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SURE
İsra Suresi
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Glory be to Allah and extolled are His glorious attributes attendant upon His manifestation of conducting His servant by night from the Sacrosanct Mosques - Macca- to the Farthest Mosque, - Jerusalem whose precincts We had blessed. A journey that was planned without the factor of time or that of space to show him our spiritual world and some of Our signs evincing both Our Almightiness and Omnipresence. Allah is indeed AL-Sami' (Omnipresent) with unlimited audition and AL-Bassir (He clearly sees all things).
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It was within these precincts which constituted the heart of the Sacred environs that Bani Isra‘il (the Children of Israel) were directed to make their abode and We sent to them Mussa to whom We gave the Book, -AL-Tawrah (Torah)- which was a guide into all truth, and We enjoined them thus: "Take no tutelary guardian", We said, "other than Me".
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When in due time the first occasion came to pass We humbled your arrogance by wedding you to a calamity. We sent against you servants of Ours invested with merciless power and martial daring who penetrated deep in the land and made their way right through your homes, and there the mission was accomplished and the promise fulfilled*.
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There, you can see that if you imprint your deeds with wisdom and piety and conduct yourselves with prudence, you advantage yourselves of good behavior. But if you should bode ill, misbehave or commit yourselves to an evil line of conduct you will have harmed your own souls. Then, when in due time the second occasion* came to pass you were overpowered and vanquished that your countenances spoke a different language. Your eyes shriveled into darkness in your heads and you fell into the darkness of dismay and they -the enemies- broke into you Temple as they did once before and reduced to ruins all that they acquired.
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This Quran does indeed guide to the best way of moral rightness which has had everlasting residence in the character of the Godhead and to the uprightness of decision. It announces joyful tidings to those who acknowledge Allah with hearts impressed with the image of religious and spiritual virtues and with deeds of wisdom and piety; they shall be recipients of a great reward.
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We made the night and the day two outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace. We effaced the light from the entity of the night and put it out in obscure darkness to hide things from view. We made the day a visible entity for objects to be perceptible by the sense of sight in order to betake yourselves to Providence, for His bounty, and in order to know the number of the years. Also to reckon the time occupied by the sun in its apparent passage through the signs of the Zodiac and the period of the earth's revolution round the sun forming a natural unit of time and you be able to compute time and determine it by calculation. And everything did We expound and make plain and abounding in detail.
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Indeed, he who is steered by the spirit of truth into all truth and Providence his guide benefits his own soul, and he who errs and strays from the path of truth and righteousness will prejudice his own soul. No soul bearing wrongs or not, will in any way bear the wrong of another, nor would We inflict a penalty on a people until We had sent to them a Messenger serving as a spectacle and a warning and they counselled deaf.
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He who wishes to go by the world and its fleeting, evanescent and ephemeral enjoyment and glory will find Allah moving quickly to respond to whom He will and apportion to him what He will, but in the end We will make Hell his abode where he sits brooding on its vast abyss, censured, despised and rejected.
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But he who chooses the Hereafter and has purposed that it be the heart of his purpose and directs his efforts to fulfilling the requirements incidental to this end with a heart impressed with the image of religious and spiritual virtues shall, he and such persons find that heir endeavor is esteemed and highly appreciated.
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Allah, your Creator, has ordained, that you worship no one but Him and you adore Him with appropriate acts and rites and that you commit your parents to your kind care. When one or both of them attain old age they expect your friendly disposition by your conduct to them. Therefore do not offend them by giving vent to an exclamation of impatience or disgust nor should you rebuke or reprimand them and let your dissertation with them be a sweet discourse.
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And lower to them the wing of power in humility, standing manifest of kindness and mercy and invoke Allah to be merciful to them and express your invocatory prayer in words, thus: O Allah, my Creator, I pray and beseech you to extend to them Your mercy in return for bringing me up and setting me on my feet which confess their toilsome care for me in my childhood.
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Nor should you deprive anyone of life Allah has made sacred, unless be justified for a proved crime. And if someone has been killed wrongfully, then his next of kin is authorized by Allah to use the means of procuring redress of grievances through avenging his right or forgiveness, (court of law, now). But should he choose to avenge his right, he must not carry it to excess, for the divine law is on his side.
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Nor should you encroach upon the property of the orphan, unless it be with the motive principle of improving, advancing or raising it to be a better quality or condition, until he reaches maturity and be able to take charge of it. Fulfill the solemn promise if you should make one and keep the vow and meet your engagements and obligations. A vow is great responsibility and those who break it shall have much to answer for in Day of Judgement.
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Dispense the quantity ascertained by measuring to the full if you happen to sell by a standard measure. And if you are using the method of weighing then you are enjoined to use an accurate and precise balance conforming to a standard, and an exemplar of truth and equity. This is a wise course of action ensuring safety and leading to the intended purpose.
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And do not gratify your desire or inclination to pursue a subject of which you have no knowledge nor charge anyone with a fault or a crime when you are not sure of his guilt nor pursue vain things which will avail you nothing. Indeed, he faculties of hearing, sight and intellect, each and all, are held responsible in Day of Judgement and shall have much to answer for.
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Nor should you walk on earth displaying inordinate self-esteem or with an overweening opinion of your qualities, attainments or estate, for even if the incessant tread of your feet wear the rough stones smooth, you shall not be able to rend the earth nor shall you be able to level to a mountain in height.
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These -the above mentioned attributes- are maxims expressing some of the manifestation of wisdom Allah, your Creator, has inspired to you. He has issued a mandate commanding that you people do not associate with Him another Ilah nor incorporate with Him other deities lest you should be thrown into Hell where you sit brooding on the vast abyss of reprimand and rejection.
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We have expounded and oriented Our revelations in this Quran to circumstances and requirements so as to bring them -the infidels- to their senses, yet they do what is contrary to that normally expected. They push themselves away from it with an averted state of mind and feelings and with a mental attitude of opposition and repugnance.
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The seven heavens and the earth and all animate and inanimate beings therein praise His glory and extoll His glorious attributes. There is not one single creature but displays outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace reflecting Allah's Omnipotence and Exclusive Authority, but you -infidels- do not apprehend their way of ascribing His glory. Indeed, He has always been Halimun (Forbearing) and Ghafurun (Forgiving).
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We enshrouded their hearts to preclude them from exercising intellectual power or understanding and struck them deaf so that nothing that engages the intellect would come to their hearing. These are the people whose hearts dare rise defiant against Allah; when you recite the Quran and Allah is mentioned as the sole Omnipotent and Exclusive Authority, they insolently turn their backs upon you with a mental attitude of opposition and repugnance.
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We do know the reason why they lend you their ears when they listen to you O Muhammad; they are reticent about their intention disclosed only in their secret counsel. They turn what they hear to ridicule albeit their nature or innermost being is attracted to the divine discourse. To keep their nobility and authority in the status quo, the wrongful of actions publicly declare, thus: "You people" they say, "only follow a man who has witchcraft in his lips and you foolishly hang on to them".
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"Or any other material you have in mind and you know it is beyond animation" There and then they shall say: "who will then restore us to life?" Say to them: "He who brought you into being and caused you to exist in the first creation". There, they shall shake their heads to you in doubt and ask: "When". Say to them: "It may well be quite soon".
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Tell My servants O Muhammad who declare or state in words a specified fact, thought, opinion or intention, an event or a remark or the like to say what is friendly, favourable and laudatory and to keep a civil tongue in their heads, for AL-Shaytan is on the alert for an occasion to divide mankind and set them at variance and to stir up enmity among them. Indeed AL-Shaytan has always been to man an avowed enemy.
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Say to the infidels who incorporate with Allah other deities "Ask earnestly or humbly or make a devout supplication to those objects of worship whom you suppose share with Allah His divine nature and you shall realize that they shall utterly fail to respond. They have neither the power to relieve you from what is burdensome and exhaustive to the mind nor the influence to avert it either".
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Those to whom they make a devout supplication -Saints, jinn or angels- are themselves devout servants of Allah seeking the union of their nature with the Divine, and striving which of them shall be the nearest to Allah and the more efficient in serving His purpose! They entertain expectation of His mercy and they dread His retributive punishment. Indeed, the punishment Allah, your Creator, inflicts on the offender makes one heedful, for the thought of it arouses an emotional feeling tinged with latent and deep mysterious fear.
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In fact nothing prevented Us from sending you O Muhammad to the people with the power of working miracles to evince both your mission and Allah's Omnipotence and Rightful Authority except that people of bygone times refused to acknowledge them. Among them were the Thamudites to whom We sent the she –camel- as an evident and undoubted sign, but they mistreated her without due regard and wronged themselves. We only authorize the work of miracles so that the people be moved with a mingled feeling of dread and reverence toward Allah and realize the evil consequence of disobeying or denying Him.
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And for once We told you O Muhammad that Allah, your Creator, surrounds all people on all sides -therefore declare Allah's message and do not be afraid ever-. We only made you see the vision of glory We presented to you in your night journey through the spiritual world to test the inclination of the people and their spiritual and moral attributes. The same purpose was also served by the accursed tree growing in the bottom of Hell to feed the sinners. We purposed that the infidels be moved with a mingled feeling of dread and veneration toward Allah and realize the evil consequence of disobeying and denying Him. But on the contrary, it only makes them sink deeper under the vexations of their minds, run riot and transgress the goal.
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"Entice those of them whom you can allure to brighter worlds with your whispering voice and assault them by any manner of means, be it cavalry or infantry or any other means, and go shares with them in their ill-gotten gains and in their illegitimate children, and give them fair words and large promises to fair the foul and to arouse in them vain desires. In effect what AL-Shaytan promises them is only what is vain, deceptive and deluding".
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Do you -infidels- feel really secure and in your minds you are sure that He who is in heaven's realm will not cause that shore bordering on the sea where you disembark to sink down below your feet and you disappear utterly in its depth! Or that He will not make you suffer the disastrous consequences of a whirlwind and a sand dune and no one will you find then to afford you protection or to render void Our decree!
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Or do you feel really secure and in your minds you are sure that He will not send you back to sea on another occasion and send against you a gale of considerable strength that drowns you in requital of your ingratitude and no avenger will you find to exact satisfaction or retaliate upon Us on your behalf!
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We have honoured the Adamites and We provided them with means of transportation to carry them on land and at sea and We provisioned them with the good wholesome victuals and We placed them in a class distinctly above many of Our creatures and We ascribed to them distinguished attributes. We furnished them with powers of the mind -the will, the reason and the perception of truth or fact, theoretical and practical understanding of art, science, language- and many other faculties.
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And the Day shall come when We summon all people, each nation with their respective leader who is to bear witness to the behavior of his people and the way they conducted themselves in life. There and then he who is given his book of his record in life in his right hand shall he and such persons be delighted to read their records and no one shall ever be wronged not even to the equivalent of a single hair of the dry integument of the smallest seed.
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This has always been Allah's way of action which has long been pursued in the past with those of the Messengers whom We had sent before you in order of time. Each typical instance formed a particular case of a principle and a single instance of punishment. This mode of action, you will find, shall never alter.
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You just engage in the act of worship and hold intimate mental and spiritual intercourse with Allah at the point of time of the sun's declination or deviation from the Meridian or the zenith of the sky as it begins to sink toward setting and onward to the time when the darkness of the night prevails* And noteworthy is the Quran when recited at dawn. Indeed recital of the Quran at dawn is of great moment and a goodly loan. It inspires piety to the heart and makes the soul sensible of the presence of Allah; it is attended by the angels who witness its perusal.
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And call upon Allah in your invocatory prayer thus: "O Allah, my Creator, may I ask You to make my entry upon the stage of life an entry by the gate of truth wherefore I stay my course in accordance with the divine standard. And make O Allah, my Creator, my exit at the end of my doings and from the scene of life an egress vested with fidelity, truthfulness, virtue and integrity, and invest me, my Creator, with the divine insignia of power and authority".
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"Or until we have seen you residing in a house adorned with gold, or until we have seen you climbing a ladder heavenward, nor will we believe in your ascent until you have brought down a book that we could read". Say to them: "Praise be to Allah and extolled are His glorious attributes; am I in any respect but a human Messenger!"
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He whom Allah guides to His path of righteousness is the one who is guided by the spirit of truth into all truth. But those whom Allah sends astray, never shall you find for them tutelary guardians besides Him. We shall throng them drawn on their faces In Day of Judgement, blind, deaf and dumb to be delivered to their appropriate quarters in Hell which is constantly fed with fuel.As often as it abates We feed it so that they suffer the increasingly fierce and merciless flames of the fire.
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This is in requital of their denial of Allah's Omnipotence and Authority and of their refusal to acknowledge His revelations and signs evincing both His Godhead and His divine nature. And they insolently voice their denial of Resurrection. Thus: "Is it conceivable", they exclaim: "that when We have been reduced to bones and dust We will be restored to life and be created anew!"
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Do they not perceive by visual tokens and by their minds' eyes that Allah Who created the heavens and the earth is Omnipotent enough to recreate the like thereof and restore the dead to life and create them anew! It is He Who determined their span of life which He decreed to end at a certain and undoubted point of time, yet the infidels refuse to acknowledge the truth and choose to sink under the vexations of their minds.
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Say to them: "If you -infidels- were to have a place in the realm of the ruling power and you have the power of governing and controlling the vast treasuries of Allah's mercy, you would have exercised restraint by virtue of your niggardly disposition and for fear of want. Nonetheless, man has always been characterized by parsimony.
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"But you know", said Mussa, "That no one could have sent down these divine and evident signs but the Omnipotent Who is the Creator of the heavens and the earth; He made them clear to the understanding and judgement" "In effect I think that you Pharaoh are obstinate and unyielding to the truth and with unerring doom you shall see what is to come".
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Therefore say to them -the infidels- O Muhammad: "Believe in it or do not give credence to it; those to whom We imparted knowledge, wisdom and spiritual light before it was revealed bow to it in reverence and submission. When it is recited to them they cast themselves down prostrate in humility and veneration",
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Say to the Pagans who reject the attribute AL- Rahman and think it is another god: Invoke Allah or invoke AL-Rahman whichever you choose, for to Him belong all the graceful Names which are the supreme appellations in which His unique qualities are ascribed. And to avoid -O Muhammad- their mockery and derision when you engage in the act of worship, you just entertain the profound reverence dutiful to Allah. And do not voice your prayer loudly nor pronounce it inaudibly or below your breath but hold a middle degree between the two extremes.
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And express you gratitude to Him in words for His unipersonality and Unique divine nature, thus: "Praise be to Allah Who did not beget nor adopt a son nor is there anyone to share His divine nature or His realm nor is He dependent upon a tutelary guardian to protect Him from harm and from humiliation and praise Him highly for His imposing Omnipotence".