Tafseer of The Night Journey · Al-Israa · 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.
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.
As for His statement فَإِذَا جَاءَ وَعْدُ أُولاهُمَا ("When then the promise of the first of the two comes"), what is meant by it is: when the promise comes of the first of the two times in which they would spread corruption upon the earth. As Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, concerning His statement فَإِذَا جَاءَ وَعْدُ أُولاهُمَا : when the promise comes of the first of those two times that We announced to the Children of Israel لَتُفْسِدُنَّ فِي الأرْضِ مَرَّتَيْنِ ("You shall surely spread corruption twice upon the earth").
And His statement بَعَثْنَا عَلَيْكُمْ عِبَادًا لَنَا أُولِي بَأْسٍ شَدِيدٍ فَجَاسُوا خِلالَ الدِّيَارِ وَكَانَ وَعْدًا مَفْعُولا ("We sent against you servants of Ours possessing great military might, and they penetrated through the dwellings, and it was a promise fulfilled"): the Exalted — may His praise be mentioned — means by His statement بعَثْنا عَلَيْكُمْ ("We sent against you"): We directed against you and sent against you عِبَادًا لَنَا أُولِي بَأْسٍ شَدِيدٍ ("servants of Ours possessing great military might"), that is to say: men of tremendous striking power in wars. And His statement فَجَاسُوا خِلالَ الدِّيَارِ وَكَانَ وَعْدًا مَفْعُولا
means: they went back and forth among the houses and the dwellings, coming and going. One says concerning this: "jāsa al-qawm bayna al-diyār" and "ḥāsū" with one and the same meaning, and "justu anā ajūsu jawsan wa-jawasānan."
And in agreement with what we have said concerning this, the report has been transmitted on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās.
ʿAlī ibn Dāwūd related to me, saying: ʿAbdallāh related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning فَجَاسُوا خِلالَ الدِّيَارِ ("and they penetrated through the dwellings"), he said: they walked around. And some of the experts in the language of the Arabs from the people of Basra said: the meaning of "jāsū" is: they killed, and he adduces in support of that statement a verse of Ḥassān:
"And to us belongs he who fought with the sword of Muḥammad (the Prophet ﷺ),
and with it went about among the enemies in the breadth of the army hosts."
And it is possible that the meaning is: they penetrated through the dwellings and killed them, while they went back and forth — so that both interpretations together are correct. And by His statement وَكَانَ وَعْدًا مَفْعُولا ("and it was a promise fulfilled") He means: and the penetration of the people whom We sent against them among their dwellings was a promise from Allah to them which was inevitably fulfilled, for He does not break the promise.
Then the exegetes differed concerning whom Allah meant by His statement أُولي بَأْسٍ شَدِيدٍ ("possessing great military might") regarding what they did at the first time among the Children of Israel, when they were sent against them, and concerning who was sent against them at the last time, and what they did to them. Some of them said: the one whom Allah sent against them the first time was Jālūt (Goliath), and he was among the people of al-Jazīra.
* Mention of who said that:
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to us, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His statement فَإِذَا جَاءَ وَعْدُ أُولاهُمَا بَعَثْنَا عَلَيْكُمْ عِبَادًا لَنَا أُولِي بَأْسٍ شَدِيدٍ فَجَاسُوا خِلالَ الدِّيَارِ وَكَانَ وَعْدًا مَفْعُولا , he said: Allah sent Jālūt against them, and he penetrated through their dwellings and imposed upon them the land-tax (kharāj) and humiliation. Then they asked Allah to send them a king under whom they would fight in the way of Allah, and Allah sent Ṭālūt. They fought against Jālūt, and Allah aided the Children of Israel to victory, and Jālūt was killed by the hand of Dāwūd, and Allah restored to the Children of Israel their kingship.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His statement فَإِذَا جَاءَ وَعْدُ أُولاهُمَا بَعَثْنَا عَلَيْكُمْ عِبَادًا لَنَا أُولِي بَأْسٍ شَدِيدٍ فَجَاسُوا خِلالَ الدِّيَارِ وَكَانَ وَعْدًا مَفْعُولا : a decree which Allah passed against the people, as you hear. He sent at the first time Jālūt al-Jazarī against them, and he took captives and killed, and they penetrated through the dwellings as Allah has said; then the people returned with rancor among them.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, he said: as for the first time, Allah gave Jālūt power over them, until He sent Ṭālūt, and with him Dāwūd, and Dāwūd killed him.
And others said: no, He sent at the first time Sanḥārīb (Sennacherib) against them — and we have already mentioned earlier some of those who say that, and we now mention what comes to our mind of those whom we did not mention earlier.
Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Abū l-Muʿallā, he said: I heard Saʿīd ibn Jubayr say concerning His statement بَعَثْنَا عَلَيْكُمْ عِبَادًا لَنَا أُولِي بَأْسٍ شَدِيدٍ ("We sent against you servants of Ours possessing great military might"), he said: Allah — blessed and exalted is He — sent at the first time Sanḥārīb against them, from the people of Athūr and Nineveh. I asked Saʿīd about it, and he claimed that it is Mosul (al-Mawṣil).
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, he said: Yaʿlā ibn Muslim ibn Saʿīd ibn Jubayr related to me, that he heard him say: there was a man of the Children of Israel who used to recite continually until, when he reached بَعَثْنَا عَلَيْكُمْ عِبَادًا لَنَا أُولِي بَأْسٍ شَدِيدٍ ("We sent against you servants of Ours possessing great military might"), he would weep and his eyes would overflow, and he would close the codex (muṣḥaf). Thus he did for as long as Allah willed. Then he said: O Lord, show me that man by whose hands You have appointed the destruction of the Children of Israel. Then there was shown to him in a dream a poor man at Babel, named Bukhtnaṣṣar (Nebuchadnezzar). So he (the Israelite) set out with property and slaves, and he was a man of means. He was asked: where do you wish to go? He said: I wish to engage in trade. Until he occupied a house at Babel, which he rented — there was no one else in it but him. He began to invite the poor and to treat them well, until none remained. He said: is there any poor man left besides you? They said: yes, a sick poor man in the ravine of the family of so-and-so, named Bukhtnaṣṣar. Then he said to his servants: go — until he came to him, and he said: what is your name? He said: Bukhtnaṣṣar. Then he said to his servants: carry him. And he brought him to himself and nursed him until he recovered, and he clothed him and provided for him. Then the Israelite announced his departure, and Bukhtnaṣṣar wept. The Israelite said: what makes you weep? He said: I weep because you have done for me what you have done, and I find nothing with which to repay you. He said: yes, something slight: if you ever rule, obey me. Then the other began to follow him and said: you mock me — and nothing prevented him from giving him what he asked except that he supposed that he was mocking him. Then the Israelite wept and said: I know what prevents you from giving me what I have asked of you; it is only that Allah wishes to bring to pass what He has already decreed and written in His book, and the time has struck its blow. One day Ṣayḥūn said — and he was the king of Persia at Babel: what if we sent a reconnaissance party to the Levant (al-Shām)? They said: and what harm would it do you if you did so? He said: whom then do you propose? They said: so-and-so. So he sent a man and gave him a hundred thousand. And Bukhtnaṣṣar went along with his kitchen — he went only to eat in his kitchen. When he arrived in the Levant and the leader of the reconnaissance party saw that the greater part of Allah's land was full of horses and strong men, that broke his courage, and he did not inquire about anything. He said: And Bukhtnaṣṣar began to take a seat in the assemblies of the people of the Levant and said: what prevents you from attacking Babel? For if you were to attack it, there is nothing standing before its treasury. They said: we are not accustomed to fighting. He said: suppose you were to attack. They said: we are not accustomed to fighting and we do not fight — until he had gone through all the assemblies of the people of the Levant. Then they returned, and the scout gave their king an account of what he had seen. And Bukhtnaṣṣar began to say to the king's horsemen: if the king were to summon me, I would report to him something other than what so-and-so has reported to him. That was conveyed to him (the king), and he summoned him and he brought him the report, and he said: when so-and-so saw that the greater part of Allah's land was full of horses and strong men, that became too great in his soul and he asked them about nothing; but I have not omitted a single assembly in the Levant without sitting with its people, and I said to them such and such, and they said to me such and such — that which Saʿīd ibn Jubayr mentioned that he said to them. The scout said to Bukhtnaṣṣar: you have disgraced me; for you there is a hundred thousand, and you retract what you have said. He said: even if you gave me the treasury of Babel, I would not retract it — the time has struck its blow. Then the king said: what if we sent a troop of cavalry to the Levant? If they find a passage, they penetrate, and otherwise they return to what they are able. They said: and what harm would it do you if you did so? He said: whom do you propose? They said: so-and-so. He said: no, the man who reported to me what he reported to me. So he summoned Bukhtnaṣṣar and sent him, and he chose four thousand of their horsemen with him. They set out and penetrated through the dwellings, and they took captives as many as Allah willed, but they did not lay waste and did not kill. And king Ṣayḥūn died. They said: appoint a man as successor. They said: take it easy, until your companions come, for they are your horsemen; they will undertake nothing against you, grant a delay. So they granted a delay until Bukhtnaṣṣar came with the captives and what he had with him, and he distributed that among the people. Then they said: we have seen no one more worthy of the kingship than this one, and they made him king.
Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Sulaymān ibn Bilāl informed me, on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, he said: I heard Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab say: Bukhtnaṣṣar gained the upper hand over the Levant, and he laid waste to Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis) and killed them. Then he came to Damascus, and he found there blood bubbling up on a dung-heap — that is to say: a refuse pile. He asked them: what is this blood? They said: we already found our forefathers at this, and every time the dung-heap covered it, it came forth again. He said: and he killed on account of that blood seventy thousand of the Muslims and others, and then it became still.
And others said: by it is meant a people from the people of Persia. They said: and at the first time there was no fighting.
* Mention of who said that:
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning فَإِذَا جَاءَ وَعْدُ أُولاهُمَا بَعَثْنَا عَلَيْكُمْ عِبَادًا لَنَا أُولِي بَأْسٍ شَدِيدٍ فَجَاسُوا خِلالَ الدِّيَارِ , he said: they were those who came to them from Persia to spy out their reports and eavesdrop on their conversations, and Bukhtnaṣṣar was among them, and he committed their conversations to memory among his companions. Then the Persians returned, and there was no fighting, and the Children of Israel gained victory over them — that is the promise of the first time.
Al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning بَعَثْنَا عَلَيْكُمْ عِبَادًا لَنَا أُولِي بَأْسٍ شَدِيدٍ ("We sent against you servants of Ours possessing great military might"): an army that came to them from Persia to spy out their reports — then he mentioned something similar.
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning فَإِذَا جَاءَ وَعْدُ أُولاهُمَا بَعَثْنَا عَلَيْكُمْ عِبَادًا لَنَا أُولِي بَأْسٍ شَدِيدٍ , he said: that is to say: those who came to them from Persia — then he mentioned something similar.
