17:1  Infinitely limitless is HE in HIS glory, HE WHO on a night conveyed HIS devotee from the Inviolable House of Worship to the Furthest Place of Prostration—whose environs WE blessed— so WE may show him OUR signs. Verily, HE is the all-hearing, the all-seeing.

17:2  And WE gave Moses the timeless Book and WE appointed it as guidance for the children of Israel: Do not take any trustee beside ME.

17:3  [They were the] descendants of the ones WE carried with Noah. Of certain, he was a grateful devotee.

17:4  WE declared [a forewarning] unto the children of Israel in the Scripture: You will surely and willfully cause corruption in the land twice, the while you surely and willfully rise to an immense superiority.

17:5  So then, when the first of the two promised requitals is on hand, WE will send servants committed to US, endowed with intense might, against you. They will sweep through your living spaces. It was a promised requital, duly executed.

17:6  Then WE gave back to you, your turn against them, and WE aided you with wealth and children and made you more numerous in manpower.

17:7  [With the reminder]: If you do good, you beautify your souls and if you engender foul, that too is for [your souls]. So then when the last of the promised requital is on hand, [God will send servants] to cast gloom on your faces and to enter the Temple— just as they had entered it the first time, and to demolish, to a complete demolition, whatever they scale.

17:8  Your Rabb offers hope that HE will be merciful to you. And if you revert, WE shall revert. WE have made Jahannam a matting for the disbelievers.

17:9  Surely, this Quran guides toward what is most upright and gives divine tidings to the believers who do virtuous deeds, that theirs is a transcendent reward—

17:10  and that those who do not believe in the Hereafter— for them WE have prepared an agonizing punishment.

17:11  Man prays, in want of the [intrinsically] harmful. His prayer is for the wordily fortunes. Man lives in the moment.

17:12  WE have rendered the night and the day as two [distinct] phenomena. WE have then given obscurity to the phenomenon of night, while WE have made the phenomenon of day sight-enabling, so that you may seek the bounty from your Rabb and keep track of the count of periods and the reckoning [of time]. Each thing, WE have made distinct, with distinction.

17:13  WE have attached to every man his possibilities, integral to his being. On the Day of Resurrection, WE will bring out a wide-open record for him to face.

17:14  “Read your record. This day, your own self is sufficient as a reckoner over you.”

17:15  Whoever has accepted guidance, he thereby accepts guidance only for his own soul. And whoever strays, he thereby errs only against his own soul. No bearer shall bear the burden of another. And WE are not One to punish until WE [first] send a Messenger.

17:16  And [in those cases] when WE intend that WE destroy a community, WE command its affluent people, they then flout [the command] therein and so becomes the pronouncement rightfully due on it. Thereupon WE completely annihilate it.

17:17  How many generations have WE destroyed after Noah! Your Rabb suffices as One aware and observant of the trespasses of HIS free-willed servants.

17:18  Whoever intends the temporal [for its own sake]— WE will hasten therein for him what WE will and for whom WE will. Thereafter WE have appointed Jahannam for him. He will fuel it— censured, banished.

17:19  And whoever has intended the Hereafter and has purposefully pursued it, as it ought to be pursued, and is a believer— it is they, their pursuit is deserving of appreciation.

17:20  For everyone, these here and these [others] here, WE spread out [for them] from the bestowals of your Rabb. The bestowals of your Rabb are not cordoned off [from anyone].

17:21  Observe how WE have graced some above others. And the Hereafter is transcendent in degrees and transcendent in type.

17:22  Do not set up another god with Allah, lest you sit censured, castaway.

17:23  Your Rabb has ordained that you worship none except HIM, and with parents be selflessly good. When one or both do reach old age with you, do not [express displeasure with them by as little as] uttering, “Phew” at them. And do not reproach them and speak to them both with honoring speech.

17:24  And lower unto them both, the wing of humility, out of the mercy [which is their due] and pray, “My Rabb, have mercy upon them both, just as they caringly nurtured me as a child.”

17:25  Your Rabb knows best what is in your souls. If you be righteous, then surely, HE is ever forgiving unto the penitent.

17:26  Give to the one close by kinship and by proximity, his rightful due, and [so too] unto the needy and the wayfarer, and do not squander wastefully.

17:27  Indeed, the squanderers are the brothers of the satanic entities, and Satan is ever ungrateful to his Rabb.

17:28  When you must turn away from them [without the means], in quest of mercy from your Rabb which you count on, do still speak to them with a comforting word.

17:29  Do not render your hand shackled to your neck, nor stretch it to its entire capacity— lest you sit blamed [or] regret-filled.

17:30  Of certain, your Rabb expands the provision for whomever HE wills, and HE measures out. Of certain, HE is all-aware, all-seeing of HIS free-willed servants.

17:31  And do not kill your children in dread of want. WE! WE sustain them and you. Surely, their killing is a transcendent sin.

17:32  And do not go near the [act of] adultery. Verily, it is a shameful deed and a foul path.

17:33  And do not kill a soul which Allah has declared sacred, except by the [divinely allowed] right. Whoever is killed wrongfully— WE have given his successor an authority [to pursue justice]. But do not let him be excessive in [retributive] killing. Surely, he [who is wrongfully killed] has acquired [divine] support.

17:34  And do not touch the property of the orphan [with any intent] except one for its betterment. [It is a trust you are pledged to] until he reaches maturity. And carry out the pledge. The pledge is one to be answered for.

17:35  Give the full measure whenever you measure, and weigh with the straight and accurate scale. That is the fair and best consummation [of a transaction].

17:36  And do not [blindly] pursue that for which you have no knowledge. Surely, the sound, the sight, and the intellect [of yours]—for all of those, one is ever answerable for.

17:37  And do not walk on the land exultantly. You cannot rupture the earth, nor can you match the mountains in scale.

17:38  The impiousness of all of that is repugnant in the sight of your Rabb.

17:39  That is from the wisdom which was revealed upon you by your Rabb. Do not [O man] set up other gods alongside Allah, lest you are thrown in Jahannam, blamed, banished.

17:40  Has then your Rabb distinguished you with sons while HE has taken daughters from among the angels? Surely, you utter a horrendous uttering.

17:41  WE have offered takeaways in this Quran so they may mindfully contemplate; but it increases them in nothing except aversion.

17:42  Say, “Had there been gods with HIM— as you say— they would have surely sought a way to the One at the Apex [of power and authority].”

17:43  Limitless is HE in HIS glory, exalted is HE above what they say—transcendentally exalted.

17:44  The seven heavens and the earth and whosoever is in them exist in expression of deference to HIM. There is not anything except it expresses its deference to HIS almightiness, with HIS praise, but you do not understand their way of expression. Surely, HE is ever forbearing, forgiving.

17:45  When you recite the Quran, WE place an invisible barrier between you and those who do not believe in the Hereafter.

17:46  WE have placed sheaths over their hearts lest they understand, and in their ears, a deafness. Whenever you mention your Rabb— HIS ONENESS, through the Quran, they turn their backs in aversion.

17:47  WE know best what they want to hear in it when they are listening to you. When they are in private conversation the wrongdoers confide [unto each other], “You follow none, but a spellbound man.”

17:48  Observe how they offer the analogies for you. [Demonstrably] they have gone astray and thus are unable to seek a way.

17:49  They say, “What! After we are mere bones and dust! Shall we still be raised as a new creation?”

17:50  Assert, “Whether you be stones or iron,

17:51  or any creation which inspires great awe in your hearts.” To that they are to ask, “Who will renew us?” Say, “HE WHO created you from nothing the first time.” Thereupon they are to shake their heads at you and ask, “When shall this be?” Say, “Maybe, it is near.”

17:52  On a day when HE calls you, then you will respond with HIS praise, and you will fathom that you tarried but only for a little while.

17:53  Say to MY devotees that they say that which is fairest. Satan does seek to incite enmity between them. Satan is ever to man, a plain enemy.

17:54  Your Rabb best knows about you [all]. If HE wills, HE will have mercy on you [all] or if HE wills, HE will punish you [all]. And WE have not sent you to them as their trustee.

17:55  Your Rabb knows best about whosoever is in the heavens and the earth. And WE indeed have graced some Prophets above others, and WE gave David, the Zabūr.

17:56  Say, “Call the ones who you had claimed [as gods] besides HIM— they control not the affliction’s removal nor its circumvention from you.”

17:57  Those very ones they invoke— [they themselves] seek the means of access to their Rabb. Which of them is nearer! And they [too] hope for HIS mercy and fear HIS punishment. Surely, the punishment of your Rabb was ever warned of.

17:58  There is not a settlement which WE are not to annihilate before the Day of Resurrection or not to chastise with a severe chastisement. That is in the record, expressly listed.

17:59  Nothing has stopped US from sending down the portents, except that the former peoples had given the lie to them. WE gave Thamūd, the camel as a visual portent. They still wronged her. And WE do not send the portents except as an alarm [before a fearsome consequence].

17:60  [Remember] when WE said to you, “Your Rabb has humankind circumscribed.” And WE had not rendered the vision which WE showed to you except as a test for men. And [so too is a test for men] the accursed tree [mentioned] in the Quran. While WE alert them [to the fearsome consequences]— nothing increases in them except their immense self-conceit.”

17:61  [And remember this]: When WE said to the Angels, “Prostrate to Adam.” They all prostrated except Ib'līs. He said, “Shall I prostrate to one YOU created from clay?”

17:62  He said, “What? YOU have seen for YOURSELF! This one whom YOU have honored above me—if YOU give me time through to the Day of Resurrection, I will surely rope in his progeny, except a few.”

17:63  HE said, “Be gone. Whoever follows you from among them, Jahannam shall be their recompense—an ample recompense.

17:64  Entice whosoever of them you can with your voice and move boisterously against them on your horse and your foot, and partner with them in their wealth and children and make promises to them.” And Satan is to promise them nothing but delusion.

17:65  “Surely, as for MY devotees, it is not for you to have authority over them.” And your Rabb suffices as trustee.

17:66  Your Rabb is HE who propels the vessel in the sea for you, so you all may seek of HIS bounty. Of certain, HE is ever merciful unto you all.

17:67  When the [unmitigable] adversity befalls you at sea, lost is whosoever you invoke, except HIM. Then, the moment WE deliver you on land, you turn away. Man is ever ungrateful.

17:68  Have you then acquired security, should HE cause a bank of the land to swallow you, or should HE send a deadly sandstorm upon you, whereafter you will not find a trustee for yourselves?

17:69  Or have you acquired security, should HE repeat [your ordeal] in the sea another time? Sending upon you a windstorm and causing you to drown for your ingratitude, whereupon you will not find anyone with recourse against US for it?

17:70  WE have honored the children of Adam and borne them on land and sea and given them sustenance from the pristine and wholesome things and graced them with much preference over many from amongst those WE have created.

17:71  On a day set, WE shall call men by their lead-in [imām]. Whoever then is given his record in his righthand— they shall read their record, and they will not be wronged the slightest.

17:72  And whoever in this [world] is blind [of heart]—he is to be blind in the Hereafter, and more astray of path [to HIS mercy].

17:73  They almost distracted you from the inspiration which WE directed unto you, that you would attribute to US other than it, whereupon they would have readily taken you as a friend.

17:74  Had WE not made you firm, you were certainly about to lean toward them— just a scant bit.

17:75  In which case WE would have made you taste the double of life and the double of death. And thereafter you would not have found for yourself, a helper against US.

17:76  And if they do come close, they would provoke you from within the land, so that they may drive you out from it. In that case, they will not tarry after you, except a little.

17:77  A method applying to those of our Messengers WE had sent before you. You will not find any circumvention to OUR method.

17:78  Maintain Prayer, [timed] to the sun’s decline through to the night’s darkness, and dawn’s recital [of the Quran]. Surely, the recital of the dawn of day, is with a memorable imprint.

17:79  And of the night. So, worship in the night with its recital, [in cherishment of] a gift for you. It is apt to hope that your Rabb will raise you to a praiseworthy station.

17:80  And pray, “My Rabb, grant me entry via an entrance of truth, and grant me exit via an exit of truth, and give me a sustained legitimacy from YOUR divine domain.”

17:81  Assert, “The Truth has come, and falsehood has withered away. Of certain, falsehood is bound to wither away.”

17:82  Anything WE send down of the Quran is a healing and a mercy for believers, while it adds nothing to the wrongdoers except loss.

17:83  When WE bestow a blessing on man, he becomes dismissive [of God’s beneficence] and draws back into his own zone; while when the ill had grazed him, he was in despair.

17:84  Say, “Everyone acts according to his own manner. Thus, [only] your Rabb— HE best knows who is best guided, path-wise.”

17:85  They ask you about the Spirit. Say, “The Spirit is from the command of my Rabb, and you have not been given of the knowledge [of the Real] except a little.”

17:86  And if WE willed, WE could indeed do away with what WE have revealed upon you. Thereafter you would not find any pleader for yourself, [pleading] unto US regarding it,

17:87  Except [it is here to stay] as a mercy from your Rabb. Transcendent indeed, is HIS grace upon you.

17:88  Say, “If all humankind and Jinn came together to bring the like of this Quran, they are not to come with its like, even if they were to work collaboratively.

17:89  WE have offered takeaways in this Quran for humankind with all kinds of similitudes, yet most of humankind have refused [all], except obstinate disbelief.

17:90  And they say, “We will not believe in you, until you cause a wellspring to gush forth for us from the earth.

17:91  Or there be a garden for you of date palms and vines, and you cause rivers to gush forth and flow profusely through its midst.

17:92  Or you make the sky fall upon us in pieces as you have claimed or bring Allah, and the angels face to face with us.

17:93  Or there be for you a house of gold, or you ascend to heaven— and we would not believe in your ascension unless you bring down for us a [physical] book which we can read.” Say, “Limitless in HIS glory is my Rabb. Was I ever aught but a mortal, bearing a message?”

17:94  Nothing stopped men from believing when Guidance came to them, except their expression: “Has Allah sent a mortal bearing a message?”

17:95  Say, “Had there been angels walking the earth as its settled residents, WE indeed would have sent down unto them an angel from Heaven as a messenger.”

17:96  Say, “Allah suffices as witness between me and you. HE is ever all-aware, all-seeing of HIS created beings.”

17:97  Whoever Allah guides, he is guided and whoever HE leaves astray—not shall you find for them protectors besides HIM. WE will assemble them on the Day of Resurrection, on their faces, blind, mute, and deaf. Jahannam is their goal. Every time it subsides; WE increase the blaze for them.

17:98  That is their recompense because they disbelieved in OUR signs and used to say, “After we are mere bones and dust, are we going to be raised again, as a new creation?”

17:99  Do they not see that Allah is HE WHO has created the heavens and the earth? Almightily able is HE to create the likes of them, and HE has appointed a term for them— there is no doubt in it. Yet the wrongdoers refused [all] except obstinate disbelief.

17:100  Say, “If you were to possess the treasuries of my Rabb’s mercy— you then would still surely hold back, for fear of spending.” And ever is man stingy.

17:101  WE gave Moses nine telling signs. So [as to whether these signs helped the disbelievers] ask the children of Israel. When Moses came to them [with the signs], Pharaoh said to him, “I do deem you, O Moses, as spellbound.”

17:102  Moses said, “You do know that these signs have been sent down by none except the Rabb of the Heavens and the earth, as eye openers, and O Pharaoh, I do deem that you are primed for lamentable ruin.

17:103  So [having refused all warnings], [Pharaoh] had intended that he rouse [his] people from across the land— WE drowned him and those with him—all together.

17:104  And WE said to the children of Israel after that, “Be settled in content in the land, then when the promise of the Hereafter is on hand, WE will bring you forth all combined together.

17:105  With the Truth, WE have sent it down, and with the Truth it has descended. And WE did not send you except as a bearer of divine tidings and a warner.

17:106  And it [was sent down] as a recital—WE have divided it so that you may recite it unto humankind at paced intervals [i.e., to allow it to be lived and to settle in the hearts of the believers]. And WE have revealed it with orderly succession.

17:107  Say, “Believe in it, or do not believe.” Verily, the ones who were given the knowledge before it— when it is recited to them— they collapse to their chins, fallen in prostration.

17:108  And they say, “Limitless Glory of OUR Rabb! This indeed was a promise of OUR Rabb— now delivered.”

17:109  And they collapse to their chins, weeping. And it increases them in humility. ۩

17:110  Say, “Beseech Allah or beseech Al Raḥmān. Whichever way you beseech—unto HIM belong the most beautiful names.” Do not be exhibitive with your prayer nor be hushed about it; seek a course between that.

17:111  And realize: All praise is for Allah, WHO begets not a son, and neither does HE have a partner in HIS dominion. And there is no [need of a] protector for HIM against the lowliness [they attribute]. And regard HIM ever greater beyond any conceivable greatness.