17:1  All-Glorified is He Who took His servant for a journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque the environs of which We have blessed, so that We might show him some of Our signs (of the truths concerning Our Divinity and Lordship). Surely He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing

17:2  We granted Moses the Book and made it a guidance for the Children of Israel, (commanding them): "Take, apart from Me, no guardian (one to rely on and to whom affairs should be entrusted)."

17:3  (They were among) the descendants of those whom We carried (in the Ark) with Noah. He surely was a servant greatly thankful

17:4  We decreed in the Book for the Children of Israel (as a consequence of their ingratitude and disobedience to the Book): "You will most certainly cause corruption and disorder in the land twice, and (elated with extreme arrogance) you will act with great insolence."

17:5  Hence, when the time of the first of the two came, We roused and sent against you some servants of Ours of great might (chosen by Us to punish you), and they ravaged the land, searching the innermost parts of your homes. That was a threat to be executed

17:6  Then We gave the turn back to you to prevail over them, and strengthened you with resources and children, and made you the more numerous in human power (than before)

17:7  If you do good (aware that God is seeing you), you do good to your own selves; and if you do evil, it is likewise to your own selves. And so, when the time (for the fulfillment) of the second decree comes, (We rouse new enemies against you) to disgrace you utterly and to enter the Temple as the others entered it before, and to destroy entirely all that they conquer

17:8  It is hoped that your Lord may show mercy to you, but if you return (to your sins), We will return (to Our punishment). And We have made Hell a prison for the unbelievers

17:9  This Qur’an surely guides (in all matters) to that which is most just and right and gives the believers who do good, righteous deeds the glad tidings that for them there is a great reward

17:10  And that for those who do not believe in the Hereafter, for them We have prepared a painful punishment

17:11  Yet human (through his actions as well as his words) prays and calls for evil just as he prays and calls for good. Human is prone to be hasty

17:12  (As in the life of humankind, "days" and "nights" alternate in the world also.) We have made the night and the day two signs (manifesting the truth of God’s Power, Knowledge, and absolute sovereignty, and His grace on you). We have obscured the sign of the night (made it dark) and We have made the sign of the day illuminating (therefore a means for you) to see, that you may seek bounty from your Lord and that you may know the computation of (time) the years and the reckoning; We set out all things in clear detail

17:13  Every human being’s fate We have fastened around his neck, and We will bring forth for him on the Day of Resurrection a book which he will see spread open

17:14  "Read your book! Your own self suffices you this day as a reckoner against you."

17:15  Whoever takes the right way takes it for the good of his soul only; and whoever goes astray, goes astray but to its harm only. No soul, as bearer of burden, is made to bear the burden of another. We would never punish (a person or community for the wrong they have done) until We have sent a Messenger (to give counsel and warning)

17:16  And when We finally will to destroy a township (that has deserved destruction), We leave those of its people lost in the pursuit of pleasures to their own devices, and so they transgress all limits therein. In consequence, the word (of punishment) is justified against it, and so We annihilate it, reducing it to nothing

17:17  How many a generation have We (thus) destroyed after Noah! Your Lord suffices as one All-Aware and All-Seeing of the sins of His servants

17:18  Whoever wishes for only the immediate gains (of this transitory life), We readily grant thereof as much as We please to whomever We will. Thereafter We consign him to Hell, wherein he will roast, disgraced and disowned

17:19  But whoever wishes for the Hereafter and strives for it as it should be striven for, being a believer, then for those (who do so) their striving shall be recognized with thanks and reward

17:20  Each do We supply – these ones as well as those ones – out of the free gifts of your Lord (in the world); the gift of your Lord is not confined

17:21  See how We have made some of them excel others (in worldly gifts and in virtues); yet the Hereafter will certainly be greater in ranks and greater in excellence

17:22  Do not set up another deity besides God, or you will be sitting disgraced and forsaken

17:23  Your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him alone, and treat parents with the best of kindness. Should one of them, or both, attain old age in your lifetime, do not say "Ugh!" to them (as an indication of complaint or impatience), nor push them away, and always address them in gracious words

17:24  Lower to them the wing of humility out of mercy, and say: "My Lord, have mercy on them even as they cared for me in childhood."

17:25  Your Lord best knows what is in your souls (in respect of all matters, including what you think of your parents). If you are righteous (in your thoughts and deeds), then surely He is All-Forgiving to those who turn to Him in humble contrition

17:26  And give his due to the relative, as well as the destitute and the wayfarer; and do not squander (your wealth) senselessly

17:27  Surely squanderers are ever brothers of satans; and Satan is ever ungrateful to his Lord

17:28  But if you (must) turn away from those (who are in need, because you are yourself in need, and) seeking mercy from your Lord in hopeful expectation, then (at least) speak to them gently and well-meaning

17:29  Do not keep your hand bound to your neck (in niggardliness) nor stretch it without any restraint or else you will be left sitting reproached and denuded

17:30  Surely your Lord God enlarges provision for whom He wills, and straitens it (for whom He wills). Indeed He is fully aware of His servants and sees them well

17:31  Do not kill your children for fear of poverty; it is We Who provide for them as well as for you. Killing them is surely a grave sin

17:32  Do not draw near to any unlawful sexual intercourse; surely it is a shameful, indecent thing, and an evil way (leading to individual and social corruption)

17:33  Do not kill any soul, which God has made forbidden, except in just cause. If anyone has been killed wrongfully and intentionally, We have given his heir (as defender of his rights) the authority (to claim retaliation or damages or to forgive outright). But let him (the heir) not exceed the legitimate bounds in (retaliatory) killing. Indeed he has been helped (already and sufficiently by the provisions and procedures of the Law)

17:34  And do not draw near to the property of the orphan except in the best way (such as to improve and increase it) until he comes of age and is strong; and fulfill the covenant: the covenant is surely subject to questioning (on the Day of Judgment you will be held accountable for your covenant)

17:35  Give full measure when you measure, and weigh with a true, accurate balance. That is what is good and (to do so is) best in the long term

17:36  Do not follow that of which you have no knowledge (whether it is good or bad), and refrain from groundless assertions and conjectures. Surely the hearing, the sight, and the heart – each of these is subject to questioning about it (you are answerable, and will be called to account, for each of these on the Day of Judgment)

17:37  Do not strut about the earth in haughty self-conceit; for you can never split the earth (no matter how hard you stamp your foot), nor can you stretch to the mountains in height (no matter how strenuously you seek to impress)

17:38  The evil of all this is abhorrent in the sight of your Lord

17:39  All this is (part) of the Wisdom which your Lord has revealed to you (O Messenger). (As the source and basis of all wisdom), do not set up with God another deity, or you will be cast into Hell, blamed and disowned

17:40  Has, then, your Lord distinguished you (O unbelievers) by preferring for you sons, and taken for Himself from among the angels daughters? Most certainly you utter an awful, horrendous saying

17:41  We have set out (the truths) in diverse ways in this Qur’an, so that they may reflect and be mindful, but all this increases them (the unbelievers) only in their aversion (to truth)

17:42  Say: "If there were, as they assert, deities apart from Him, surely they would seek a way to the Master of the Supreme Throne (the dominion of the creation)."

17:43  All-Glorified is He, and absolutely exalted, immeasurably high above all that they say

17:44  The seven heavens and the earth, and whoever is therein, glorify Him. There is nothing that does not glorify Him with His praise (proclaiming that He alone is God, without peer or partner, and all praise belongs to Him exclusively), but you cannot comprehend their glorification. Surely He is (despite what His servants have deserved from Him) All-Clement, All-Forgiving

17:45  When you recite the Qur’an, We place an invisible veil between you and those who do not believe in the Hereafter (and who, by making themselves deaf and blind to the creation’s praise of its Creator, make themselves incapable of such belief)

17:46  And over their hearts We lay veils (made from their ill-intention, wrongdoing, and arrogance) that prevent them from grasping it (the Qur’an), and in their ears, heaviness. When you make mention of your Lord in the Qur’an as the One (the Unique Divine Being), they turn their backs in aversion

17:47  We know best what they wish to hear when they listen to you and that, when they are secluded among themselves, these wrongdoers say (to one another): "You are following but a man bewitched."

17:48  See what strange comparisons they invent about you. They have altogether strayed and are now unable to find a way (to the truth)

17:49  And they say: "What! is it when we have already become bones and particles of dust – is it then that we will be raised as a new creation?"

17:50  Say: "Whether you have become stone or iron

17:51  "Or any other created substance which, in your minds, is greater (in its resistance to being given life)." Then they will say: "Who will bring us back to life?" Say: "He Who originated you in the first instance with a unique individuality." They will shake their heads at you (in amazement and derision) and say: "When will that be?" Say: "It may well be soon

17:52  "On the Day when He will call you and you will answer with (words of) His praise, thinking that you have stayed (on the earth) but a little while."

17:53  And say to My servants that they should always speak (even when disputing with others) that which is the best. Satan is ever ready to sow discord among them. For Satan indeed is a manifest enemy for humankind

17:54  Your Lord knows you best (and what you deserve). If He so wills, He has mercy on you (which is sheer grace), and if He so wills, He punishes you (which is pure justice). We have not sent you (O Messenger) to be a guardian over them, responsible for them; (you are only a warner)

17:55  And your Lord knows best all that are in the heavens and on the earth. Assuredly, We have exalted some of the Prophets above others (some in an absolute sense, and others in some respects); and to David We granted the Psalms

17:56  Say: "Call upon those (the angels, human beings, jinn,) whom you pretend are deities apart from Him! They have no power to remove any affliction from you nor can they make any changes in your conditions."

17:57  Those whom they invoke themselves seek a means to approach their Lord, each trying to be nearer to Him, hoping for His mercy and fearing His punishment. The punishment of your Lord is surely to be feared and avoided

17:58  There is not a township but that We will have destroyed it before the Day of Resurrection (as a consequence of its people’s way of life, and in accordance with the laws We have established for the lives of communities), or punished it with a severe punishment (such as dissension, corruption, and foreign invasion): all this is written down in the (eternal) Book

17:59  Nothing stops Us from sending the miracles (they demand as evidence in support of the Messenger’s claim to be appointed by God) except that (many among the) former generations rejected them as false (and were destroyed). We had given the Thamud the she-camel as a visible sign (miracle) but they did wrong in respect of her. We do not send such signs except to warn (and to make them aware of possible destruction)

17:60  And (recall) when We said to you (by way of a warning), that your Lord encompasses all humankind (with His Knowledge and Power). We did not make the vision that We showed you (during the Ascension) but as a trial for humankind to mend their ways, and (in the same way We mentioned) in the Qur’an the Accursed Tree (the tree in Hell absolutely outside the sphere of God’s Mercy). And We warn them, exhorting them to be fearful and amend, but it increases them only in great insolence and rebellion

17:61  And (recall another instance of arrogance and insubordination) when We said to the angels: "Prostrate yourselves before Adam!" they prostrated themselves, but Iblis did not; he said: "Shall I prostrate myself before one whom You created of clay?"

17:62  He said: "Do You see this that You have honored above me? Indeed, if You grant me respite till the Day of Resurrection, I will certainly bring his descendants under my sway, all but a few!"

17:63  He (God) said: "Go your way! Whoever of them follows you – surely, Hell will be the recompense of you all, a recompense most ample

17:64  "Arouse with your (seductive) voice whomever you can from among them, and rally against them with your cavalry and foot soldiers, and be their partner in their wealth and children, and make promises to them. And Satan promises them nothing but deceit

17:65  "But as for My (sincere, devoted) servants – you will have no authority over them." And your Lord suffices as protecting guardian (as One on Whom to rely and to Whom all affairs are referred)

17:66  Your Lord (O humankind) is He Who causes the ships to sail for you through the sea, that you may seek of His bounty. Surely He is ever Compassionate towards you

17:67  When distress afflicts you in the sea, all that you invoke (as powers to help you) fail you save Him only; yet when He brings you safe to land, you turn away from Him. Indeed human is ever ungrateful

17:68  Do you then feel secure that He will not cause a part of the land to (fall on you and) engulf you, or send a sand-storm upon you? Then you will not find a protecting guardian for yourselves

17:69  Or do you feel secure that He will not send you back (to the sea) another time, and send against you a raging tempest to drown you because you disbelieve in ingratitude? Then you find none to uphold you against Us

17:70  Assuredly We have honored the children of Adam (with many distinctions): We have sustained their traveling on the land and the sea, and provided for them (their sustenance) out of pure, wholesome things, and preferred them above many of those whom We have created with particular preferment

17:71  On the Day when We will call every human community with its leader: whoever (has followed a leader towards true faith and righteousness and accountability in the Hereafter) is given his Record (of his life) in his right hand – those will read their book with contentment and they will not be wronged by even so much as a tiny hair

17:72  Whoever is blind in this (world) (who has followed no guidance towards true faith and righteousness and accountability in the Hereafter), will be blind in the Hereafter, and even further astray from the way (that leads to Divine forgiveness and eternal contentment)

17:73  They have indeed sought to tempt you (O Messenger) away from what We have revealed to you so that you may fabricate something else against Us. And then (had you done so), they would have taken you as a trusted friend

17:74  And had We not made you wholly firm (in what We reveal to you), you might just have inclined to them a little bit

17:75  In that case, We would have made you taste double punishment in life and double punishment after death, and you would have found none to help you against Us

17:76  Indeed they have sought to estrange you from the land (of your birth) and drive you from it; but then, they themselves will not remain there, after you, except a little while

17:77  (That has been Our) way with all those whom We sent (as Messengers) before you. You will never find any alteration in Our way

17:78  Establish the Prayer in conformity with its conditions, from the declining of the sun to the darkness of the night, and (be ever observant of) the recitation of the Qur’an at dawn (the Dawn Prayer). Surely the recitation of the Qur’an at dawn is witnessed (by the angels and the whole creation awakening to a new day)

17:79  And in some part of the night rise from sleep and observe vigil therein (through Prayer and recital of the Qur’an) as additional worship for you; your Lord may well raise you to a glorious, praised station (of nearness to Him and give you leave to intercede with Him, as He wills, on behalf of His servants, in the Hereafter)

17:80  And say: "My Lord! Cause me to enter in a manner sincere and faithful to the truth, and cause me to exit in a manner sincere and faithful to the truth, and grant me from Your Presence a sustaining authority!"

17:81  And say: "The truth has come, and falsehood has vanished. Surely falsehood is ever bound to vanish by its very nature."

17:82  We are sending down the Qur’an in parts – it is a healing and a mercy for the believers, though for the wrongdoers it increases them only in ruin

17:83  When We favor human (an ungrateful one) with comfort and contentment, he draws aside and arrogantly keeps aloof (from any thought of Us), but when evil touches him, he is ever despairing

17:84  Say: "Every one acts according to his own character (made up of his creed, worldview and disposition), and your Lord knows best who is better guided in his way."

17:85  They ask you about the spirit. Say: "The spirit is of my Lord’s Command, and of knowledge, you have been granted only a little."

17:86  (You are not, as the unbelievers allege, the author of the Qur’an. It is only We Who reveal it entirely.) If We willed, We could certainly take away what We have revealed to you (by effacing it from the hearts and memory of you and those who have memorized it, and from any written record of it). Then you would find for yourself no protecting guardian against Us (to help you to claim or recover it) –

17:87  But (you are one favored with) a great, special mercy from your Lord. His favor on you is great indeed

17:88  Say: "Surely, if humankind and jinn were to come together to produce the like of this Qur’an, they will never be able to produce the like of it, though they backed one another up with help and support

17:89  Assuredly We have set out in diverse ways for humankind in this Qur’an all kinds of parables and comparisons (to help them understand the truth), yet most people refuse to accept anything save unbelief

17:90  They say: "We will not believe in you (O Messenger), until you cause a spring to gush forth for us from this land (which is short of water)

17:91  "Or you have a garden of date-palms and grapes, and cause rivers to gush forth in their midst abundantly

17:92  "Or you cause the heaven to fall upon us in pieces, as you have claimed (could happen), or bring God and the angels as a warrant (before our eyes proving the truth of your message)

17:93  "Or you have a house of gold, or you ascend to the heaven. But we will even then not believe in your ascension until you bring down upon us (from heaven) a book that we can read." Say, (O Messenger): "All-Glorified is my Lord (in that He is absolutely above what you conceive of Him)! Am I anything but a mortal sent as a Messenger?"

17:94  And what has kept people from believing when guidance has come to them, except that they said: "Has God sent a mortal man as the Messenger?"

17:95  Say: "If angels had been walking about on earth as their abode, We would surely have sent down upon them an angel from heaven as Messenger."

17:96  Say: "God suffices for a witness between me and you. Surely He is fully aware of His servants, and sees them well."

17:97  Whoever God guides, then he it is who is rightly guided; and whoever He leads astray, you shall find for them, apart from Him, no guardians (who might own and help them). We will raise to life and gather them together on the Day of Resurrection prone upon their faces, blind, dumb, and deaf. Their refuge is Hell – every time it (seems to them that its torment) is abating (because of their being inured to it), We increase them in (suffering in its) blazing flame

17:98  That will be their recompense because they disbelieved in Our Revelations and signs (manifesting the truth) and said: "What! Is it when we have already become bones and particles of dust – is it then that we will be raised as a new creation?"

17:99  Do they never consider that God Who has created the heavens and the earth is able to create them anew in their own likeness? And He has set a term for them about which there is no doubt; yet the wrongdoers refuse to accept anything save unbelief

17:100  Say: "If you possessed the treasures of my Lord’s Mercy, still you would surely hold them back for fear of spending (in God’s cause and as subsistence for the needy)." Indeed human is ever grudging

17:101  We certainly granted to Moses nine clear signs (miracles). So ask the Children of Israel (what happened despite these miracles): when he came to them (and asked the Pharaoh to let the Children of Israel leave Egypt with him, and even after he showed to them these miracles), the Pharaoh said to him: "Certainly, O Moses, I certainly believe that you are one bewitched."

17:102  (Moses) said: "You know for certain that no one but the Lord of the heavens and the earth has sent down these (signs) as openings to discernment and insight. And certainly, O Pharaoh, I certainly believe you are one doomed to loss."

17:103  Then the Pharaoh intended to terrify them from the land (of Egypt) and destroy them, but We caused him and all who were with him to drown

17:104  And after that We said to the Children of Israel: "Dwell now securely in the land (which God has decreed for you and commanded you to enter). But when the time (for the fulfillment) of the last decree comes, We will bring you as a mixed crowd (gathered from disparate nations)

17:105  It is with the truth that We have sent it down (this Qur’an, embodying the truth and for ever invulnerable to falsehood), and it is with the truth that it has come down. We have not sent you but as a bearer of glad tidings (of prosperity in return for faith and righteousness) and a warner (against the evil consequences of misguidance)

17:106  And (it is) a Qur’an that We set forth in parts with clarity so that you may recite and convey it to people with deliberation (in order that they can absorb it), and We send it down in successive Revelations (each perfectly suited to its occasion and its wider purpose)

17:107  Say: "Believe in it or do not believe." Surely those who were endowed before it with knowledge (of the truth and Divine Revelation and teachings, and still follow that knowledge), fall down on their faces in prostration when the Qur’an is recited to them

17:108  They say: "All-Glorified is our Lord. Surely the promise of our Lord is ever bound to be fulfilled."

17:109  And they fall down on their faces, weeping, and it increases them in humility and a feeling of awe

17:110  Say: "Call upon Him as Allah (God) or call upon Him as ar-Rahman (the All-Merciful). By whichever Name you call upon Him, to Him belong the All-Beautiful Names. And offer your Prayer neither in too loud a voice nor in a voice too low, but follow a middle course

17:111  And say: "All praise and gratitude are for God, Who has neither taken to Him a child, nor has a partner in the sovereignty (the dominion and ownership of the whole creation), nor (being exalted above all want or insufficiency) has He a guardian against neediness and weakness. And exalt Him with His immeasurable greatness