Al-Isra · Makki · ayah 70 of 111

Al-Isra 17:70

۞ وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِىٓ ءَادَمَ وَحَمَلْنَـٰهُمْ فِى ٱلْبَرِّ وَٱلْبَحْرِ وَرَزَقْنَـٰهُم مِّنَ ٱلطَّيِّبَـٰتِ وَفَضَّلْنَـٰهُمْ عَلَىٰ كَثِيرٍ مِّمَّنْ خَلَقْنَا تَفْضِيلًا

“And We have certainly honored the children of Adam and carried them on the land and sea and provided for them of the good things and preferred them over much of what We have created, with [definite] preference.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Every human being is honoured by Allah before achieving anything; the ayah says so to people who had just forgotten Him at sea.

A reflection

An honour nobody earned, and nobody can take back

Most of us meet this ayah on a poster, or in a speech about human rights. It sounds like a compliment to humanity: people are magnificent. That is the worn-smooth reading, and it is only half right.

Read it again, slowly. Wa-laqad: and most certainly, the opening of a sworn statement. Then karramnā: We honoured. Ḥamalnāhum: We carried them. Razaqnāhum: We provided for them. Faḍḍalnāhum: We preferred them. Four verbs, and the human being is the object of every one. He does nothing in this ayah except receive.

The placing says the same. Three ayat earlier, people in a storm call on Allah alone, then turn away once they are ashore (17:67). The honour is declared to that same ungrateful creature. So it cannot be a reward for gratitude. One modern commentary draws the only fitting conclusion: so let them give thanks.

This takes something from the ego in two directions at once. Pride wants dignity to be an achievement: my degree, my house, my name. What is earned can be flaunted. Despair makes the same mistake from the other side.

Picture a man made redundant at fifty-three. Each morning he still puts on a shirt and tie and drives to a retail park. He sits in the car until five, because he cannot tell his family. He believes his worth left the building with his security pass.

Both have misread who did the honouring. A gift you did not earn cannot be boasted of. A gift your employer never gave cannot be taken back by him.

Someone may ask why Allah lists His favours at all. Does He need our thanks? He does not; He is the Rich, free of all need (35:15). Whoever gives thanks gives thanks for his own soul (31:12). The reminder serves the one reminded. It turns his eyes from what he has done to what he was given.

Start with something small. Watch your own hand lift a cup to your mouth today. Keep that hand in mind; this ayah returns to it.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.