your patience is only in God.”
Sura 17
The Night Journey (Al-Israʾ)
17:1In Arabic, “the farthest mosque” is Al-Masjid al-Aqsa. Revered by Muslims worldwide, it was constructed in the eighth century; nearby, a memorial to the Prophet’s Ascent known as Qubbat al-Sakhra, or Dome of the Rock, was also built. Together they have become al-Haram ash-Sharif, the Holy Domain or the Temple Mount, marking Jerusalem as the third most sacred city in Islam, after Mecca and Medina.
17:2The Book here is clearly the Torah, and what follows alludes to events depicted there.
17:4It is unclear what events might be alluded to here, but certainly the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE seems likely, along with the catastrophes that followed it; see v. 7.
17:12Compare with Sura 10:5, where the orderly succession of night and day is also invoked as a sign of God’s care for humankind, and a means of calculating time.
17:13The image of an invisible necklace measuring one’s deeds calls to mind the frequent reference to a day of reckoning, when all actions are measured and sorted out as “good” or “evil”; see, e.g., 99:7–8.
17:24See the same tender image in 15:88.
17:27Arabic al-shayatin: literally, “the Satans or the devils.” See Shaytan in Glossary, page 532.
17:30Arabic innahu kana bi-ʿibadihi khabir basir: literally, “He is All Aware and All Seeing of His servants.”
17:33On the day of reckoning.
17:40On ascribing daughters to God, see note for 16:57.
17:51Arabic aw khalq mimma yakburu fi sudurikum: literally, “or a creation of what is even greater in your breasts.”
17:53When speaking to people of religion.
17:59See the extensive commentary on the people of Thamud elsewhere, e.g., 7:73–79 and 91:11.
17:60The vision shown to the Prophet on the Night Journey; see v. 1.
17:60See 37:62–65, where the tree of Zaqqum, created of fire, bears fronds like the heads of devils.
17:67Arabic man tadʿuna illa iyyahu: literally, “whomever you invoke other than Him.”
17:73Other than a revelation.
17:76Arabic wa-in kadu layastafizzunaka min al-ard: literally, “they were about to frighten you (to drive you) from the land.”
17:77The word sunna, here translated as “way,” has come to represent the name for the majority Muslim community. Sunni Muslims are those who follow the sunna, or way of God, as also the sunna or way of the Prophet.
17:78In Arabic the phrase Qurana al-fajr (“the Quran at dawn”) is repeated here, just two lines after its previous usage.
17:79This injunction connotes the special benefit of late night prayer (tahajjud). Even though it is supererogatory, it is said to have extraordinary power.
17:80Arabic adkhilni mudkhala sidq wa-akhrijni mukhraja sidq: literally, “let me enter by a truthful entrance and leave by a truthful exit.”
17:80This language suggests a prayer by Muhammad before returning to Mecca on the Final Pilgrimage (630 CE), since it was then that the final Quranic sura was revealed to him: “When God’s help comes and His victory . . .” (110:1).
17:84Arabic ahda sabil: literally, “best guided to a path.”
17:85Arabic al-ruh min amr rabbi: literally, “the spirit is by the command of my Lord.”
17:86Arabic la tajid laka bihi ʿalayna wakil: literally, “you would not find concerning it against Us an advocate.”
17:92Cf. Sura 34:9: “If We willed, We could make the earth swallow them, or fragments of the sky fall on them.”
17:92Cf. Sura 2:55: “And you said, ‘Moses, we’ll never believe in you until we see God, appearing.’ Then the thunderbolt struck you, as you looked on.”
17:101These nine signs are never specified; they are also mentioned in 27:12.
17:104Arabic lafif: literally, “motley crowd.”
17:107Arabic lil-adhqan: literally, “on their chins.”
17:110Arabic al-asmaʾ al-husna: “the Beautiful Names” are laced throughout the Quran. See also 7:180, 20:8, and 59:24, as well as Glossary, page 530.
17:111The Beautiful Name Kabir—(the Most) Great or Magnificent—provides the Quranic basis for the familiar phrase Allahu Akbar, God is the Greater, or Most Great. See also 4:34, 13:9, 22:62, 31:30, 34:23, and 40:12.
Sura 18
The Cave (Al-Kahf)
18:1Arabic ʿiwaj: literally, “crookedness.”
18:2The Arabic qayyim is literally “straight,” as translated here, but it can also mean “self-contained,” with the same etymology as the Divine Name Qayyum: Self-Subsisting (2:255, 3:2, and 20:111).
18:2Arabic hasan: literally, “good.”
18:9This is the first of three mysterious episodes that occur only here in the Quran: the cave sleepers (vv. 9–26), Moses’ encounter with a sly stranger (vv. 61–83), and the two-horned figure building a wall against Gog and Magog (vv. 84–99). The sweep of these stories evokes interstitial spaces: between death and rising from the dead, between two bodies of water (v. 61), between two mountain barriers (vv. 93–94). The interpretative possibilities stagger the imagination, leading mystics to see a spiritual depth that evokes what one observer, Norman O. Brown, calls the apocalypse of Islam. The cave dwellers here have been compared to the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, but that narrative link only adds to the multitiered corridors of interpretative possibility for this verse and all that follows.
18:12See v. 19 for an exchange between two parties concerning the length of time they had been sleeping the cave.
18:13Arabic nabaʾahum bil-haqq: literally, “their story in truth.”
18:22Arabic rajm bil-ghaib: literally, “casting stones at the unseen.”
18:24This is often taken to be the scriptural impetus for the everyday Muslim expression “if God wills.”
18:25This verse can be seen as a commentary on v. 22, which involves estimating the number of cave inhabitants. In other words, all such conjecture, whether about the cave dwellers or their length of stay, is guessing at what cannot be known.
18:26This is one of many verses in the Quran that echo and register the Beautiful Names in multiple forms: as exclamatory phrases (“how clearly He Sees, how clearly He Hears”), as agentive noun (“no protector but Him”), and as object (“His judgment”).
18:29Arabic wa-saʾat murtafaq: literally, “and an evil resting place.”
18:30Arabic man ahsana ʿamal: literally, “whoever does good.”
18:33The river metaphor in this parable anticipates, even as it parallels, the confluence of two waters in v. 61.
18:39Arabic ma shaʾa Allah: literally, “what God wills.”
18:44Arabic al-haqq: literally, “the truth.”
18:45Arabic ʿala kull shaiʾ muqtadir: literally, “the One Holding Sway over everything.”
18:50This is the only verse to identify Iblis as a jinn. Jinn recur in the Quran as both believers (46:29 and 72:14) and residents of hell (11:119). An entire sura (number 72) is dedicated to them, in which they attest to the truth of the Quran. See Glossary, page 531.
18:54Some translate this as “more contentious than any other creature.”
18:57Arabic ma qaddamat yadahu: literally, “what his own hands have sent forth” (to be judged on the day of judgment).
18:61Arabic majmaʿ al-bahrain: literally, “the meeting of two waters,” an echo of the river in v. 33, and also the point of separation as well as convergence between two persons. The mysterious stranger, not named here, has been identified through extensive commentary as al-Khidr, “the Green One,” whose deep knowledge, or inner wisdom, contrasts with, even as it complements, the external wisdom conveyed to Moses through prophecy. The entire passage—vv. 60–82—has been the subject of extensive commentary, especially by Sufi masters who are also Quranic exegetes.
18:65Arabic wa-ʿallamnahu min ladunna ʿilm: literally, “and We taught him a knowledge from within Us.”
18:71Arabic hatta: literally, “until.”
18:71Arabic ʿakharaqtaha: literally, “did you make the hole in it?”
18:78Arabic taʾwil: literally, “interpretation.” It signifies “deeper meaning” here as it often does elsewhere, especially in Joseph’s dreams (see 12:6, 21, 36, 44, 45, 100 and 101).
18:81Arabic aqraba ruhm: literally “nearer in affection.”
18:83Dhu al-Qarnain literally means “the two-horned.” This figure serves as a symbol of power over disparate realms, East and West, and so many commentators have presumed it refers to Alexander the Great, also represented on his own coins with two horns. But the name’s greatest significance may be the culmination of dyads, from the Cave Sleepers (between time) to the two travelers, Moses and al-Khidr (between water), and now the convergence of two mountains (v. 93) with only a pass between them.
18:91This is the same expression used by al-Khidr to challenge Moses in v. 68, but here it becomes an affirmation, not a limitation: just as the knowledge of Moses did not encompass al-Khidr’s actions, so Dhu al-Qarnayn is encompassed in all that he does by God’s Knowledge.
18:94Gog and Magog are also present in 21:96–97, and there as here they portend imminent destruction, so much so that many commentators have linked them to Mongols (Chinese warrior tribes) and to Tartars (Central Asian Turkic tribes).
18:109Parallel to 31:27: “If all the trees on earth were pens, and the seas were ink, with seven more seas beyond, still the Word of God would not be exhausted.”
Sura 19
Mary (Maryam)
19:1On these disconnected letters, see muqattaʿat in Glossary, page 531.
19:5Arabic wa-inni khiftu al-mawaliya min waraʾi: literally, “But I fear for my kin after me.”
19:6It is widely agreed that this “legacy” is not of wealth but prophethood. See also 3:38–39, which refers to God’s granting Zachariah’s prayer, and the angels giving him the good news that he would have a righteous son, a prophet.
19:7The birth of John to his wife (Elizabeth, inferred but not named here) precedes the birth of Jesus in the Quran, as it does in the New Testament. See also 21:89–90.
19:8The words “he said” are omitted here since the speaker is clearly Zachariah, and these words echo Abraham’s words to the angel to the effect that Sarah is too old to conceive.
19:9Arabic min qabl: literally, “from before (the time you were born).”
19:10Arabic sawiyya: literally, “consecutively.” Another common interpretation of sawiya is “[even though you are] sound or well,” i.e. even though you are otherwise able to speak.
19:11Cf. Sura 3:41 for a parallel passage: “Your sign is that you will not speak to people for three straight days, except by gestures.” Here in Sura 19, the words “by gestures” are not explicitly stated in the original, only implied.
19:14The word al-jabbar, translated here as “imperious,” is also one of the ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God,