17:87 Al-Israa (The Night Journey)

تفسير الآيتين 86 و87 :ـ يخبر تعالى أن القرآن والوحي الذي أوحاه إلى رسوله، رحمة منه عليه وعلى عباده، وهو أكبر النعم على الإطلاق على رسوله، فإن فضل الله عليه كبير، لا يقادر قدره. فالذي تفضل به عليك، قادر على أن يذهب به، ثم لا تجد رادًا يرده، ولا وكيلا بتوجه عند الله فيه. فلتغتبط به، وتقر به عينك، ولا يحزنك تكذيب المكذبين، واستهزاء الضالين، فإنهم عرضت عليهم أجل النعم، فردوها لهوانهم على الله وخذلانه لهم.

يذكر تعالى نعمته وفضله العظيم على عبده ورسوله الكريم صلى الله عليه وسلم فيما أوحاه إليه من القرآن المجيد الذي لا يأتيه الباطل من بين يديه ولا من خلفه تنزيل من حكيم حميد.

If Allah willed, He could take away the Qur'an

Allah mentions the blessing and great bounty that He has bestowed upon His servant and Messenger Muhammad by revealing to Him the Noble Qur'an to which falsehood cannot come, from before it or behind it, (it is) sent down by the All-Wise, Worthy of all praise. Ibn Mas`ud said, "A red wind will come to the people, meaning at the end of time, from the direction of Syria, and there will be nothing left in a man's Mushaf (copy of the Qur'an) or in his heart, not even one Ayah." Then Ibn Mas`ud recited:

وَلَئِن شِئْنَا لَنَذْهَبَنَّ بِالَّذِى أَوْحَيْنَا إِلَيْكَ

(And if We willed, We could surely take away that which We have revealed to you.)

Challenging by the Qur'an

Then Allah points out the great virtue of the Qur'an, and says that even if mankind and the Jinn were all to come together and agree to produce something like that which was revealed to His Messenger , they would never be able to do it, even if they were to cooperate and support and help one another. This is something which is impossible. How could the words of created beings be like the Words of the Creator Who has no equal and peer, for there is none like unto Him

وَلَقَدْ صَرَّفْنَا لِلنَّاسِ

(And indeed We have fully explained to man- kind,) meaning, `We have furnished them with evidence and defini- tive proof, and We have shown them the truth and explained it in detail, yet despite that most of mankind insist on disbelief, i.e., denying and rejecting the truth.'

it is only — but We have let it remain — as a mercy from your Lord. Truly His favour to you is ever great tremendous for He has revealed to you and granted you the praiseworthy station as well as other kinds of merit.

We can now move to verse 86: وَلَئِن شِئْنَا لَنَذْهَبَنَّ (And if We so will, We will surely take away...). It will be recollected that, in the previous verse (85), by giving an answer to the question about Ruh as true to the measure of its necessity, the underlying effort to find out the reality of the Ruh was blocked and it was declared that man's knowledge, no matter how much, still remains relatively insignificant in terms of the great span of the ultimate reality of things. Therefore, getting entangled with unnecessary debates and investigations is a waste of precious time. The present verse: وَلَئِن شِئْنَا (And if We so will) indicates that the sum total of whatever knowledge human beings have been given, even that is no private property of theirs. Allah Ta` ala can, if He so wills, take away that too. Therefore, they should be grateful to Allah for whatever of knowledge they have and stay away from wasting time in redundant and unnecessary investigations - specially when pure investigation is just not the objective, instead, testing others or belittling them is. If one did that, it is not out of the realm of possibility that this crookedness may result in all that one has in the name of knowledge taken away in toto. The address in this verse is, though, to the Holy Prophet ﷺ ، but the purpose is to really make his followers listen and get the message - when even the knowledge of the Rasul of Allah ﷺ is not within his exclusive power and control, not much can be said about others!