Tafsir of Al-Isra 17:94-96

Surah Al-Isra 17:96

ﳎ ﳏ ﳐ ﳑ ﳒ ﳓ ﳔ ﳕ ﳖ ﳗ ﳘ ﳙ

Say, "Sufficient is Allah as Witness between me and you. Indeed he is ever, concerning His servants, Acquainted and Seeing."

Tafsir

Mafatih al-Ghayb

Verse range: 17:94-96

Open in Qurani

| Al-Isrā’ (The Night Journey): (94–96) And what prevented people...

Know that when the Almighty recounted the people's objection regarding the demand for additional miracles and answered it, He then recounted another objection they had: they found it improbable that God would send a messenger from humankind. Rather, they believed that if God were to send a messenger to creation, that messenger must be an angel. God Almighty answered this objection in several ways.

The First Way is His statement: {And what prevented people from believing when guidance came to them?}

The justification for this answer is that, assuming God sent an angelic messenger to creation, people would only believe in his message from God based on the presence of a miracle proving his truthfulness. This miracle is what guides them to recognize that angel as a claimant of God's message. Therefore, what is meant by His statement {when guidance came to them} is solely the miracle. Whether this miracle appeared through an angel or a human, acknowledging his message becomes obligatory. Thus, their assertion that the messenger must be an angel is proven to be a baseless, corrupt assertion and futile obstinacy.

The Second Way among the answers God provided in this verse is that if the inhabitants of the earth were angels, their messenger would necessarily have to be an angel, as one kind is more inclined toward its own kind. However, since the inhabitants of the earth are human, their messenger must be human. This is what is meant by His statement: {If there were on the earth angels walking securely, We would have sent down to them from the heaven an angel as a messenger.}

The Third Way among the answers mentioned in this verse is His statement: {Say, "Sufficient is God as a witness between me and you."}

The justification is that when God manifested the miracle in accordance with my claim, that served as a testimony from God regarding my truthfulness. Whoever God testifies to as truthful is indeed truthful. After this, the claim that the messenger must be an angel and not a human is a corrupt assertion that should not be heeded.

When God Almighty mentioned these three answers, He followed them up with what serves as a threat and a warning, saying: {Indeed, He is ever, of His servants, Acquainted, Seeing.} This means He knows their outward actions and their innermost secrets, and He knows that they raise these objections only out of sheer envy, a desire for leadership, and an aversion to submitting to the truth.


! 7 < {And whoever God guides is the [rightly] guided; but whoever He leaves astray - never will you find for them protectors other than Him. And We will gather them, on the Day of Resurrection, on their faces - blind, mute, and deaf. Their refuge will be Hell; every time it subsides, We will increase the blaze for them.} > 7

<

! 7 < {That is their recompense because they denied Our verses and said, "When we are bones and fragments, are we indeed to be resurrected as a new creation?"} > 7

<