Sūrah Al-Isrāʾ The Night Journey
الإسراء
111 verses, Makkī. Opens with the Night Journey (Isrāʾ) from Makkah to Jerusalem and the Ascent (Miʿrāj) among the greatest miracles of the Prophet ﷺ. Ibn Kathīr covers the ten commandments of Islamic ethics (17:23–39), the status of Banī Isrāʾīl across history, and the Qurʾān as healing and guidance.
Surah Overview
Key Themes from Ibn Kathīr
The Night Journey physical, awake (17:1): "Exalted is He who took His servant by night from al-Masjid al-Ḥarām to al-Masjid al-Aqṣā." Ibn Kathīr establishes: the journey was bodily (bi-jasadihī) while the Prophet ﷺ was awake not a spiritual vision. The word "servant" (ʿabd) signifies both body and soul. Had it been merely a dream, the Quraysh would not have been shocked and called it a lie.
Do not say "Uff" to your parents (17:23): The surah's ethics begin with tawḥīd worship none but Allah then immediately move to: your Lord has decreed that you not worship anyone except Him, and to parents goodness. Do not say "uff" to them (the minimum of disrespect a sigh of impatience). Ibn Kathīr: if the least expression of displeasure is prohibited, then anything harsher is even more so.
- The five prayers were legislated on the Night Journey: Ibn Kathīr records the ḥadīth in detail fifty prayers were originally prescribed, reduced to five through Mūsā's ﷺ advice and the Prophet's ﷺ repeated intercession. The five carry the reward of fifty.
- Two destructions of Banī Isrāʾīl (17:4–8): Their first corruption Nebuchadnezzar's destruction of Jerusalem (586 BCE). Their second the Romans under Titus (70 CE). Ibn Kathīr: "If you return, We will return" history repeats through moral choices.
- The Qurʾān heals what is in breasts (17:82): "And We send down of the Qurʾān that which is a healing and a mercy for the believers, and it does not increase the wrongdoers except in loss." The Qurʾān is medicine for spiritual disease but hardens those who reject it.
- The soul (rūḥ) a matter of the Lord (17:85): They ask you about the soul say the soul is a matter of my Lord, and you have not been given of knowledge except a little. Ibn Kathīr: the rūḥ is among the greatest mysteries its exact nature is known only to Allah.
- Seventy children of Ādam honoured (17:70): "And We have certainly honoured the children of Ādam and carried them on land and sea and provided for them of the good things and preferred them over much of what We have created, with definite preference." Human dignity is divinely established.