Surah 17 of 114 · Makkah
سُورَةُ الإِسۡرَاءِ
Al-Isra The Night Journey
111 verses · revealed in Makkah
The context
Al-Isra is Makkan and opens on the Night Journey, which came in the bleakest stretch of the Prophet's ﷺ mission: after the deaths of Khadijah and Abu Talib, after Ta'if had driven him out, when the human support around him had effectively collapsed. The journey from the Sacred Mosque to the furthest mosque is stated in a single verse and not elaborated, and the surah moves on.
What follows is unexpected after an opening like that. Rather than dwelling on the miracle, the surah lays out a charter of ordinary conduct: how to treat parents, relatives, the traveller, your own children, your money, your speech, your walk. A man given the most extraordinary night in human history is handed, in the same surah, a list of instructions about being decent at home.
The name
Named for the isra, the night journey itself, and also known as Bani Israil for the long address to the children of Israel that follows. The two names mark the two halves of the surah: an event that cannot be repeated, and a code of conduct that must be, nightly.
How it moves
- 1-8The journey, and a warningThe night journey in one verse, then the two occasions of corruption foretold for Bani Israil and the promise that the pattern repeats: if you return, We will return.
- 9-22This Qur'an guides to what is most uprightThe haste of the human being, the night and day as two signs, and the record that will be spread open.
- 23-39The charterParents, kin, the needy, the traveller, moderation in spending, the prohibition of killing children out of fear of poverty, honesty in measure, and the warning not to pursue what you have no knowledge of.
- 40-72The objections answeredThe claim of daughters for Allah, the seven heavens glorifying Him, Iblis and his stake in the children of Adam.
- 73-111Steadiness, and the Qur'an itselfThe pressure to compromise slightly, the prayer at the two ends of the day, the soul as a matter belonging to Allah, and the challenge that humans and jinn together could not produce the like of this.
The themes
Conduct as the response to honour
The surah answers the greatest miracle given to the Prophet ﷺ with a list of household instructions, which is a statement about where religion actually lives.
Parents, at the age when it is hard
The passage specifies the moment: when one or both reach old age with you. It legislates for the difficult stage, not the easy one.
The Qur'an as healing
We send down of the Qur'an that which is healing and mercy for the believers, stated in a surah that opens on the Prophet's ﷺ worst year.
Pressure to shift slightly
They were near to tempting you away from what We revealed. The temptation described is not to abandon the message but to soften it a little.
The heart of it
Recited slowly, the middle section reads like being handed your own conduct one line at a time. The reciter lowers his voice at the verse about voices, slows his walk at the verse about walking, and arrives at rabbi irhamhuma, my Lord have mercy on them both, owing a debt to two aging faces he can picture exactly.
The wing of humility in verse 24 is the image most people keep. A bird lowering its wing to shelter something small, offered as the posture a grown adult should take toward a parent who has become difficult, forgetful, or demanding.
Verses worth knowing
- 17:23Say not to them a word of disrespect. The Arabic is uff, the smallest sound of irritation, and it is the thing prohibited by name.
- 17:24Lower to them the wing of humility out of mercy, and say: my Lord, have mercy on them as they raised me when I was small.
- 17:36Do not pursue what you have no knowledge of. The hearing, the sight and the heart will all be questioned. Written before anyone could forward a rumour to thousands of people in a second.
- 17:82We send down of the Qur'an that which is healing and mercy for the believers.
On reciting it
Aisha reported that the Prophet ﷺ would not sleep until he had recited Bani Israil, which is this surah, and Az-Zumar. The report is graded hasan by a number of scholars rather than being of the highest grade, and it describes his practice rather than promising a reward, so it is given here with both qualifications attached.
Sunnah-confirmedTirmidhi 2920; graded hasan
Read beside it
On the shelf
- 17:110Al-Isra · 17:110
- 17:23-24Al-Isra · 17:23-24
- 17:26Al-Isra · 17:26
- 17:29Al-Isra · 17:29
- 17:35Al-Isra · 17:35
- 17:37Al-Isra · 17:37
- 17:44Al-Isra · 17:44
- 17:53Al-Isra · 17:53
- 17:70Al-Isra · 17:70
- 17:80Al-Isra · 17:80
- 17:81Al-Isra · 17:81
- 17:82Al-Isra · 17:82
- 17:84Al-Isra · 17:84
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