17:68 Al-Israa (The Night Journey)

{ أَفَأَمِنْتُمْ أَنْ يَخْسِفَ بِكُمْ جَانِبَ الْبَرِّ أَوْ يُرْسِلَ عَلَيْكُمْ حَاصِبًا } أي: فهو على كل شيء قدير إن شاء أنزل عليكم عذابا من أسفل منكم بالخسف أو من فوقكم بالحاصب وهو العذاب الذي يحصبهم فيصبحوا هالكين، فلا تظنوا أن الهلاك لا يكون إلا في البحر.

يقول تعالى أفحسبتم بخروجكم إلى البر أمنتم من انتقامه وعذابه أن يخسف بكم جانب البر أو يرسل عليكم حاصبا وهو المطر الذي فيه حجارة قاله مجاهد وغير واحد كما قال تعالى "إنا أرسلنا عليهم حاصبا إلا آل لوط نجيناهم بسحر نعمة من عندنا" وقد قال في الآية الأخرى "وأمطرنا عليهم حجارة من طين" وقال "أأمنتم من في السماء أن يخسف بكم الأرض فإذا هي تمور أم أمنتم من في السماء أن يرسل عليكم حاصبا فستعلمون كيف نذير" وقوله "ثم لا تجدوا لكم وكيلا" أي ناصرا يرد ذلك عنكم وينقذكم منه.

Does not the Punishment of Allah come on Land too

Allah says, do you think that by emerging onto dry land you will be safe from His vengeance and punishment, that a side of the land will not swallow you up or He will not send against you a Hasib - which is a kind of rain that carries stones This was the view of Mujahid and others. As Allah says:

إِنَّآ أَرْسَلْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ حَـصِباً إِلاَّ آلَ لُوطٍ نَّجَّيْنَـهُم بِسَحَرٍ نِّعْمَةً مِّنْ عِندِنَا

(Verily, We sent against them, except the family of Lut, them We saved in the last hour of the night, As a favor from Us.) (54:34-35) Elsewhere, Allah says:

وَأَمْطَرْنَا عَلَيْهَا حِجَارَةً مِّن سِجِّيلٍ مَّنْضُودٍ

(and We rained on them stones of Sijjil, in a well-arranged manner one after another)

أَءَمِنتُمْ مَّن فِى السَّمَآءِ أَن يَخْسِفَ بِكُمُ الاٌّرْضَ فَإِذَا هِىَ تَمُورُ - أَمْ أَمِنتُمْ مِّن فِى السَّمَآءِ أَن يُرْسِلَ عَلَيْكُمْ حَـصِباً فَسَتَعْلَمُونَ كَيْفَ نَذِيرِ

(Do you feel secure that He, Who is over the heaven (Allah), will not cause the earth to sink with you, and then it should quake Or do you feel secure that He, Who is over the heaven (Allah), will not send against you a Hasib Then you shall know how (terrible) has been My warning) (67: 16-17)

ثُمَّ لاَ تَجِدُواْ لَكُمْ وَكِيلاً

(Then, you shall find no guardian.) no helper to turn the punishment away from you and save you.

Do you feel secure that He will not cause a side of the earth in other words the land to swallow you up as He did with Korah Qārūn or unleash upon you a squall of pebbles? that is hurl a shower of stones upon you as He did with the people of Lot. Then you will not find for yourselves any guardian any protector from Him.

(2) Secondly, he had said if he was given respite till the day of Qiyamah, he will mislead the entire progeny of 'Adam, except a few of them. That Allah Ta’ ala has elected to answer in the later verses. He said that the Shaitan will have no control over His sincere servants even if he were to rally his entire forces against them and as for the insincere who fall into his trap, they will meet the same fate as his, all consigned to Hell. When this verse (64) mentions the horsemen and footmen of the Shaitanic army, it does not necessarily mean that the Shaitan actually has combat support in that formation. In fact, this is a manner of referring to the full force and power of the Shaitan. And if the Shaitan does have horsemen and footmen actually, even that too cannot be denied. Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn ` Abbas ؓ said: Those who come out in support of disbelief and sin, horsemen or footmen, they are nothing but the army of the Shaitan. Now remains the question as to how the Shaitan came to know that he would succeed in enticing and misleading the progeny of 'Adam (علیہ السلام) ، the basis on which he claimed that he will subdue them. There are two possibilities. Perhaps, by looking at the ingredients that went into the making of man, he had gathered that man would be desire-prone and it would not be difficult to entice him successfully. And then, it is also not far out to believe that his very claim was nothing but a bland lie.

As for the sense of: وَشَارِ‌كْهُمْ فِي الْأَمْوَالِ وَالْأَوْلَادِ (and share with them in their wealth and their children - 64), Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn ` Abbas ؓ said: Wealth and property acquired by false, impermissible and unlawful means or spent on what is haram is the sharing of the Shaitan in it. As for the sharing of the Shaitan in children, it could either be through illegitimacy, or by naming them like disbelievers and polytheists, or by indulging in polytheistic customs to ensure their security, or by taking to Haram sources of income to bring them up. (Qurtubi)