Tafseer of The Night Journey · Al-Israa · 17:37
And do not walk upon the earth exultantly. Indeed, you will never tear the earth [apart], and you will never reach the mountains in height.
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: وَلَا تَمْشِ فِي الْأَرْضِ haughtily and presumptuously. إِنَّكَ لَنْ تَخْرِقَ الْأَرْضَ — He says: You will not traverse (taqṭaʿ) the earth with your haughtiness, as Ruʾba said: 'wa-qātimi l-aʿmāqi khāwī l-mukhttaraqi' — by al-mukhtaraq he means: the traversed stretch (al-maqṭaʿ). وَلَنْ تَبْلُغَ الْجِبَالَ طُولًا — through your arrogance and pride. This is nothing other than a prohibition from Allah to His servants against pride, ostentation, and vanity (al-khuyyalāʾ), and an admonition from Him to them concerning that, whereby He informs them that through their arrogance and their ostentation they attain nothing that others do not attain.
Thus the exegetes also said what we said.
Those who said this are the following:
Bishr related to us — he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda — concerning His word وَلَا تَمْشِ فِي الْأَرْضِ مَرَحًا إِنَّكَ لَنْ تَخْرِقَ الْأَرْضَ وَلَنْ تَبْلُغَ الْجِبَالَ طُولًا : 'That is to say: with your arrogance and your swagger.'
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us — he said: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda — وَلَا تَمْشِ فِي الْأَرْضِ مَرَحًا : 'Do not walk upon the earth with ostentation and arrogance, for that will not bring you to the mountains, nor traverse the earth with your arrogance and your ostentation.'
Al-Qāsim related to us — he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj communicated to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj — وَلَا تَمْشِ فِي الْأَرْضِ — he said: 'Do not be ostentatious.'
It reads مَرَحًا and not مَرِحًا , because the intent was not to say: do not be one who swaggers (mārih), as though it were a characteristic of the one walking; rather what is intended is: do not go about the earth full of swagger, so that the intended meaning of His word 'do not walk' is made clear, as the poet said:
'Yūʿjibuhū l-sakhūnu wa-l-ʿaṣīdu — wa-l-tamru ḥubban mā lahū mazīdu' —
He said 'ḥubban', because in 'yūʿjibuhū' there lies the meaning of 'yuḥibbu', so that he derived 'ḥubban' from its meaning and not from its wording.
[Footnote references about the poem and the linguistic sources omitted as marginal OCR noise.]