Al-Isra · Makki · ayah 93 of 111

Al-Isra 17:93

أَوْ يَكُونَ لَكَ بَيْتٌ مِّن زُخْرُفٍ أَوْ تَرْقَىٰ فِى ٱلسَّمَآءِ وَلَن نُّؤْمِنَ لِرُقِيِّكَ حَتَّىٰ تُنَزِّلَ عَلَيْنَا كِتَـٰبًا نَّقْرَؤُهُۥ ۗ قُلْ سُبْحَانَ رَبِّى هَلْ كُنتُ إِلَّا بَشَرًا رَّسُولًا

“Or you have a house of ornament [i.e., gold] or you ascend into the sky. And [even then], we will not believe in your ascension until you bring down to us a book we may read." Say, "Exalted is my Lord! Was I ever but a human messenger?"”

Saheeh International

Essence

Gold, a ladder, a book to read: the reply to their last demands is glory to my Lord, and I am only a human, sent.

A reflection

Two words in reply to a list

Look at what comes first in the reply. Not a defence. Not 'I cannot'. The first words are subḥāna rabbī: glory be to my Lord.

The lexicons explain tasbīḥ as tanzīh: declaring Allah clear of everything unworthy of Him. At root, tanzīh means putting at a distance. The Arabs said subḥāna about someone in wonder: how far he is from that.

So the reply sets a distance. On one side is a list drawn up beside the Kaʿba. Springs, orchards, a falling sky, a summoned God, a house of gold, a ladder, a letter. On the other is the Lord of all of it, far above being managed by anyone's list. A narration-based commentary puts it plainly. He is exalted above anyone stepping ahead of Him in any matter of His rule. He does what He wills. If He wills, He grants what you ask; if He wills, He does not.

At an observatory open night a boy looks through the telescope at the moon. He asks the astronomer to turn it round so he can see the other side. She laughs gently. I can show you where it is, she says. I don't drive it.

That is the shape of the reply, and it is aimed at the ego, ours as much as theirs. Pride wants God to perform on our terms, at our time, for our audience. Subḥāna rabbī says: He is not one of the things we arrange.

Is that arrogance on His part, a God who must be glorified and will not take orders? No. Our glorifying adds nothing to Him, and the chiefs' demands took nothing away. The words exist to correct our sense of scale. The humble person is not the one who thinks less of himself. He is the one who has finally seen how far above him his Lord is.

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.