Al-Isra · Makki · ayah 4 of 111

Al-Isra 17:4

وَقَضَيْنَآ إِلَىٰ بَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ فِى ٱلْكِتَـٰبِ لَتُفْسِدُنَّ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ مَرَّتَيْنِ وَلَتَعْلُنَّ عُلُوًّا كَبِيرًا

“And We conveyed[727] to the Children of Israel in the Scripture that, "You will surely cause corruption on the earth twice, and you will surely reach [a degree of] great haughtiness."”

Saheeh International

Essence

The Children of Israel were told in their own Book, before it happened, that they would spread corruption twice and rise in great arrogance.

A reflection

Your failure, named in advance

A gymnastics coach watches a gifted fifteen-year-old and tells her the truth. 'You will lose twice,' she says. 'Once when it gets hard and you stop training. Once when it gets easy and you start performing for the crowd.' The girl laughs. Ten years later, she quotes it to her own students.

That is the shape of this ayah. Qaḍaynā ilā: We made it known to them, decisively, in the Book. The earliest explanation is simple: We informed them. Before any of it happened, their own scripture named two ways they would fail. They would spread fasād, corruption, twice. And they would rise, ʿuluwwan kabīran, in great arrogance.

Why tell a people their failures in advance? Because a named danger can be watched. A Book that only praised its readers would leave them blind to their likeliest fall. This one gave them the map of it. Strategists call this knowing your failure modes.

The root of qaḍāʾ is bringing a thing to its end with firmness. A classical line pictures two coats of mail that Dawud qaḍāhumā: finished and made fast. A debt is qaḍā when paid in full. So the telling was not a guess. It was settled.

The tragedy is that knowing was not enough. They had the warning in writing, and still walked into both. That is not only their story. Most of us know our own failure modes perfectly well. The temper that flares when we are tired. The pride that grows when things go well. Knowing them is the first step, not the last.

So ask the coach's question of yourself. When will you fail: when it gets hard, or when it gets easy? Write both down. Then do not be surprised when they arrive. Be ready for them.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.