Al-Isra · Makki · ayah 58 of 111

Al-Isra 17:58

وَإِن مِّن قَرْيَةٍ إِلَّا نَحْنُ مُهْلِكُوهَا قَبْلَ يَوْمِ ٱلْقِيَـٰمَةِ أَوْ مُعَذِّبُوهَا عَذَابًا شَدِيدًا ۚ كَانَ ذَٰلِكَ فِى ٱلْكِتَـٰبِ مَسْطُورًا

“And there is no city but that We will destroy it[755] before the Day of Resurrection or punish it with a severe punishment. That has ever been in the Register[756] inscribed.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Every town, however proud, has an ending written before the Day, by death or by punishment, and none of it is left to chance.

A reflection

No town is forever

Wa-in min qaryatin illā naḥnu muhlikūhā: there is no town but We will bring it to its end. One commentator notes how wide the net is. The construction denies every exception: not one town among all the towns. Then comes naḥnu, We. The ending is not the work of time, or history, or the economy. It is His.

The word for that ending has its own picture. The root h-l-k means breaking and falling. A sandgrouse fleeing a falcon would fling itself down into a drop between two mountains, a place of ruin. The drop itself was called a hulk. Ruin, in this root, is a fall from a height.

Picture the foundation stone of a grand Victorian civic hall. In carved capitals it says the building was raised for the town's glory, to endure for all generations. A hundred and forty years later, the hall is a discount carpet warehouse. The stone is still there, half hidden behind a stack of rugs.

We like to feel that our places are permanent: the city we grew up in, the country on our passport, the firm we built. The ego borrows that permanence and wears it. My city. My people. My name on the plaque. It is a quiet kind of pride, and it feels like loyalty.

The ayah takes back the loan. Every gathering of people will one day be emptied. Only One does not end.

Is it cruel, or boastful, for God to announce this? A boast is made to win something, and here nothing is won. The ayah comes straight after the line 'your Lord's punishment is to be guarded against' (17:57). One commentator reads it as the explanation of that warning. It is notice given in advance. A Lord who wanted ruin would not send word ahead.

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.