17. Surah Al Isra

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

سُنَّةَ مَن قَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا قَبْلَكَ مِن رُّسُلِنَا...   

17: 77.  (This was Our) way with the Messengers We sent before thee:

...وَلاَ تَجِدُ لِسُنَّتِنَا تَحْوِيلاً ﴿٧٧﴾

thou wilt find no change in Our ways.

Transliteration Sunnata man qad arsalna_ qablaka mir rusulina_ wa la_ tajidu lisunnatina_ tahwila_(n).

Other versions:

17: 77 [al-Israa, Mecca 50]

Asad [such has been Our] way with all of Our apostles whom We sent before your time [note 94]; and no change will you find in Our ways.

Pickthall (Such was Our) method in the case of those whom We sent before thee (to mankind), and thou wilt not find for Our method aught of power to change.

Yuksel This is the way of those whom We sent before you of Our messengers. You will not find any change in Our way.

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Ali’s comments:

C2274. This was no new thing in history. Allah protects His own, and the ungodly cannot long enjoy the fruits of their unrighteousness even if their punishment be delayed a little while.

Asad’s comments:

note 94 - The people who drove them away were invariably punished with destruction..]]

[[ Context verse - 17: 76

Asad And [since the ysee that they cannot persuade you,] they endeavor to estrange you from the land [of your birth] [note 91] with a view to driving you away from it – but, then, after you will have left [note 92], they themselves will not remain [in it] for more than a little while [ note 93].

Yusuf Ali Their purpose was to scare thee off the land in order to expel thee; but in that case they would not have stayed (therein) after thee except for a little while.

Pickthall And they indeed wished to scare thee from the land that they might drive thee forth from thence, and then they would have stayed (there) but a little after thee.

Yuksel They nearly enticed you to drive you out of the land. But in that case, they would have shortly been destroyed after you were gone.*

Transliteration Wa in ka_du_ layastafizzu_naka minal ardi liyukhriju_ka minha_ wa izal la_ yalbasu_na khila_faka illa_ qalila_(n).

[[ Asad’s note 91- It must be borne in mind that this is a Meccan surah, revealed at a time when the persecution, both physical and moral, which the prophet and his followers had to suffer at the hgands of the pagan Quraysh reached the peak of its intensity.

92- Lit. “after you”. 93- This prophecy was fulfilled a little over two years later, in the month of Ramadan, 2H., when those same leaders of the Quraysh were killed in the battle of Badr. ]]