Tafseer of The Night Journey · Al-Israa · 17:92
Or you make the heaven fall upon us in fragments as you have claimed or you bring Allah and the angels before [us]
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.
The Qurʾān-reciters differed over the reading of His word كِسَفًا . The majority of the reciters of Kūfa and Baṣra read it with a sukūn on the sīn, with the meaning: that you cause the heaven to fall upon us in pieces (kisaf) — for kisf in Arabic is the plural of kisfa, and it is the plural of large numbers for the genus, just as the sidra-tree in the plural is called sidr, and dates in the plural tamr. It was heard from the Arabs: give me a kisfa of this garment, that is: a piece of it. One says: he brought us tharīd-bread of kisaf, that is: pieces of bread. And it is also possible, when it is read thus as "kisf" with a sukūn on the sīn, that thereby the verbal noun of kasafa is intended. As for kisaf with a fatḥa on the sīn, it is the plural for three to ten; one says: a kisfa, and three to ten kisa. Most of the reciters of Medina and some of the Kūfans read it as kisafan with a fatḥa on the sīn, with the meaning of: pieces, namely the three to ten.
The most correct of the two readings in my view is the reading of the one who read it with a sukūn on the sīn, for those who asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ that did not aim by their question that there should be a particular number of pieces. They only asked that he cause the heaven to fall upon them in pieces. And with this also the exegetes agree.
Mention of who said that:
It was related to us by Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, who said: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, who said: ʿĪsā related to us; and it was related to us by al-Ḥārith, who said: al-Ḥasan related to us, who said: Warqāʾ related to us, both of them from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, concerning His word كِسْفًا : he said: the whole heaven.
It was related to us by al-Qāsim, who said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, who said: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, from Mujāhid — the same.
Ibn Jurayj said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Kathīr said, from Mujāhid, concerning His word كَمَا زَعَمْتَ عَلَيْنَا كِسَفًا : he said: all at once. And the [passage] in Sūra al-Rūm وَيَجْعَلُهُ كِسَفًا — he said: pieces. Ibn Jurayj said: kisafan in connection with the word of Allah إِن نَّشَأْ نَخْسِفْ بِهِمُ الْأَرْضَ أَوْ نُسْقِطْ عَلَيْهِمْ كِسَفًا مِّنَ السَّمَاءِ .
It was related to us by Bishr, who said: Yazīd related to us, who said: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatāda: أَوْ تُسْقِطَ السَّمَاءَ كَمَا زَعَمْتَ عَلَيْنَا كِسَفًا : he said: that is: pieces.
It was related to us by ʿAlī, who said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, who said: Muʿāwiya related to me, from ʿAlī, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word كِسَفًا : he said: pieces.
It was related to us by Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā, who said: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, from Maʿmar, from Qatāda: كِسَفًا : he said: pieces.
It was related to me by Muḥammad ibn Saʿd, who said: my father related to me, who said: my uncle related to me, who said: my father related to me, from his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word أَوْ تُسْقِطَ السَّمَاءَ كَمَا زَعَمْتَ عَلَيْنَا كِسَفًا : that is, pieces.
The interpretation of the word of Allah, the Exalted: أَوْ تَأْتِيَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةِ قَبِيلًا
Allah, the Exalted, here reports what the polytheists said to the Prophet of Allah ﷺ: or you bring Allah and the angels qabīlan, O Muḥammad.
The exegetes differed over the meaning of qabīl in this place. Some said that it means: until Allah and the angels come to each tribe of us separately, tribe by tribe, so that they may behold them.
Mention of who said that:
It was related to us by Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, who said: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, who said: ʿĪsā related to us; and it was related to us by al-Ḥārith, who said: al-Ḥasan related to us, who said: Warqāʾ related to us, both of them from Ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid, concerning His word وَالْمَلَائِكَةِ قَبِيلًا : he said: to us separately, each tribe.
It was related to us by al-Qāsim, who said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, who said: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj, from Mujāhid, concerning His word أَوْ تَأْتِيَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةِ قَبِيلًا : he said: tribes separately, each tribe.
Others said: the meaning of this is: or you bring Allah and the angels openly before us, so that we meet them directly and see them with our own eyes.
Mention of who said that:
It was related to us by Bishr, who said: Yazīd related to us, who said: Saʿīd related to us, from Qatāda: أَوْ تَأْتِيَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةِ قَبِيلًا : so that we may behold them directly.
It was related to us by al-Qāsim, who said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, who said: Ḥajjāj related to me, from Ibn Jurayj: أَوْ تَأْتِيَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةِ قَبِيلًا : so that we may behold them.
Some of the Arabic linguists construe it as deriving from qabīl in the sense of guarantor, from their expression: he is the qabīl of so-and-so for what so-and-so owes him, and his surety.
The most correct of these statements in my view is what Qatāda said, namely that it has the meaning of beholding directly, deriving from their word: qābaltu fulānan muqābalatan (I met so-and-so face to face), and fulān qabīl fulān, in the meaning of his counterpart, as the poet said:
We will make peace with you until you return with the like of it, like the cry of a pregnant woman delivered of her qabīl.
By qabīl he means: her facing [midwife]. One of the language scholars of Baṣra said: when they describe an attribute in the pattern faʿīl derived from their expression qābaltu and so forth, they make the form of the attribute for the dual and the plural and the feminine and the masculine identical in form, as they say: hiya qabīlī, humā qabīlī, hum qabīlī, hunna qabīlī.
