17. Surah Al Isra

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

وَقُرْآناً فَرَقْنَاهُ لِتَقْرَأَهُ عَلَى النَّاسِ عَلَى مُكْثٍ...   

17: 106. (It is) a Qur'án which We have divided (into parts from time to time), in order that thou mightest recite it to men at intervals:

...وَنَزَّلْنَاهُ تَنزِيلاً ﴿١٠٦﴾

We have revealed it by stages.

C2317. The marvel is that these parts, revealed at different times and in different circumstances, should fit together so closely and consistently as they do. All revelation is progressive.

The previous revelations were also progressive. Each of them marked a stage in the world's spiritual history.

Man's mind does not take in more than his spiritual state will have prepared him, for Allah's revelation comes as a light to illuminate our difficulties and show us the way in actual situations that arise.

Other versions:

17: 106

Transliteration Wa qur'a_nan faraqna_hu litaqra'ahu_ 'alan na_si 'ala_ muksiw wa nazzalna_hu tanzila_(n).

Asad [bearing] a discourse which We have gradually unfolded, so that you might read it out to mankind by stages, seeing that We have bestowed it from on high step by step, as [one] revelation.

Pickthall And (it is) a Quran that We have divided, that thou may recite it unto mankind at intervals, and We have revealed it by (successive) revelation.

[Asad’s note 129: ……..and to the fact it is nevertheless one integral whole and can, therefore, be properly understood only if it is considered in its entirety – that is to say, if each of its passages is read in the light of all the other passages which it contains. [see also 20: 114 and the corresponding note 101]