Tafseer of The Night Journey · Al-Israa · 17:60
And [remember, O Muhammad], when We told you, "Indeed, your Lord has encompassed the people." And We did not make the sight which We showed you except as a trial for the people, as was the accursed tree [mentioned] in the Qur'an. And We threaten them, but it increases them not except in great transgression.
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.
This is an exhortation from Allah — exalted be His remembrance — to His Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ to convey His message, and at the same time a notification from Him that He has already promised him beforehand that He will protect him against everyone who wishes him harm and ruin. The Exalted says: Remember, O Muḥammad, when We said to you that your Lord has encompassed mankind with His power, so that they are in His grasp and are not able to escape His will; and We shall protect you against them, so fear none of them, and proceed with what We have commanded you regarding the conveying of Our message.
And in the same sense as what we have said about this, the people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Ṣamad related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Abū Rajāʾ, saying: I heard al-Ḥasan say: "He has encompassed mankind" means: He has guarded you against mankind.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, saying: Abū Bakr al-Hudhalī related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning And when We said to you that your Lord has encompassed mankind, he said: He says: For your sake I have encompassed the Arabs, so that they will not kill you — and thus he knew that he would not be killed.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — both on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning He has encompassed mankind, he said: so they are in His grasp.
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, something similar.
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Abū Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, on the authority of ʿUrwa ibn al-Zubayr, His word He has encompassed mankind, he said: He has protected you against mankind. Maʿmar said: Qatāda said something similar.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, His word And when We said to you that your Lord has encompassed mankind, he said: He has protected you against mankind.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, And when We said to you that your Lord has encompassed mankind: that is to say: He has protected you against mankind, so that you might convey the message of your Lord.
And His word And We made the vision which We showed you only as a trial for mankind: the interpreters differed about this. Some of them said:
It is a vision of the eye, and it is what the Prophet ﷺ saw when he was taken by night from Mecca to Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis).
* Mention of who said that:
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Mālik ibn Ismāʿīl related to us, saying: Ibn ʿUyayna related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word And We made the vision which We showed you only as a trial for mankind, he said: it is a vision of the eye that was shown to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on the night in which he was taken by night, and it was not a dream-vision.
Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — he was questioned about His word And We made the vision which We showed you only as a trial for mankind — he said: it is a vision of the eye that the Prophet ﷺ saw on the night in which he was taken by night.
Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Ibn ʿUyayna informed us, on the authority of ʿAmr, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, something similar.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ḥakkām related to us, saying: ʿAmr related to us, on the authority of Furāt al-Qazzāz, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, And We made the vision which We showed you only as a trial for mankind, he said: that was on the night in which he was taken by night to Jerusalem, and he saw what he saw, and the polytheists (mushrikīn) declared him a liar when he told them of it.
Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Abū Rajāʾ, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning His word And We made the vision which We showed you only as a trial for mankind, he said: he was taken in the evening by night to Jerusalem, and he performed the prayer there, and Allah showed him of the signs what He showed him; then he was found in Mecca again in the morning, and he informed them that he had been taken by night to Jerusalem. Then they said to him: O Muḥammad, what is the matter with you — you were there in the evening, and in the morning you are again among us and inform us that you went to Jerusalem? And they marveled at that, until some of them apostatized from Islam.
Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Hawdha related to us, saying: ʿAwf related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning His word And We made the vision which We showed you only as a trial for mankind, he said: the unbelievers of the people of Mecca said: is it not among the lies of Ibn Abī Kabsha that he claims he has traversed a journey of two months in a single night?
Abū Ḥuṣayn related to me, saying: ʿAbthar related to us, saying: Ḥuṣayn related to us, on the authority of Abū Mālik, concerning this verse And We made the vision which We showed you only as a trial for mankind, he said: his journey to Jerusalem.
Abū al-Sāʾib and Yaʿqūb related to me, both of them saying: Ibn Idrīs related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbd Allāh, on the authority of Abū al-Ḍuḥā, on the authority of Masrūq, concerning His word And We made the vision which We showed you only as a trial for mankind, he said: when he was taken by night.
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Abū Aḥmad related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, And We made the vision which We showed you only as a trial for mankind, he said: on the night in which he was taken by night.
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, And We made the vision which We showed you only as a trial for mankind, he said: the vision that We showed you in Jerusalem when he was taken by night; and that was the trial for the unbeliever.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, And We made the vision which We showed you only as a trial for mankind, he says: Allah showed him of the signs and lessons on his journey to Jerusalem. It has been related to us that people apostatized after their Islam when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ recounted to them his journey; they denied that and declared him a liar, and they marveled at him and said: you recount to us that you traversed a journey of two months in a single night.
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, His word And We made the vision which We showed you only as a trial for mankind, he said: it is what was shown to him in Jerusalem on the night in which he was taken by night.
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, And We made the vision which We showed you, he said: Allah showed him of the signs on the way to Jerusalem when he was taken by night. The obligation of prayer was imposed on the night in which he was taken by night, one year and nine years (1) before his emigration (hijra), within the ten years that he stayed in Mecca; then he returned that same night. Then the Quraysh said: he took the evening meal with us and is among us in the morning, and after that he claims that he went to Syria (al-Shām) in a single night and returned again! And by Allah, the kite takes two months over it: a month going and a month returning.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, concerning His word And We made the vision which We showed you only as a trial for mankind, he said: this was when he was taken by night to Jerusalem; people were put to trial thereby and said: does he go to Jerusalem and return in a single night? And he ﷺ said: "When Jibrāʾīl — peace be upon him — came to me with al-Burāq to carry me upon it, she beat with her ears and shrank back; then Jibrāʾīl looked at her and said: By Him who has sent me with the truth from His presence, none of the children of Adam who is better than he has ever ridden you. Thereupon she beat with her ears and the sweat broke out on her until it flowed beneath her; and her stride reached as far as her sight reached." And when he brought them that, they said: Muḥammad will not cease until he comes with a lie that bursts forth from her horizons. So they went to Abū Bakr — may Allah be pleased with him — and said: this companion of yours says such and such. He said: did he really say that? They said: yes. He said: if he said that, then he has spoken the truth. They said: do you believe him when he says that he went to Jerusalem and returned in a single night? Abū Bakr said: yes — may Allah take away your reason! I believe him concerning the report from heaven, while heaven is farther away than Jerusalem, and would I then not believe him concerning the report about Jerusalem? They said to the Prophet ﷺ: we have gone to Jerusalem, so describe it for us. When they said that, Allah — blessed and exalted is He — raised it up for him and set it before his eyes, and he began to say: it is thus, and in it is thus. Then one of them said: by your father, he has not gotten a single letter of it wrong. And they said: this is a man who is a sorcerer.
It has been related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, saying: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān related to us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His word And We made the vision which We showed you only as a trial for mankind: that is, the night in which he was taken by night to Jerusalem, and then returned that same night — and that was a trial for them.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — both on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word The vision which We showed you, he said: when Muḥammad ﷺ was taken by night.
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, something similar.
And others said: it is his dream-vision in which he saw that he would enter Mecca.
* Mention of who said that:
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, His word And We made the vision which We showed you only as a trial for mankind, he said: it is said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was shown in a vision that he entered Mecca, he and his companions, while he was at that time in Medina. Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ hastened with the journey to Mecca, before the appointed time, but the polytheists drove him back. Thereupon some people said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ has been driven back, while he had told us that he would enter it! And thus his return became their trial.
And others, among those who said that it was a dream-vision, said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had only seen in his dream a people who climbed his pulpit.
* Mention of who said that: It has been related to me on the authority of Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Zabāla, saying: ʿAbd al-Muhaymin ibn ʿAbbās ibn Sahl ibn Saʿd related to us, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of my grandfather, saying: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ saw the sons of so-and-so leaping about on his pulpit as monkeys leap, and that grieved him, so that he was not seen to laugh fully thereafter (2) until he died. He said: and Allah — mighty and exalted is He — revealed concerning that And We made the vision which We showed you only as a trial for mankind .... [to the end of the verse].
And the most correct of the statements about this is the statement of him who said: by it is meant the vision of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ — what he saw of signs and lessons on his way to Jerusalem, and Jerusalem itself, on the night in which he was taken by night; and we have already mentioned a part of that at the beginning of this surah.
We only said that this is the most correct because of the consensus (ijmāʿ) of the authoritative proof among the interpreters that this verse was revealed precisely about this, and that Allah — mighty and exalted is He — intended this by it. If that is so, then the interpretation of the words is: and We made your vision which We showed you on the night in which We took you by night from Mecca to Jerusalem only a trial for mankind — he says: only a trial for the people who apostatized from Islam when they were informed about the vision which he — peace and blessings be upon him — had seen, and a trial for the polytheists among the people of Mecca, who, upon hearing that from the mouth of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, only increased in persistence in their error and in disbelief upon their disbelief.
As Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, His word only a trial for mankind (3).
And as for His word and the accursed tree in the Qurʾān: the interpreters differed about it. Some of them said: it is the Zaqqūm tree.
* Mention of who said that:
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Mālik ibn Ismāʿīl related to us, saying: Abū ʿUbayda related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, and the accursed tree in the Qurʾān, he said: the Zaqqūm tree.
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, His word and the accursed tree in the Qurʾān, he said: it is the Zaqqūm tree. Abū Jahl said: does Ibn Abī Kabsha frighten me with a Zaqqūm tree? Then he had dates and butter brought and began to say: eat zaqqūm! Then Allah the Exalted revealed its emerging fruit-stalks are as the heads of devils and revealed And We instill fear in them, but it only increases them in great rebellion.
Abū al-Sāʾib and Yaʿqūb related to me, both of them saying: Ibn Idrīs related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥasan ibn ʿUbayd Allāh, on the authority of Abū al-Ḍuḥā, on the authority of Masrūq, and the accursed tree in the Qurʾān, he said: the Zaqqūm tree.
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥasan ibn ʿUbayd Allāh, on the authority of Abū al-Ḍuḥā, on the authority of Masrūq, something similar.
Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Abū Rajāʾ, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, concerning His word and the accursed tree in the Qurʾān: the Quraysh ate dates and butter and said: eat this zaqqūm! Abū Rajāʾ said: ʿAbd al-Quddūs related to me, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, saying: and Allah described it for them in [surah] al-Ṣāffāt.
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Hawdha related to us, saying: ʿAwf related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, saying: Abū Jahl and the unbelievers of the people of Mecca said: is it not among the lies of Ibn Abī Kabsha that he promises you a Fire in which the stones burn, and claims that a tree grows in it — and the accursed tree in the Qurʾān? He said: it is the Zaqqūm tree.
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Yūnus related to me, saying: ʿAbthar related to us, saying: Ḥuṣayn related to us, on the authority of Abū Mālik, concerning this verse and the accursed tree in the Qurʾān, he said: the Zaqqūm tree.
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Hushaym related to us, on the authority of Ḥuṣayn, on the authority of Abū Mālik, he said concerning His word and the accursed tree in the Qurʾān: it is the Zaqqūm tree.
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak related to us, on the authority of a man called Badr, on the authority of ʿIkrima, he said: the Zaqqūm tree.
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Isrāʾīl related to us, on the authority of Furāt al-Qazzāz, saying: Saʿīd ibn Jubayr was questioned about the accursed tree, he said: the Zaqqūm tree.
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Hushaym related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Malik al-ʿAzramī, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, and the accursed tree, he said: the Zaqqūm tree.
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, something similar.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to me, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — both on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, and the accursed tree in the Qurʾān, he said: the Zaqqūm.
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, something similar.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Abū al-Maḥjal, on the authority of Abū Maʿshar, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, that he used to swear without reservation that the accursed tree is the Zaqqūm tree.
Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Isrāʾīl informed us, on the authority of Furāt al-Qazzāz, saying: I asked Saʿīd ibn Jubayr about the accursed tree in the Qurʾān, he said: the Zaqqūm tree.
Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Ibn ʿUyayna informed us, on the authority of ʿAmr, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: it is the Zaqqūm.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, His word and the accursed tree in the Qurʾān, and We instill fear in them, but it only increases them in great rebellion: it is the Zaqqūm tree, by which Allah instilled fear in His servants, and they were put to trial thereby, until one of them, Abū Jahl ibn Hishām, said: this companion of yours claims that there is a tree in the Fire, while the Fire indeed devours the trees! And by Allah, we know no zaqqūm other than dates and butter — so eat zaqqūm! Then Allah — blessed and exalted is He — revealed, when they marveled that there should be a tree in the Fire, verily, it is a tree that springs forth from the bottom of the Hellfire (al-jaḥīm) * its emerging fruit-stalks are as the heads of devils; I created it from the Fire, and I have punished with it whomever of My servants I willed.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, and the accursed tree in the Qurʾān, he said: the Zaqqūm; and that was because the polytheists said: this man informs us that there is a tree in the Fire, while the Fire devours the trees until it leaves nothing of them! And that was a trial.
It has been related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, saying: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān related to us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His word and the accursed tree in the Qurʾān: he said: the Zaqqūm tree.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, concerning His word and the accursed tree in the Qurʾān: the Zaqqūm, of which they asked Allah that He fill their houses with it; and he said: it is the ṣarafān with butter, which one eats as zaqqūm — and the ṣarafān is a kind of date. He said: and Abū Jahl said: it is the ṣarafān with butter — and they were put to trial thereby.
And others said: it is the kashūth (4).
* Mention of who said that:
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Fudayk related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Dhiʾb, on the authority of a freedman of the Banū Hāshim who related it to him, that ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Nawfal sent him to Ibn ʿAbbās to ask him about the accursed tree in the Qurʾān. He said: it is this plant which winds itself around the [other] tree and is placed in water — namely the kashūthī.
And the most correct of the two statements about this is, in our view, the statement of him who said: by it is meant the Zaqqūm tree, because of the consensus of the authoritative proof among the interpreters about it. "The accursed tree" is in the accusative as an apposition, joined to "the vision." The interpretation of the words is then: and We made the vision which We showed you, and the accursed tree in the Qurʾān, only a trial for mankind. Their trial concerning the vision was what I have mentioned about the apostasy of him who apostatized and the persistence of the people of shirk in their shirk, when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ informed them about what Allah had shown him on his journey to Jerusalem on the night in which he was taken by night; and their trial concerning the accursed tree was what we have mentioned about the statement of Abū Jahl and the polytheists with him: Muḥammad informs us that there is a growing tree in the Fire, while the Fire devours the trees — how then would anything grow in it?
And His word And We instill fear in them, but it only increases them in great rebellion, he says: and We instill fear in these polytheists through the punishments and the terrifying torments with which We threaten them, but Our instilling fear only increases them in great rebellion — he says: only in persistence and great error in their disbelief. And that was because, when fear was instilled in them of the Fire in which their food is the Zaqqūm, they asked for dates and butter and said: eat this zaqqūm!
And in the same sense as what we have said about this, the interpreters have spoken.
* Mention of who said that; a part of who said that has already been mentioned earlier, and we mention a part of who remains.
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, saying: Ibn Jurayj said and the accursed tree, he said: its emerging fruit-stalks are as the heads of devils, and the devils are accursed. He said: and the accursed tree in the Qurʾān — when He mentioned it, that increased them in trial and rebellion; Allah — blessed and exalted is He — said And We instill fear in them, but it only increases them in great rebellion.
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The footnotes:
(1) It is perhaps: "and nine years," that is to say: and after the passing of nine ... and so forth.
(2) The meaning is: he was not seen to laugh fully thereafter until he died.
(3) The text (matn) was abridged, contenting itself with what has just preceded.
(4) The kashūth and the kashūthā: a plant that clings to the branches and has no root in the ground. It is a word from the Sawād (see Lisān al-ʿArab and Tāj al-ʿArūs).
