Tafsir of Surah Al-Isra - Verse 9

Praising the Qur'an

Allah praises His noble Book, the Qur'an, which He revealed to His Messenger Muhammad ﷺ. It directs people to the best and clearest of ways.

وَيُبَشِّرُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ

(gives good news to those who believe,) in it a

الَّذِينَ يَعْمَلُونَ الصَّـلِحَاتِ

(those who do righteous deeds,) in accordance with it, telling them

أَنَّ لَهُمْ أَجْرًا كَبِيرًا

(that they will have a great reward,) i.e., on the Day of Resurrection. And He tells

وأَنَّ الَّذِينَ لاَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالاٌّخِرَةِ

(those who do not believe in the Hereafter,) that

لَهُمْ عَذَاباً أَلِيماً

(for them is a painful torment,) i.e. on the Day of Resurrection. As Allah says:

فَبَشِّرْهُمْ بِعَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ

(... then announce to them a painful torment.) 84:24

Sequence

At the beginning of the Sarah, the majesty of the prophet-hood of the Messenger of Allah was described through the miracle of al-Mi` raj. The present verses cite the miracle of Qur'an as its confirmation.

Commentary

The most upright way

The way to which the Qur'an guides has been called 'aqwam,' the most upright. 'Aqwam' can be explained by saying that it is a way that is closer to the destination, is easy and free of dangers at the same time. (Qurtubi) This tells us that the rules set for human life by the Holy Qur'an are a combination of all three features mentioned above. However, it is a different matter that man may start taking this way to be difficult or dangerous on occasions because of his own lack of comprehension. But, the Lord of all the worlds has the most comprehensive knowledge of every single particle in the entire universe. Before Him, the past and the future are the same. It is He who can have the knowledge of the reality as to the function and form most beneficial for human beings. And since man is unaware of things as they are in a comprehensive setting, he can-not identify even his own good or bad fully and decisively.

The Quran calls upon all human beings to accept the Oneness of God, or tawhid, that is, belief in the one God and surrender to His will. It can truly be said that no other matter can be more correct, more reasonable and more natural. Undoubtedly, the Oneness of God is the greatest reality and also the greatest truth. This position of the Oneness of God necessarily makes it the standard by which all human beings should be tested and the basis on which some should be treated as right and others as wrong, some as successful and others as failures. But, in the present world this standard is seemingly not upheld and the testing of human beings is not, apparently, done on this basis. But this is due only to God’s hidden way of applying His law of testing. For individuals, death, and for the general mass of the people, the Day of Judgement are the final limits of the test period. As soon as this limit is reached, human beings will be separated into two different groups: those who believed in one God in the full sense, and met all the demands of that belief, will find themselves in paradise, while those who did not, will find themselves in hell.