Al-Isra: (7-8) If you do good, you do good for yourselves...

Issues Discussed:

It is narrated that when they [the Israelites] disobeyed, God inflicted upon them people who intended to kill, plunder, and enslave them. When they repented, God removed that affliction and restored their dominion.

At that point, it became clear that if they obeyed, they had done good to themselves, and if they persisted in disobedience, they had done evil to themselves. It is established in reason that doing good to oneself is a desirable good, and doing evil to oneself is reprehensible. For this reason, the Almighty said: {If you do good, you do good for yourselves, and if you do evil, it is against yourselves} (referring to the implied meaning of lahā).

Al-Wahidi said that an omission must be assumed here. The implied meaning is: "And We said: If you do good, you do good for yourselves." This means: If you perform acts of obedience, you have done good to yourselves because, by the blessing of those acts, God opens the doors of goodness and blessings upon you. If you do evil by committing prohibitions, you have done evil to yourselves because, due to the misfortune of those sins, God opens the doors of punishment upon you.

The grammarians state that He said {and if you do evil, it is against it [for it]} (fal-lahā) for the sake of correspondence (parallelism). The meaning is "to it" (ilayhā) or "upon it" (alayhā), even though prepositions can sometimes substitute for one another, as in His saying: {On that Day, it [the earth] will report its news, because your Lord has inspired it} (Al-Zalzalah: 4-5), meaning "to it" (ilayhā).

The scholars of indications state that this verse indicates that the Mercy of the Almighty prevails over His Wrath. The proof is that when He mentioned their doing good, He repeated the statement: {If you do good, you do good for yourselves} (twice). But when He mentioned their doing evil, He limited it to a single mention: {and if you do evil, it is against yourselves} (once). If the side of Mercy were not predominant, it would not have been so.

Then the Almighty said: {And when the second promise comes} (or the promise of the Hereafter).

The commentators said its meaning is the promise of the final time. This final time is their undertaking to kill Zakariyya and Yahya (peace be upon them). Al-Wahidi said: God sent against them Bakhtanassar the Babylonian Magian, the most hated of His creation to Him, who enslaved the Children of Israel, killed, and destroyed the Holy House (Jerusalem).

However, historical accounts testify that Bakhtanassar preceded the time of 'Isa (peace be upon him) and Yahya and Zakariyya (peace be upon them) by many long years. The king who took vengeance upon the Jews because of these [later transgressions] is known to be a king from the Romans named Constantine the King. And God knows best their affairs. Knowing the identities of these peoples is not relevant to the purpose of Quranic exegesis.

The response to {And when the second promise comes} is omitted. The implied meaning is: "And when the second promise comes, We will send against you [others] to cause distress to your faces." This omission is deemed appropriate because of what preceded it, namely His saying: {We sent against you servants of Ours} (Al-Isra: 5).

Then He said: {so they may grieve your faces} (fa-liyasū’ū wujūhakum).

It is said: Sā’ahu yasū’uhu means "it saddened him." Distress is attributed to the faces because the effects of the psychological states arising in the heart manifest on the face. If joy occurs in the heart, radiance, brightness, and cheerfulness appear on the face. If sadness and fear occur in the heart, grimness, dustiness, and blackness appear on the face. For this reason, distress is attributed to the faces in this verse, and similar meanings are abundant in the Quran.

The majority recited it as {liyasū’ū} (plural/third-person masculine absent), which Al-Wahidi said agrees with both the meaning and the wording.

• Meaning: The ones sent are truly those who cause the distress, as they are the ones who kill and capture.
• Wording: It aligns with the wording of {and to enter the Mosque} (wa-liyadkhulū).

Ibn 'Amir, Abu Bakr from 'Asim, and Hamzah recited it as {liyasū’a} (singular). This singular verb can refer to one of three things:

1. The Name of God, the Sublime, because what preceded was: "Then We returned you the victory, and We aided you," all of which are pronouns referring back to God.
2. The sending/dispatching itself, indicated by His saying: {The first of the two times We sent against you}. The preceding verb implies the verbal noun (Masdar), like His saying: {And let not those who hoard what Allah grants them of His bounty think that it is better for them} (Al 'Imran: 18).
3. Al-Zajjaj interpreted it as: "The promise causes distress to your faces" (liyasū’a al-wa'du wujūhakum).

Al-Kisā’ī recited it with the letter Nūn ({liyasū’unna}), which attributes the action to God, similar to His saying: "We sent against you, and We aided you."

Then the Almighty said: {and to destroy utterly whatever they had gained ascendancy over} (wa-liyatabbarū mā 'alaw tatbīrā).

It is said: Tabbara shay’un tabran means "it was destroyed," and tabbarahu means "He destroyed it." Al-Zajjaj said: Everything you make broken and shattered, you have tabbartahu. From this comes the saying about shattered glass (tabr al-zujāj) and shattered gold (tabr al-dhahab) for what is broken. This is related to His saying: {Indeed, those you invoke besides Him are doomed to destruction, and what they invoke besides Him is vain} (Al-A'raf: 139).

The phrase {and to destroy utterly whatever they had gained ascendancy over} can mean: what they conquered and overpowered, or it can mean: while they are dominant, i.e., while their authority is running over the Children of Israel.

The word {tatbīrā} (utter destruction) is the verbal noun used to confirm the statement and remove doubt about its truth, like His saying: {and Allah spoke to Moses directly} (taklīman) (An-Nisa: 164), meaning truly. The meaning is: and they will demolish and ruin whatever they have overcome.

Then the Almighty said: {Perhaps your Lord will have mercy upon you}.

This means: Perhaps your Lord will have mercy upon you and pardon you after His vengeance upon you, O Children of Israel.

Then He said: {But if you return [to sin], We will return}.

This means: The sending against you of those We sent, and what they did to you, was punishment for you and a lesson so that you might benefit from it and refrain from committing sins. Then He had mercy on you and removed this punishment from you. If you return once more to sin, We will return to pouring affliction upon you in this world once again.

Al-Qaffāl said: We interpreted this verse as referring to the punishment of this world because of His saying in Surah Al-A'raf, reporting about the Children of Israel: {And when your Lord proclaimed that He would surely send against them until the Day of Resurrection those who would inflict upon them the worst of the punishment} (Al-A'raf: 167). Then He said: {But if you return [to sin], We will return}. This means they did return to doing what is improper—namely, denying Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and concealing what was in the Torah and the Gospel. So God returned upon them with punishment at the hands of the Arabs. What happened to Banu Nadir, Banu Qurayza, Banu Qaynuqa', and the Jews of Khaybar—the killing, expulsion, and what followed—occurred. Then the rest of them are subjugated by the Jizyah (poll tax), having no kingdom or dominion.

Then the Almighty said: {And We have made Hell a confinement for the disbelievers}.

Hasīran (confinement/enclosure) is on the pattern fa'īl, so it can mean the active participle (the one confining), meaning: We made Hell confining for them. Or it can mean the passive participle (the confined place), meaning: We made it a place enclosed for them.

The meaning is that although the punishment of this world may be severe and strong, some people might escape it. Those who fall into that punishment might be delivered, either by death or by another means. But the punishment of the Hereafter will be a confinement surrounding a person, with no hope of escape from it. So these people have the worldly punishment that We described, and after that, they will have the punishment of the Hereafter that surrounds them from all sides, from which they will never be delivered.

{Indeed, this Qur'an guides to that which is most upright and gives good tidings to the believers who do righteous deeds that they will have a great reward And that those who do not believe in the Hereafter - We have prepared for them a painful punishment} (7)

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