Tafseer of The Night Journey · Al-Israa · 17:83
And when We bestow favor upon the disbeliever, he turns away and distances himself; and when evil touches him, he is ever despairing.
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 Blessed and Exalted, says: And when We had bestowed a favor upon man — by rescuing him from the distress he was in upon the sea, in which he was on the verge of perishing through the violence of the wind, and bringing him to land, and other favors from Us — he turned away from Our remembrance, though in the difficult situation he had taken refuge in Us alone and had called upon none other than Us. wa-naʾā bi-jānibihi — that is: he turned his side — that is: himself — away from Us, as though he had not called upon Us concerning an adversity that had befallen him before that.
As 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 Mujāhid, concerning His words wa-naʾā bi-jānibihi — he said: he removed himself far from Us.
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 — the same.
The reading entails that the hamza in naʾā comes before the alif; that is the linguistically correct expression, and it is with this that we read. Some of the people of Medina read this as "wa-nāʾa," placing the hamza after the alif; although this is a permissible dialectal form heard among the Arabs — by bringing the hamza forward to a position where it actually belongs at the end, and placing it at the end in a position where it belongs at the front — as the poet said:
aʿlāmun yuqallilu rāʾa ruʾyā fa-huwa yahdhī bi-mā raʾā fī al-manāmi
And as they said ābar for abʾār, bringing the hamza forward — this is not the superior dialectal form; the other is the correct one.
His words, Mighty and Great: wa-idhā massahu al-sharru kāna yaʾūsan — that is: when adversity and misery befell him, he was in despair concerning deliverance and relief.
With what we have said concerning al-yaʾūs, the exegetes have likewise said.
Account of who said that:
ʿAlī ibn Dāwūd related to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words wa-idhā massahu al-sharru kāna yaʾūsan — that is: despairing (qanūṭan).
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: wa-idhā massahu al-sharru kāna yaʾūsan — that is: when adversity befell him, he despaired and became hopeless (qaniṭa).
[Note of the editors: Thus this verse stands in the sources; after investigation we have not been able to determine its author. It is from the bahr al-khafīf, and the first half is corrupted. The correct form is presumably as follows: am ghulāmun muḍallal rāʾa ruʾyā fa-huwa yahdhī bi-mā raʾā fī al-manāmi The evidentiary force in the verse lies in the expression "rāʾa," which is a metathesis of raʾā, with the lām placed before the ʿayn — the form is thus on the pattern faʿla; the proof of this is that the verb of both forms has the same maṣdar, namely al-ruʾyā. A comparable metathesis is "nāʾa," whose maṣdar is identical to that of naʾā, namely al-naʾy.]
