed to you, hoping that you might invent something else in Our name; and then they would have accepted you as a close friend.

If We had not made you stand firm, you would almost have inclined towards them a little.

In that case, We should have inflicted a double punishment in this life, and a double punishment after death. Then you would have found no one to help you against Us.

Indeed they came near to unsettling you, so that they might expel you from the land, but in that case they themselves would not have stayed on for very long after you.

Such was Our way with the messengers We sent before you, and you will find no change in Our ways.

Say your prayers from the decline of the sun, until nightfall; and at dawn -- the recitation at dawn is indeed witnessed.

And during the night wake up and pray, as an additional prayer: it may well be that your Lord will raise you to a station of praise and glory.\"

Say, \"Lord, grant me an honourable entrance and an honourable exit, and sustain me with Your power.\"

Say, \"Truth has come and falsehood has disappeared. Falsehood is always bound to wither away.\"

We send down in the Quran that which is healing and a mercy to those who believe; as for the evil-doers, it only increases their loss.

When We bestow a favour upon a person, he turns his back and draws aside; and when evil afflicts him he gives himself up to despair.

Say to them, \"Everyone acts in his own way, and your Lord knows best who is rightly guided.\"

They question you about the Spirit. Say, \"The Spirit is at my Lord's command, and you have been granted but little knowledge.\"

If We pleased, We would certainly take away that which We have revealed to you, then you would find no guardian for you against Us,

except through the special mercy of your Lord. His favours towards you has been great indeed.

Say, \"If all men and jinn gathered together to produce the like of this Quran, they could not produce one like it, however much they helped one another.\"

In this Quran, We have set out all kinds of examples for people, yet most of them persist in denying the truth.

They declare, \"We will never believe in you until you cause a spring to flow for us from the earth;

or you have a garden of date palms and vines, and cause streams to flow plentifully in the midst of them;

or you cause the heavens to fall down on us in pieces, as you have claimed; or you bring God and the angels before us face to face;

or you have a house made of gold; or you ascend to heaven; and we will not believe in your ascension until you send down to us a Book that we can read.\" Tell them, \"Holy is my Lord. I am but a human being sent as a messenger.\"

Nothing has prevented men from believing whenever guidance came to them, save their query, \"Has God sent a human being as a messenger?\"

Say, \"If there had been angels walking around on earth, We would have sent an angel down from Heaven as a messenger for them.\"

Say, \"God suffices as a witness between me and you [all]. He is informed about and observant of His servants.\"

Those whom God guides are the truly guided, and for those whom He lets go astray, you will find no helper besides Him, on the Day of Judgement. We shall gather them together, lying upon their faces, blind, dumb and deaf. Their abode shall be Hell. Every time the fire dies down, We will make it blaze up again for them.

That is their recompense, because they rejected Our signs and asked, \"When we are reduced to bones and dust, shall we indeed be raised up as a new creation?\"

Do they not see that God, who has created heavens and earth, is able to create the like of them? He has appointed a definite term for them; there is no doubt about it, but the wrongdoers persist in denying the truth.

Say, \"Even if you possessed the treasures of the mercy of my Lord, you would surely hold them back for fear of spending. Man is indeed niggardly!\"

We did indeed give Moses nine manifest signs; you can enquire from the Children of Israel. When he came to them, Pharaoh said to him, \"Moses, I can see that you are bewitched.\"

He said, \"You know full well that none has sent down these signs but the Lord of the heavens and the earth as eye-opening evidence. Indeed, Pharaoh, I can see that you are doomed.\"

So he resolved to scare them out of the land: but We drowned him along with all those who were with him.

Thereafter, We said to the Israelites, \"Dwell in the land. When the promise of the Hereafter comes to be fulfilled, We shall assemble you all together.\"

We have revealed the Quran with the truth, and with the truth it has come down. We have sent you forth only to give good news and to give warning --

We have revealed the Quran bit by bit so that you may recite it to the people slowly and with deliberation. We have imparted it by gradual revelation.

Say to them, \"You may believe in it or not. Those to whom knowledge had been revealed, fall on their faces in prostration when it is recited,

and say, \"Glory to our Lord! Our Lord's promise is bound to be fulfilled.\"

They fall down upon their faces weeping, and [the Quran] increases their humility.\"

Say, \"Whether you call on God or on the Merciful One: His are the finest names.\" Pray neither in too loud a voice nor in silence, but between these two extremes. Seek a middle way

and say, \"All praise is due to God who has never begotten a son and who has no partner in His kingdom; nor does anyone aid Him because of any weakness of His. Proclaim His greatness.\"