al-Isrāʾ 17:66-70

Rabbukumu'lladhī yuzjī lakumu'l-fulka fi'l-baḥri li-tabtaghū min faḍlih, innahū kāna bikum raḥīmā · Wa idhā massakumu'l-ḍurru fi'l-baḥri ḍalla man tadʿūna illā iyyāh, fa-lammā najjākum ila'l-barri aʿraḍtum, wa kāna'l-insānu kafūrā · A-fa-amintum an yakhsifa bikum jāniba'l-barri aw yursila ʿalaykum ḥāṣiban thumma lā tajidū lakum wakīlā · Am amintum an yuʿīdakum fīhi tāratan ukhrā fa-yursila ʿalaykum qāṣifan mina'l-rīḥi fa-yughriqakum bimā kafartum thumma lā tajidū lakum ʿalaynā bihi tabīʿā · Wa laqad karramnā banī Ādama wa ḥamalnāhum fi'l-barri wa'l-baḥri wa razaqnāhum mina'l-ṭayyibāti wa faḍḍalnāhum ʿalā kathīrin mimman khalaqnā tafḍīlā

"Your Lord is He who drives the ship along the sea for you, that you may seek of His bounty. He is ever merciful towards you. When affliction touches you at sea, those you call upon are lost from view — all but Him. And when He brings you safe to land, you turn away. Man is deeply ungrateful… We have honoured the children of Adam; We have carried them on land and sea, provided them with good things, and favoured them above many of those We created."

This scene is repeated several times in the Qurʾān and has been treated in the index: al-ʿAnkabūt 29/65 (fa-idhā rakibū fi'l-fulki daʿawu'llāha mukhliṣīna lahu'l-dīn) and Luqmān 31/32 (wa idhā ghashiyahum mawjun ka'l-ẓulal). I rely on those treatments.

And what the difference in al-Isrāʾ is must be recorded:

Three sūras give the same scene with three different details. This is a weave between sūras that can be verified.

And al-Isrāʾ's own distinctive word is worth recording: ḍalla — "it was lost, it strayed from the way."

I give this as my own reading, and its support is the choice of verb: the verse does not say "you forget them", it says "they are lost". The party that abandons is thus not the human being; it is they who go. The subject of the verb has changed.

And the same root (ض-ل-ل) occurs several times in the sūra (15, 48, 67, 72, 97) and here, unusually, it is used of the things worshipped.

The two verses ask about two separate dangers, and both begin with amintum (are you secure?):

I record this as an observation: the one rescued had come out on land; the verse says that the land too is not safe. And then, with the second question, it sends him back out to sea: an yuʿīdakum fīhi tāratan ukhrā.

قَاصِف — root ق-ص-ف: to break, to shatter with a crack. The word is used of the sound of thunder as well.

تَبِيعًا — root ت-ب-ع: to go after. Tabīʿ is explained by the lexicographers here as "one who pursues a claim, a prosecutor of a suit".

I record this as an observation about the language: the word is taken from a legal field. The verse does not say "you will find no helper" — it says "you will find no one to prosecute your case".

This verse is one of the most often cited sentences of the sūra, and it must be read with care.

The verse enumerates four things:

And the difference between two of the words must be recorded, because the verse uses them separately:

I record this as my own reading, and its support is the verse's own words: the first verb is unqualified, the second qualified. The honouring is given to the whole human race; the favouring stands inside a comparison and carries the qualification "above many".

The lexicographers dwell on the function of the word kathīr here, and two readings are transmitted:

Both readings are transmitted; I do not impose a preference.

I tabulated it at the sixty-second verse: Iblīs had said karramta ʿalayya — "You set him above me and passed me over."

And the seventieth verse gives the same root back not as an objection but as a judgement. And something has happened in between: from the sixty-sixth verse to the sixty-ninth, man's ingratitude was described (wa kāna'l-insānu kafūrā).

I record this as my own reading, and its support is this sequence: the sūra states that man has been honoured immediately after describing his ingratitude. The honour, that is, is not tied to man's performance. The ingratitude has been recorded, and for all that the judgement has not changed.

And this requires a record, per the method: the verse speaks for all the children of Adam — banī Ādam. No community and no lineage is left out. In this commentary no conclusion that separates any group is drawn from this verse.