Tafseer of The Night Journey · Al-Israa · 17:30
Indeed, your Lord extends provision for whom He wills and restricts [it]. Indeed He is ever, concerning His servants, Acquainted and Seeing.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
Allah the Exalted says to His Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: Verily your Lord, O Muḥammad, extends the provision for whom He wills among His servants and grants amplitude, and restricts it for whom He wills — that is to say: He straitens it for whom He wills among them and constricts them. إِنَّهُ كَانَ بِعِبَادِهِ خَبِيرًا — He says: Your Lord possesses knowledge (khabra) of His servants and knows who is benefited by amplitude in provision and whom it leads to ruin, and who is benefited by restriction and straitness and whom it destroys. بَصِيرًا — He says: He is seeing (dhū baṣar) in the managing and governing of them. He says: So follow, O Muḥammad, Our command in what We have enjoined upon you and forbidden you, concerning the extending of your hand in that to which you extend it and to whom you extend it, and the withholding of it from whom you withhold it and therein; for We know the interests of the servants better than you and better than all created beings, and We are more seeing in the governing of them.
As [related by] the one who told me — Yūnus, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said — then He, blessed and exalted be He, let us know how He acts and said: إِنَّ رَبَّكَ يَبْسُطُ الرِّزْقَ لِمَنْ يَشَاءُ وَيَقْدِرُ . He said: 'yaqdir' means: to make small; and every 'yaqdir' in the Qurʾān has that meaning. Then He informed His servants that it does not harm Him nor burden Him when He grants amplitude to them all, but that this is a glance of Care for them from Him, and He said: وَلَوْ بَسَطَ اللَّهُ الرِّزْقَ لِعِبَادِهِ لَبَغَوْا فِي الْأَرْضِ وَلَكِنْ يُنَزِّلُ بِقَدَرٍ مَا يَشَاءُ إِنَّهُ بِعِبَادِهِ بَصِيرٌ . He said: 'The Arabs used to, when there was abundance and amplitude was granted to them, transgress, kill one another, and corruption was brought about; but when there was scarcity, they were occupied with it.'
