Tafsir of Surah Al-Isra - Verse 69

Perhaps He will send You back to the Sea

Allah says,

أَمْ أَمِنتُمْ

(Or do you feel secure), `you who turn away from Us after acknowledging Our Oneness at sea once you are back upon dry land,'

أَن يُعِيدَكُمْ

(that He will not send you back) to sea a second time

فَيُرْسِلَ عَلَيْكُمْ قَاصِفًا مِّنَ الرِّيحِ

(and send against you a Qasif) which will destroy your masts and sink your vessels. Ibn `Abbas and others said, "Al-Qasif is the wind of the sea which destroys vessels and sinks them."

فَيُغْرِقَكُم بِمَا كَفَرْتُمْ

(and drown you because of your disbelief) means because of your rejection and turning away from Allah.

ثُمَّ لاَ تَجِدُواْ لَكُمْ عَلَيْنَا بِهِ تَبِيعًا

(Then you will not find any avenger therein against Us.) Ibn `Abbas said that this means a helper. Mujahid said, "A helper who will avenge you," i.e., take revenge on your behalf. Qatadah said it means, "We are not afraid that anyone will pursue Us with anything of that nature (i.e., vengeance)."

(2) Secondly, he had said if he was given respite till the day of Qiyamah, he will mislead the entire progeny of 'Adam, except a few of them. That Allah Ta’ ala has elected to answer in the later verses. He said that the Shaitan will have no control over His sincere servants even if he were to rally his entire forces against them and as for the insincere who fall into his trap, they will meet the same fate as his, all consigned to Hell. When this verse (64) mentions the horsemen and footmen of the Shaitanic army, it does not necessarily mean that the Shaitan actually has combat support in that formation. In fact, this is a manner of referring to the full force and power of the Shaitan. And if the Shaitan does have horsemen and footmen actually, even that too cannot be denied. Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn ` Abbas ؓ said: Those who come out in support of disbelief and sin, horsemen or footmen, they are nothing but the army of the Shaitan. Now remains the question as to how the Shaitan came to know that he would succeed in enticing and misleading the progeny of 'Adam (علیہ السلام) ، the basis on which he claimed that he will subdue them. There are two possibilities. Perhaps, by looking at the ingredients that went into the making of man, he had gathered that man would be desire-prone and it would not be difficult to entice him successfully. And then, it is also not far out to believe that his very claim was nothing but a bland lie.

As for the sense of: وَشَارِ‌كْهُمْ فِي الْأَمْوَالِ وَالْأَوْلَادِ (and share with them in their wealth and their children - 64), Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn ` Abbas ؓ said: Wealth and property acquired by false, impermissible and unlawful means or spent on what is haram is the sharing of the Shaitan in it. As for the sharing of the Shaitan in children, it could either be through illegitimacy, or by naming them like disbelievers and polytheists, or by indulging in polytheistic customs to ensure their security, or by taking to Haram sources of income to bring them up. (Qurtubi)

Despite man’s insolence, God does not seize upon him immediately. Rather He afflicts him with some natural calamity by way of warning. Man is awakened by this but is so heedless that, as soon as he is relieved of his distress, this feeling of wakening soon vanishes into thin air. He remains blissfully unaware of the fact that he is as much in God’s grip as he was earlier. His coming home safely after the sea voyage does not rule out the possibility of suffering the same calamity again. Furthermore, the dangers and insecurity on land are no less than at sea. Tempests at sea are like earthquakes on land. There is no place where he can take refuge from God’s chastisement.