Surah Al Isra ayat 5 Tafsir Quran 17:5

﴿فَإِذَا جَاءَ وَعْدُ أُولَاهُمَا بَعَثْنَا عَلَيْكُمْ عِبَادًا لَّنَا أُولِي بَأْسٍ شَدِيدٍ فَجَاسُوا خِلَالَ الدِّيَارِ ۚ وَكَانَ وَعْدًا مَّفْعُولًا﴾
[ الإسراء: 5]

17:5 So when the [time of] promise came for the first of them, We sent against you servants of Ours - those of great military might, and they probed [even] into the homes, and it was a promise fulfilled.

So when the time for the first of the two prophecies the first of the two occasions for corruption came We roused against you servants of Ours of great might men who are strong in war and assault who ransacked who came and went seeking you out through your habitations in the very midst of your homes in order to slay you and take others among you captive and it was a promise fulfilled. Their first act of corruption was their slaying of the prophet Zachariah. So Goliath and his army were roused against them and they slew them and took their children captive and destroyed the Holy House of Jerusalem.

When in due time the first occasion came to pass We humbled your arrogance by wedding you to a calamity. We sent against you servants of Ours invested with merciless power and martial daring who penetrated deep in the land and made their way right through your homes, and there the mission was accomplished and the promise fulfilled

It was mentioned in the Tawrah that the Jews would spread Mischief twice Allah tells us that He made a declaration to the Children of Israel in the Scripture, meaning that He had already told them in the Book which He revealed to them, that they would cause mischief on the earth twice, and would become tyrants and extremely arrogant, meaning they would become shameless oppressors of people, Allah says: وَقَضَيْنَآ إِلَيْهِ ذَلِكَ الاٌّمْرَ أَنَّ دَابِرَ هَـؤُلآْءِ مَقْطُوعٌ مُّصْبِحِينَ ( And We made known this decree to him, that the root of those (sinners ) was to be cut off in the early morning.)( 15:66 ), meaning, We already told him about that and informed him of it. The First Episode of Mischief caused by the Jews, and their Punishment for it فَإِذَا جَآءَ وَعْدُ أُولَـهُمَا ( So, when the promise came for the first of the two ) meaning the first of the two episodes of mischief. بَعَثْنَا عَلَيْكُمْ عِبَادًا لَّنَآ أُوْلِى بَأْسٍ شَدِيدٍ ( We sent against you servants of Ours given to terrible warfare. ) means, `We unleashed soldiers against you from among Our creatures who were given to terrible warfare,' i.e., they had great strength and weapons and power.
They entered the very innermost parts of your homes, meaning they took possession of your land and invaded the very innermost parts of your homes, going between and through your houses, coming and going freely with no fear of anyone.
This was the promise ( completely ) fulfilled.
The earlier and later commentators differed over the identity of these invaders.
Many Isra'iliyyat ( reports from Jewish sources ) were narrated about this, but I did not want to make this book too long by mentioning them, because some of them are fabricated, concocted by their heretics, and others may be true, but we have no need of them, praise be to Allah.
What Allah has told us in His Book ( the Qur'an ) is sufficient and we have no need of what is in the other books that came before.
Neither Allah nor His Messenger required us to refer to them.
Allah told His Messenger that when ( the Jews ) committed transgression and aggression, Allah gave their enemies power over them to destroy their country and enter the innermost parts of their homes.
Their humiliation and subjugation was a befitting punishment, and your Lord is never unfair or unjust to His servants.
They had rebelled and killed many of the Prophets and scholars.
Ibn Jarir recorded that Yahya bin Sa`id said: "I heard Sa`id bin Al-Musayyib saying: `Nebuchadnezzar conquered Ash-Sham ( Greater Syria, including Palestine ), destroying Jerusalem and killing them, then he came to Damascus and found blood boiling in a censer.
He asked them: What is this blood They said: We found our forefathers doing this.
Because of that blood, he killed seventy thousand of the believers and others, then the blood stopped boiling.
This report is Sahih from Sa`id bin Al-Musayyib, and this event is well-known, as he ( Nebuchadnezzar ) killed their nobles and scholars, and did not leave alive anyone who knew the Tawrah by heart.
He took many prisoners from the sons of the Prophets and others, and did many other things that would take too long to mention here.
If we had found anything that was correct or close enough, we could have written it and reported it here.
And Allah knows best.
Then Allah says: إِنْ أَحْسَنتُمْ أَحْسَنتُمْ لاًّنفُسِكُمْ وَإِنْ أَسَأْتُمْ فَلَهَا ( (And We said ): "If you do good, you do good for your own selves, and if you do evil ( you do it ) against yourselves.") As Allah says elsewhere: مَّنْ عَمِلَ صَـلِحاً فَلِنَفْسِهِ وَمَنْ أَسَآءَ فَعَلَيْهَا ( Whosoever does a righteous good deed, it is for (the benefit of ) himself; and whosoever does evil, it is against himself.) 45:15 The Second Episode of Mischief Then Allah says: فَإِذَا جَآءَ وَعْدُ الاٌّخِرَةِ ( Then, when the second promise came to pass, ) meaning, the second episode of mischief, when your enemies came again, لِيَسُوءُواْ وُجُوهَكُمْ ( (We permitted your enemies ) to disgrace your faces) meaning, to humiliate you and subdue you, وَلِيَدْخُلُواْ الْمَسْجِدَ ( and to enter the Masjid ) meaning, Bayt Al-Maqdis ( Jerusalem ). كَمَا دَخَلُوهُ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ ( as they had entered it before, ) when they entered the very innermost parts of your homes. وَلِيُتَبِّرُواْ ( and to destroy ) wrecking and inflicting ruin upon it. مَا عَلَوْاْ ( all that fell in their hands. ) everything they could get their hands on. تَتْبِيرًاعَسَى رَبُّكُمْ أَن يَرْحَمَكُمْ ( with utter destruction.
It may be that your Lord may show mercy unto you ) meaning that He may rid you of them. وَإِنْ عُدتُّمْ عُدْنَا ( but if you return (to sins ), We shall return ( to Our punishment ).) meaning, if you return to causing mischief, عُدْنَا ( We shall return ) means, We `will once again punish you in this world, along with the punishment and torment We save for you in the Hereafter.' وَجَعَلْنَا جَهَنَّمَ لِلْكَـفِرِينَ حَصِيرًا ( And We have made Hell a prison Hasir for the disbelievers. ) meaning, a place of permanent detention, a prison which cannot be avoided or escaped.
Ibn `Abbas said, "Hasir here means a jail." Mujahid said, "They will be detained in it." Others said like- wise.
Al-Hasan said, "Hasir means a bed of Fire." Qatadah said: "The Children of Israel returned to aggres- sion, so Allah sent this group against them, Muhammad ﷺ and his companions, who made them pay the Jizyah, with willing submission, and feeling themselves subdued."

(17:5) When the occasion of the first of the two mischiefs came, O Israelites, We raised against you such of Our servants who were very mighty and formidable; so they penetrated through all parts of your country. This was a warning that was bound to be fulfilled. *7

So when the [time of] promise came meaning

*7) This refers to the terrible destruction that the Israelites suffered at the hands of the Assyrians and Babylonians.
One cannot fully appreciate the historical background of this merely from the extracts that have been reproduced above from the Books of the Prophets.
A brief history of the Israelites is also needed so that a student may become acquainted with all the causes and circumstances on account of which AIIah removed this nation, that professed to believe in a revealed Book, from the leadership of mankind and turned it into a humiliated, condemned and backward community.

When, after the death of Prophet Moses, the Israelites entered Palestine it was inhabited by the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzittes, Hivites, Jebusites, the Philistines, etc.
These communities had adopted the worst kind of idolatry, their supreme deity being Ayl whom they regarded as the father of gods and who was usually represented by the bull-images.
His consort was called Asherah from whom had descended a whole line of gods and goddesses, about 70 in number.
The most powerful god among them was Baal who was regarded as the god of rain and growth and the lord of the earth and heavens.
In the northern regions his consort was called Anathoth and in Palestine Ashtaroth.
These two were the goddesses of love and procreation.
Besides them, there was a god of death, a god of disease and famine, and a goddess of health, and thus all the worldly powers and agencies stood divided among a large number of deities.
The people had ascribed such dirty and base qualities and acts to these deities that even a worst offender against morality would shun being known by them.
Obviously the people who have adopted such mean deities for worship and devotion cannot remain secure from the worst kind of moral degeneration and the modern excavations have shown this conclusively.

Child sacrifice was a common thing among them.
Their places of worship had turned into brothels, where women were kept as religious prostitutes and illicit relations with them were regarded as a part of worship and devotion.

The Israelites had clearly been told in the instructions given in the Torah that they should destroy those communities and wrest the land of Palestine from them, and that they should avoid mixing up with those people and ward off their moral and ideological weaknesses:
But when the Israelites entered Palestine they set this guidance aside.
They not only did not establish a united kingdom of their own but fell a prey to tribal parochialism.
Each of their tribes was content to take a part of the captured land and become a separate and independent state.
This disunity among them did not leave any of the tribes strong enough to purge its territory completely of the idolaters, and therefore they had to allow them to live side by side with them in the same land.
Not only this, but there had remained in the conquered territories a cumber of small city states of these idolatrous communities which the Israelites had nor been able to subjugate.
It is this very thing which has been complained against in the extract of the Psalms reproduced above in the beginning of E.N.
6.

The first consequence of intermixing with those communities, was that the Israelites also became idolatrous, and gradually began to adopt other moral evils also.
This has been complained about in the Book of Judges as below: " And the children of Israel did evil, in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim: And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger.
And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth ".
( Judges, 2: 11-13. )
The second consequence suffered by the Israelites was that the communities whose city-states they had left unconquered and the Philistines whose land they had not at all touched set up a united front against them and drove them out of a major part of Palestine by incessant attacks, so much so that they deprived them of the Holy Ark of their Lord.
At last, the Israelites felt the need of Establishing a united kingdom of their own under one ruler, and on their request Prophet Samuel appointed Saul as their king in 1020 B.C.
( For details see vv.
246-48 and E.N.'s.
268-270 of AI-Baqarah. )
This united kingdom was ruled by three kings: Saul ( 1020 B.C.
to 1004.
B.C. ), Prophet David ( 1004 to 965 B.C. ) and Prophet Solomon ( 365 to 926 B.C. ).
These kings brought to completion the mission that had been left incomplete by the Israelites after the death of Prophet Moses.
They annexed all the territories except the Phoenician state on the northern and the Philistine state on the southern coast, which, of course, became tributaries.

After the death of Prophet Solomon the Israelites again adopted the ways of the world and fought among themselves and split into two independent kingdoms, the kingdom of Israel in the northern Palestine and Jordan with Samaria ,as its capital, and the kingdom of Judah in the southern Palestine and Edom with Jerusalem as its capital.
These kingdoms were strife-ridden from the very .
beginning and this state of affairs persisted till the end.

The rulers and people of the kingdom of Israel were the first to be affected grievously by the ideological and moral weaknesses of the neighbouring communities.
Specially after the marriage of its ruler, Ahab, with the idolatrous princess Jezebel of Zidon, idolatry and other evils began to spread unchecked among the Israelites under the official patronage.
Prophets Elias and Elisha tried their very best to check this deluge but the Israelites who were rapidly degenerating, did not heed their warning.
At last the wrath of AIIah overtook the kingdom of Israel in the shape of the Assyrians who started subjecting Palestine to incessant attacks from 900 B.C.
downward.
During this period, Prophet Amos ( 787-747 B.C. ) and them Prophet Hosea( 747-735 B.C. ) rose and warned the Israelites again and again but the wretched, depraved people did not heed their warnings at all, and transgressed all limits.
Prophet Amos was banished by the king of Israel from the realm of Samaria and warned not to preach his mission in the country Not very long after this the wrath of Allah burst upon the kingdom of Israel and its people.
The Assyrian king Sargon took Samaria in 721 B.C.and put an end to this northern kingdom.
Thousands of Israelites were put to the sword and 27 thousand of their leading men were driven out of their homeland and scattered in the eastern districts of the Assyrian empire and replaced by settlers from other parts of the empire.
When the remaining Israelites intermixed with the settlers they also lost gradually their national and cultural identity.

The other kingdom of the Israelites, called the kingdom of Judah, which was set up in southern Palestine also began to adopt godless ways soon after the death of Prophet Solomon, though its moral degeneration took place at a slower pace than that of Israel.
Therefore, it was allowed to exist for a longer period.
Then, like the kingdom of Israel, it also began to be subjected to continual attacks, its cities ruined and its capital besieged, but this kingdom could not be wholly destroyed by the Assyrians; it only became a tributary.
Afterwards, when inspite of the best reformatory efforts of Prophets lsaiah and Jeremiah the people of Judah did not give up idol-worship and other moral evils, king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked and captured the whole of Judah in 598 B.C.including Jerusalem and took the king of Judah as prisoner.
Even then the Israelites did not mend their ways and paid no heed to the warnings and guidance of Prophet Jeremiah: Instead of reforming their ways, they started making plans to change their fate by revolting against Babylon.
At last in 587 B.C.Nebuchadnezzar punished them heavily by invading Judah and destroyed all its important cities.
He razed Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple to the ground and did not leave a wall of it standing in place.
He drove a large part of the Israelite population out of their land and scattered them into the adjoining countries.
The people who were left behind were cursed and subjected to all kinds of humiliations by the neighbouring communities.

This was the first calamity that came as a warning to the Israelites and the first chastisement that they suffered as a result therof.

 

It was mentioned in the Tawrah that the Jews would spread Mischief twice Allah tells us that He made a declaration to the Children of Israel in the Scripture, meaning that He had already told them in the Book which He revealed to them, that they would cause mischief on the earth twice, and would become tyrants and extremely arrogant, meaning they would become shameless oppressors of people, Allah says: وَقَضَيْنَآ إِلَيْهِ ذَلِكَ الاٌّمْرَ أَنَّ دَابِرَ هَـؤُلآْءِ مَقْطُوعٌ مُّصْبِحِينَ ( And We made known this decree to him, that the root of those (sinners ) was to be cut off in the early morning.)( 15:66 ), meaning, We already told him about that and informed him of it. The First Episode of Mischief caused by the Jews, and their Punishment for it فَإِذَا جَآءَ وَعْدُ أُولَـهُمَا ( So, when the promise came for the first of the two ) meaning the first of the two episodes of mischief. بَعَثْنَا عَلَيْكُمْ عِبَادًا لَّنَآ أُوْلِى بَأْسٍ شَدِيدٍ ( We sent against you servants of Ours given to terrible warfare. ) means, `We unleashed soldiers against you from among Our creatures who were given to terrible warfare,' i.e., they had great strength and weapons and power.
They entered the very innermost parts of your homes, meaning they took possession of your land and invaded the very innermost parts of your homes, going between and through your houses, coming and going freely with no fear of anyone.
This was the promise ( completely ) fulfilled.
The earlier and later commentators differed over the identity of these invaders.
Many Isra'iliyyat ( reports from Jewish sources ) were narrated about this, but I did not want to make this book too long by mentioning them, because some of them are fabricated, concocted by their heretics, and others may be true, but we have no need of them, praise be to Allah.
What Allah has told us in His Book ( the Qur'an ) is sufficient and we have no need of what is in the other books that came before.
Neither Allah nor His Messenger required us to refer to them.
Allah told His Messenger that when ( the Jews ) committed transgression and aggression, Allah gave their enemies power over them to destroy their country and enter the innermost parts of their homes.
Their humiliation and subjugation was a befitting punishment, and your Lord is never unfair or unjust to His servants.
They had rebelled and killed many of the Prophets and scholars.
Ibn Jarir recorded that Yahya bin Sa`id said: "I heard Sa`id bin Al-Musayyib saying: `Nebuchadnezzar conquered Ash-Sham ( Greater Syria, including Palestine ), destroying Jerusalem and killing them, then he came to Damascus and found blood boiling in a censer.
He asked them: What is this blood They said: We found our forefathers doing this.
Because of that blood, he killed seventy thousand of the believers and others, then the blood stopped boiling.
This report is Sahih from Sa`id bin Al-Musayyib, and this event is well-known, as he ( Nebuchadnezzar ) killed their nobles and scholars, and did not leave alive anyone who knew the Tawrah by heart.
He took many prisoners from the sons of the Prophets and others, and did many other things that would take too long to mention here.
If we had found anything that was correct or close enough, we could have written it and reported it here.
And Allah knows best.
Then Allah says: إِنْ أَحْسَنتُمْ أَحْسَنتُمْ لاًّنفُسِكُمْ وَإِنْ أَسَأْتُمْ فَلَهَا ( (And We said ): "If you do good, you do good for your own selves, and if you do evil ( you do it ) against yourselves.") As Allah says elsewhere: مَّنْ عَمِلَ صَـلِحاً فَلِنَفْسِهِ وَمَنْ أَسَآءَ فَعَلَيْهَا ( Whosoever does a righteous good deed, it is for (the benefit of ) himself; and whosoever does evil, it is against himself.) 45:15 The Second Episode of Mischief Then Allah says: فَإِذَا جَآءَ وَعْدُ الاٌّخِرَةِ ( Then, when the second promise came to pass, ) meaning, the second episode of mischief, when your enemies came again, لِيَسُوءُواْ وُجُوهَكُمْ ( (We permitted your enemies ) to disgrace your faces) meaning, to humiliate you and subdue you, وَلِيَدْخُلُواْ الْمَسْجِدَ ( and to enter the Masjid ) meaning, Bayt Al-Maqdis ( Jerusalem ). كَمَا دَخَلُوهُ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ ( as they had entered it before, ) when they entered the very innermost parts of your homes. وَلِيُتَبِّرُواْ ( and to destroy ) wrecking and inflicting ruin upon it. مَا عَلَوْاْ ( all that fell in their hands. ) everything they could get their hands on. تَتْبِيرًاعَسَى رَبُّكُمْ أَن يَرْحَمَكُمْ ( with utter destruction.
It may be that your Lord may show mercy unto you ) meaning that He may rid you of them. وَإِنْ عُدتُّمْ عُدْنَا ( but if you return (to sins ), We shall return ( to Our punishment ).) meaning, if you return to causing mischief, عُدْنَا ( We shall return ) means, We `will once again punish you in this world, along with the punishment and torment We save for you in the Hereafter.' وَجَعَلْنَا جَهَنَّمَ لِلْكَـفِرِينَ حَصِيرًا ( And We have made Hell a prison Hasir for the disbelievers. ) meaning, a place of permanent detention, a prison which cannot be avoided or escaped.
Ibn `Abbas said, "Hasir here means a jail." Mujahid said, "They will be detained in it." Others said like- wise.
Al-Hasan said, "Hasir means a bed of Fire." Qatadah said: "The Children of Israel returned to aggres- sion, so Allah sent this group against them, Muhammad ﷺ and his companions, who made them pay the Jizyah, with willing submission, and feeling themselves subdued."

( So when the time for the first of the two ) the first of the two punishments; it is also said that this means: the first of the two corruptions ( came, We roused against you slaves of Ours ) Nebuchadnezzar and the host of the king of Babylon ( of great might ) of tremendous fighting skills ( who ravaged (your ) country) who killed you in the streets in the middle of your country, ( and it was a threat performed ) a decreed threat that surely takes place, that if you do such-and-such I will do this to you. Thus they stayed in captivity of Nebuchadnezzar for 90 years until Allah helped them with Koresh from Hamadan [ Persia ].

So, when the promise came for the first of the two, We sent against you slaves of Ours given to terrible warfare. They entered the very innermost parts of your homes. And it was a promise (completely) fulfilled.

Page 282 English transliteration