At a glance
countedCounting unit: name-tokens in the Tanzil Uthmani text (Ḥafṣ ʿan ʿĀṣim) — every occurrence of the name Isrāʾīl, whether it names the people or the man himself. The 43 tokens fall across 41 verses.
43×
the name Isrāʾīl across the whole text, in 41 verses
17
sūrahs carry the name — and Sūrah 17 traditionally bears it: Sūrat Banī Isrāʾīl
2 of 43
tokens name a single man, not the people
136×
Mūsā, their deliverer — the most-named human being in the Qur'ān
The refrain that frames the covenant
interpreted· quran by quran2:47 recurs byte-identically as 2:122, opening and closing the long address to them (2:40–123); the near-twin pair 2:48/2:123 swaps its middle clauses. The repetition is computed; reading it as a deliberate frame is interpretation.
يَٰبَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ ٱذْكُرُوا۟ نِعْمَتِىَ ٱلَّتِىٓ أَنْعَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَأَوْفُوا۟ بِعَهْدِىٓ أُوفِ بِعَهْدِكُمْ وَإِيَّٰىَ فَٱرْهَبُونِ
O Children of Israel, remember My favor which I have bestowed upon you and fulfill My covenant [upon you] that I will fulfill your covenant [from Me], and be afraid of [only] Me.
Fulfil My covenant — I fulfil yours: the reciprocity everything else on this page rests on.
يَٰبَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ ٱذْكُرُوا۟ نِعْمَتِىَ ٱلَّتِىٓ أَنْعَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَأَنِّى فَضَّلْتُكُمْ عَلَى ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ
O Children of Israel, remember My favor that I have bestowed upon you and that I preferred you over the worlds.
Favour recalled before any demand is made — and repeated to the letter at 2:122, closing the sequence this verse opens.
Their story is the Qur'ān's worked example of what a community does with favour: deliverance answered with a calf, covenant answered with breach — and above it all, a door held open. Two registers carry the name across the text, and the difference between them is the first thing worth seeing.
Guess before the chart below answers.
Test your reading
The Children of Israel lived alongside the Prophet in Madīna. So where does the Qur'ān mention them more — Meccan sūrahs or Madinan ones?
Two names, two registers
interpreted· quran by quranThe counts are computed — six vocatives in all; al-Yahūd 8×, every one Madinan. The reading of the two registers is interpretation.
In Mecca the Qur'ān tells their story; in Madīna it speaks to them. Every scene of the deliverance narrative sits in Meccan sūrahs, while God's direct summons to the listening community — يَٰبَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ — occurs only in al-Baqara (2:40, 2:47, 2:122). The one Meccan vocative is spoken inside the story, at the mount 20:80, and ʿĪsā's own call (5:72, 61:6) is quoted speech within it. The naming is just as exact: in their story they are always Banī Isrāʾīl — children of a prophet, measured against a covenant. Al-Yahūd appears 8 times, every one Madinan, always in scenes of contemporary dispute — and the Qur'ān never once says 'O Jews'. The people are summoned by their covenant name, not their party name.
Where the name lives
countedOne bar per sūrah that carries the name — a name-token count over the Tanzil text, not a root: Isrāʾīl is a proper noun with no Arabic root. Makkī/Madanī colours and the revelation ordering follow the traditional chronology.
بَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ43 occurrences · 17 of 114 sūrahs
Counted from the QAC morphology over the Ḥafṣ ʿan ʿĀṣim (Tanzil) text — hover a bar for the sūrah. The Makkī/Madanī labels and the revelation ordering follow the traditional chronology: an inherited scholarly ordering, not a computed fact.
Every mention, sorted — eight situations
interpreted· quran by quranAll 41 name-bearing verses, each assigned to the situation in which the name is used. The verse lists are exhaustive (computed); the sorting is a reading. 3:93 appears twice — once for the people, once for the man.
Summoned — the living address
يَٰبَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَGod's face-to-face call to the community hearing the Qur'ān — favour recalled, covenant invoked. Three verses, all in al-Baqara.
Narrated — the deliverance story
قصصFirʿawn's oppression, the sea, the mount, the land, the first king — told above all to Mecca, as precedent. Fifteen verses.
Bound — covenant and decree
الميثاقWhat was written upon them: the pledge of worship and kindness, twelve chieftains, the law of the one soul, the one food-rule. Five verses.
Endowed — given the Book
ٱلْكِتَٰبَ وَٱلْحُكْمَ وَٱلنُّبُوَّةَScripture, judgement and prophethood placed in their line — the Tawrāh made their guidance. Four verses.
Sent ʿĪsā — the last summons
عِيسَى ٱبْنُ مَرْيَمَA messenger to Banī Isrāʾīl confirming the Tawrāh; a faction believed and a faction refused. Seven verses.
Cited — witnesses for this Qur'ān
شَاهِدٌMecca is pointed to them as evidence: their scholars recognize what is being recited. Four verses.
Foretold — decree about what comes
مَرَّتَيْنِCorruption in the land twice, written in the Book — and the gathering when the last promise comes. Two verses.
What they were given, what they did
interpreted· quran by quranNever one block: 'among them is a moderate community' 5:66, 'a faction believed and a faction disbelieved' 61:14, 'among the people of Mūsā is a community guiding by truth' 7:159. Both columns are the text's words about parts of the people — not a verdict on the whole.
Endowed
فَضَّلْتُكُمْStated favour, listed like nowhere else — deliverance, scripture, land, preference.
Found wanting
نقض الميثاقEach favour is narrated beside its refusal — election as responsibility, never immunity.
«They are not all alike»
interpreted· quran by quranBefore the text lists any trait, it forbids the reader from levelling the people into one verdict. This verse governs every attribute that follows — the praise and the blame each describe a faction, never the whole.
لَيْسُوا۟ سَوَآءً مِّنْ أَهْلِ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ أُمَّةٌ قَآئِمَةٌ يَتْلُونَ ءَايَٰتِ ٱللَّهِ ءَانَآءَ ٱلَّيْلِ وَهُمْ يَسْجُدُونَ
They are not [all] the same; among the People of the Scripture is a community standing [in obedience], reciting the verses of Allah during periods of the night and prostrating [in prayer].
The Qur'ān's own guard against a blanket verdict — laysū sawāʾan, they are not all alike. Read the next two columns through this verse.
What the text says they are — the praised and the blamed
interpreted· quran by quranCharacter, not events: the traits the Qur'ān names, sorted into the faithful faction it praises and the faults it indicts. The sorting is a reading; each trait is anchored on the verse that states it. Held under 3:113 — every item describes a part, and the standing community is named in the same breath as the hard-hearted one.
The praised — a faithful faction
أُمَّةٌ قَآئِمَةٌNot a grudging exception but a named, honoured community — the text calls them of the righteous.
A community that prostrates and recites God's signs in the depths of the night.
Faith in God and the Last Day, then the active ethic — enjoining good, forbidding evil, hastening to good deeds.
Of the very people of Mūsā: a community that guides by the truth and by it does justice.
Set beside the many whose deeds are evil — the balanced, temperate community among them.
The blamed — the recurring faults
قُلُوبٌ قَاسِيَةٌThe indictment the story returns to — sins of the heart, of the word, and of the covenant.
Even rock splits and pours water in fear of God; the hardened heart does not.
Shifting the revealed word off its meaning, and forgetting a portion of what was given.
The gravest count: covenant broken, God's signs denied, prophets killed without right.
The sin of silence — they would not restrain one another from the wrong they did.
Given the manna, they demanded the herbs and onions of Egypt — the better exchanged for the lower.
«Preferred over the worlds» — absolute, or of their age?
interpreted· quran by quran; al-Mīzān; classical tafsīrThe clause faḍḍaltukum ʿalā l-ʿālamīn recurs in the frame verses 2:47, 2:122 and is restated in 45:16. What the preference ranges over is a genuine exegetical fork.
When God says to Banī Isrāʾīl «I preferred you over the worlds» 2:47 — over all peoples of all times, or over the worlds of their era?
Reading APreference of their era
على عالَمي زمانهمṬabāṭabāʾī (al-Mīzān) reads the ʿālamīn as the worlds of their age: they were the community entrusted with revelation and kingship in their time. Other verses assign the same superlative elsewhere — «you are the best nation brought forth for mankind» 3:110 — so the preference must be relative, not a standing rank.
- 5:20 lists the content of the preference: prophets, kings, «what He gave no one in the worlds» — historical endowments, not a permanent verdict.
- The same sūrah warns them of a Day no soul will avail another 2:48 — favour past is no shield.
Reading BAbsolute in what was given
تفضيل مطلق فيما أوتواOthers hold the wording as it stands: in the particular favours named — the density of prophets, the manna, the sea split for them — no people was given the like, and the late-Makkan 45:16 still states the preference without restriction.
- On this reading the preference is real and unrepeated in kind, while implying nothing about the standing of any later community.
- The two readings converge on the page's larger pattern: endowment is a test, and 17:8 leaves the door open both ways.
The atlas records the fork — it crowns no reading.
The four-beat pattern
interpreted· quran by quranThe repeating shape of the Mūsā cycle, distilled from the Baqara sequence — the pattern the mirror teaches.
- Grace2:47
Delivered and favoured
'Remember My favour, that I preferred you over the worlds.' Deliverance from Firʿawn, the parted sea, manna and quails.
- Covenant2:63
The oath taken
The mount raised above them; the pledge to hold firmly to what was given.
- Turning2:51
The breach
The calf, taken in Mūsā's brief absence — the archetypal forgetting of a covenant just sworn.
- Consequence2:61
The reckoning
Humiliation and need 'stamped upon them' — framed as the fruit of their own choices, not as arbitrary.
The universal law drawn from their story
interpreted· quran by quran5:32 generalises from a single killing in their story to all mankind — 'because of that, We decreed upon the Children of Israel…'
Test your reading
Isrāʾīl is not first a people's name — it is one man's. Which prophet is he?
إِلَّا مَا حَرَّمَ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلُ عَلَىٰ نَفْسِهِۦ
The man and the people in one sentence
interpreted· quran by quranكُلُّ ٱلطَّعَامِ كَانَ حِلًّا لِّبَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ إِلَّا مَا حَرَّمَ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلُ عَلَىٰ نَفْسِهِۦ مِن قَبْلِ أَن تُنَزَّلَ ٱلتَّوْرَىٰةُ قُلْ فَأْتُوا۟ بِٱلتَّوْرَىٰةِ فَٱتْلُوهَآ إِن كُنتُمْ صَٰدِقِينَ
All food was lawful to the Children of Israel except what Israel had made unlawful to himself before the Torah was revealed. Say, [O Muhammad], "So bring the Torah and recite it, if you should be truthful."
The only verse where the ancestor and his children share a line — what Israel bound on himself, before the Tawrāh — and the standing challenge: bring it and recite it.
Their past and their future, as the Qur'ān tells it
interpreted· quran by quranEvery scene anchors to the verse it rests on. The sequence is the Qur'ān's own narrative order — not a dated chronology.
Narrated as past
Decreed and promised◦
Narrated as past1 / 13
2:49Bondage in Egypt
سُوٓءَ ٱلْعَذَابِSons slaughtered, women spared — 'a great trial from your Lord.' The story opens at the bottom.
The scenes stand in the Qur'ān's own telling order — not a dated chronology — and the two corruptions of 17:4 are deliberately unnamed in the text. What can be asserted is the shape: favour, breach, return. And the last word of 17:8 leaves the door open.
The decree and the door
interpreted· Qurʾān ḤakīmWhich two events? The text does not say. Qurʾān Ḥakīm (citing al-Mīzān and Tafsīr Nemūneh) records the view of some mufassirūn that they are the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the later Roman one — while noting plainly that the Qur'ān leaves the events, the places and the 'servants of great might' unnamed. A fork, recorded as a fork; this page does not date them.
وَقَضَيْنَآ إِلَىٰ بَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ فِى ٱلْكِتَٰبِ لَتُفْسِدُنَّ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ مَرَّتَيْنِ وَلَتَعْلُنَّ عُلُوًّا كَبِيرًا
And We conveyed to the Children of Israel in the Scripture that, "You will surely cause corruption on the earth twice, and you will surely reach [a degree of] great haughtiness.
Conveyed in the Book — their own Scripture — before it unfolded: corruption twice, and a great rising.
عَسَىٰ رَبُّكُمْ أَن يَرْحَمَكُمْ وَإِنْ عُدتُّمْ عُدْنَا وَجَعَلْنَا جَهَنَّمَ لِلْكَٰفِرِينَ حَصِيرًا
[Then Allah said], "It is expected, [if you repent], that your Lord will have mercy upon you. But if you return [to sin], We will return [to punishment]. And We have made Hell, for the disbelievers, a prison-bed."
The passage refuses to close. Mercy is held out as expected — and the answer returns only if the deed returns.
The decree, walked as the cycle it states
interpreted· quran by quran17:4–17:8 is one passage. Its five beats are the Qurʾān's own order; naming them, and reading the shape as a cycle rather than a line, is the interpretation — and it rests on the last verse, which reopens what a finished prophecy would close. Step past the final beat and the ring returns you to the first, because that is what «وَإِنْ عُدتُّمْ عُدْنَا» says. The widget draws a shape and never a date: no army, city or century is named in the passage, and none is supplied here.
Told in advance
17:4Corruption twice, and a great rising
مَرَّتَيْنِ
«لَتُفْسِدُنَّ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ مَرَّتَيْنِ» — conveyed in the Book, their own Scripture, before it unfolded. Twice, and a rising to great height. No dates, no cities, no armies named.
The passage is usually quoted at its two ends. Walking it shows what sits in the middle: a restoration 17:6 between the two reckonings, and a moral hinge 17:7 that makes the whole thing a law about deeds rather than a schedule of events. Whether the two corruptions are identifiable episodes is left open on this page — see the fork below.
The three verses between the decree and the door
countedThe body of 17:4–17:8. Given whole because the passage is almost always quoted at its two ends and cut in the middle — where the restoration and the moral hinge sit.
فَإِذَا جَآءَ وَعْدُ أُولَىٰهُمَا بَعَثْنَا عَلَيْكُمْ عِبَادًا لَّنَآ أُو۟لِى بَأْسٍ شَدِيدٍ فَجَاسُوا۟ خِلَٰلَ ٱلدِّيَارِ وَكَانَ وَعْدًا مَّفْعُولًا
So when the [time of] promise came for the first of them, We sent against you servants of Ours - those of great military might, and they probed [even] into the homes, and it was a promise fulfilled.
The first reckoning. فَجَاسُوا۟ — 'they probed' — is a hapax: it occurs nowhere else in the Qurʾān.
ثُمَّ رَدَدْنَا لَكُمُ ٱلْكَرَّةَ عَلَيْهِمْ وَأَمْدَدْنَٰكُم بِأَمْوَٰلٍ وَبَنِينَ وَجَعَلْنَٰكُمْ أَكْثَرَ نَفِيرًا
Then We gave back to you a return victory over them. And We reinforced you with wealth and sons and made you more numerous in manpower
Between the two punishments, a restoration — wealth, sons, numbers. The decree includes the rising, not only the fall.
إِنْ أَحْسَنتُمْ أَحْسَنتُمْ لِأَنفُسِكُمْ وَإِنْ أَسَأْتُمْ فَلَهَا فَإِذَا جَآءَ وَعْدُ ٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ لِيَسُـۥٓـُٔوا۟ وُجُوهَكُمْ وَلِيَدْخُلُوا۟ ٱلْمَسْجِدَ كَمَا دَخَلُوهُ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ وَلِيُتَبِّرُوا۟ مَا عَلَوْا۟ تَتْبِيرًا
[And said], "If you do good, you do good for yourselves; and if you do evil, [you do it] to yourselves." Then when the final promise came, [We sent your enemies] to sadden your faces and to enter the temple in Jerusalem, as they entered it the first time, and to destroy what they had taken over with [total] destruction.
The hinge. Good and evil both return to the doer; only then does the second promise arrive.
What the corpus actually says about their future
countedCounted over the same Tanzil Uthmani text, Ḥafṣ, as every figure on this page. Phrase searches are on the consonantal skeleton, so vowel-mark variants cannot hide a match.
2
«وَعْدُ ٱلْـَٔاخِرَة» — 'the promise of the last'
12
Verses sealing a condition «until the Day of Resurrection»
2
«ٱلْعَدَاوَة وَٱلْبَغْضَآء» set 'until the Day of Resurrection'
Two of those figures are worth holding together. The phrase 'the promise of the last' — وَعْدُ ٱلْـَٔاخِرَة — appears twice in the entire Qurʾān, and both times it is spoken to this people, in this one sūrah. At 17:7 it arrives as a reckoning; at 17:104, ninety-seven verses later, it arrives as a gathering. Sūrat al-Isrāʾ opens their file with a warning and closes it with an assembly, using the same two words for both. Whether that is one event described twice or two is not something a count can settle — but the symmetry is in the text, not imposed on it.
The conditions the text seals 'until the Day of Resurrection'
countedThree verses set a term on the horizon rather than on a date. Note that 5:14 does the same to those who said 'we are Christians' — the sealing is not reserved to one community.
وَإِذْ تَأَذَّنَ رَبُّكَ لَيَبْعَثَنَّ عَلَيْهِمْ إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ ٱلْقِيَٰمَةِ مَن يَسُومُهُمْ سُوٓءَ ٱلْعَذَابِ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ لَسَرِيعُ ٱلْعِقَابِ وَإِنَّهُۥ لَغَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ
And [mention] when your Lord declared that He would surely [continue to] send upon them until the Day of Resurrection those who would afflict them with the worst torment. Indeed, your Lord is swift in penalty; but indeed, He is Forgiving and Merciful.
A standing declaration: those who would afflict them, sent until the Day of Resurrection — closed by two names of mercy, «لَغَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ», in the same breath.
وَقَطَّعْنَٰهُمْ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ أُمَمًا مِّنْهُمُ ٱلصَّٰلِحُونَ وَمِنْهُمْ دُونَ ذَٰلِكَ وَبَلَوْنَٰهُم بِٱلْحَسَنَٰتِ وَٱلسَّيِّـَٔاتِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ
And We divided them throughout the earth into nations. Of them some were righteous, and of them some were otherwise. And We tested them with good [times] and bad that perhaps they would return [to obedience].
And immediately: scattered into nations, some of them righteous, tested with good and with evil — «لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ», that perhaps they would return. The stated purpose of the whole condition is return, not ruin.
وَقَالَتِ ٱلْيَهُودُ يَدُ ٱللَّهِ مَغْلُولَةٌ غُلَّتْ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَلُعِنُوا۟ بِمَا قَالُوا۟ بَلْ يَدَاهُ مَبْسُوطَتَانِ يُنفِقُ كَيْفَ يَشَآءُ وَلَيَزِيدَنَّ كَثِيرًا مِّنْهُم مَّآ أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكَ مِن رَّبِّكَ طُغْيَٰنًا وَكُفْرًا وَأَلْقَيْنَا بَيْنَهُمُ ٱلْعَدَٰوَةَ وَٱلْبَغْضَآءَ إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ ٱلْقِيَٰمَةِ كُلَّمَآ أَوْقَدُوا۟ نَارًا لِّلْحَرْبِ أَطْفَأَهَا ٱللَّهُ وَيَسْعَوْنَ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ فَسَادًا وَٱللَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ ٱلْمُفْسِدِينَ
And the Jews say, "The hand of Allah is chained." Chained are their hands, and cursed are they for what they say. Rather, both His hands are extended; He spends however He wills. And that which has been revealed to you from your Lord will surely increase many of them in transgression and disbelief. And We have cast among them animosity and hatred until the Day of Resurrection. Every time they kindled the fire of war [against you], Allah extinguished it. And they strive throughout the land [causing] corruption, and Allah does not like corrupters.
Enmity and hatred cast among them until the Day of Resurrection — and the clause the page below turns on: «كُلَّمَآ أَوْقَدُوا۟ نَارًا لِّلْحَرْبِ أَطْفَأَهَا ٱللَّهُ».
«Every time they kindle a fire for war»
interpreted· quran by quran5:64 states an act and a response in the same sentence, in the form of a standing rule (كُلَّمَا — every time), not a single past event. What the verse does not do is name a war, a century or a party; this page does not supply them.
Every time they kindle a fire for war — كُلَّمَآ أَوْقَدُوا۟ نَارًا لِّلْحَرْبِ
God extinguishes it — أَطْفَأَهَا ٱللَّهُ
5:64The response is attributed to God alone, in the perfect tense, as the answer to a repeating act.
And they strive in the land for corruption
5:64وَيَسْعَوْنَ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ فَسَادًا — the same root f-s-d that carries the decree of 17:4.
And God does not love the corrupters
5:64The verse ends on the attribute, not on the people — a judgement on the act.
The harm they attempt, and the limit set on it
countedThree verses state a specific intended harm and, in the same sentence, what becomes of it. In each the subject of the limiting clause is God, and in each the harm is spoken of in the imperfect — an ongoing or future act, not a closed episode.
وَدَّ كَثِيرٌ مِّنْ أَهْلِ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ لَوْ يَرُدُّونَكُم مِّنۢ بَعْدِ إِيمَٰنِكُمْ كُفَّارًا حَسَدًا مِّنْ عِندِ أَنفُسِهِم مِّنۢ بَعْدِ مَا تَبَيَّنَ لَهُمُ ٱلْحَقُّ فَٱعْفُوا۟ وَٱصْفَحُوا۟ حَتَّىٰ يَأْتِىَ ٱللَّهُ بِأَمْرِهِۦٓ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
Many of the People of the Scripture wish they could turn you back to disbelief after you have believed, out of envy from themselves [even] after the truth has become clear to them. So pardon and overlook until Allah delivers His command. Indeed, Allah is over all things competent.
The intended harm is named exactly: to turn you back to disbelief after your belief, «حَسَدًا مِّنْ عِندِ أَنفُسِهِمْ» — out of envy from their own selves. The instruction that follows is pardon and overlook until God brings His command — not retaliation.
لَن يَضُرُّوكُمْ إِلَّآ أَذًى وَإِن يُقَٰتِلُوكُمْ يُوَلُّوكُمُ ٱلْأَدْبَارَ ثُمَّ لَا يُنصَرُونَ
They will not harm you except for [some] annoyance. And if they fight you, they will show you their backs; then they will not be aided.
«لَن يَضُرُّوكُمْ إِلَّآ أَذًى» — they will never harm you except adhā, an annoyance. If they fight, they turn their backs; then they are not aided. The limit is stated before any incident, and it is stated as a permanent one.
وَقَالَتِ ٱلْيَهُودُ يَدُ ٱللَّهِ مَغْلُولَةٌ غُلَّتْ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَلُعِنُوا۟ بِمَا قَالُوا۟ بَلْ يَدَاهُ مَبْسُوطَتَانِ يُنفِقُ كَيْفَ يَشَآءُ وَلَيَزِيدَنَّ كَثِيرًا مِّنْهُم مَّآ أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكَ مِن رَّبِّكَ طُغْيَٰنًا وَكُفْرًا وَأَلْقَيْنَا بَيْنَهُمُ ٱلْعَدَٰوَةَ وَٱلْبَغْضَآءَ إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ ٱلْقِيَٰمَةِ كُلَّمَآ أَوْقَدُوا۟ نَارًا لِّلْحَرْبِ أَطْفَأَهَا ٱللَّهُ وَيَسْعَوْنَ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ فَسَادًا وَٱللَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ ٱلْمُفْسِدِينَ
And the Jews say, "The hand of Allah is chained." Chained are their hands, and cursed are they for what they say. Rather, both His hands are extended; He spends however He wills. And that which has been revealed to you from your Lord will surely increase many of them in transgression and disbelief. And We have cast among them animosity and hatred until the Day of Resurrection. Every time they kindled the fire of war [against you], Allah extinguished it. And they strive throughout the land [causing] corruption, and Allah does not like corrupters.
«كُلَّمَآ أَوْقَدُوا۟ نَارًا لِّلْحَرْبِ أَطْفَأَهَا ٱللَّهُ» — every time they kindle a fire for war, God extinguishes it. The word kullamā makes it a standing rule rather than a single event: the kindling recurs, and so does the extinguishing.
«لَن يَضُرُّوا» — the four times the Qurʾān says «they will never harm»
countedCounted over the QAC morphology of the same Tanzil text: the particle لَن (emphatic future negation) immediately followed by a verb from the root ض-ر-ر. All four occurrences are listed; the object of each was read off the next token.
4
«لَن» + a verb of ḍ-r-r, in the whole Qurʾān
3
…where the object is God — «لَن يَضُرُّوا۟ ٱللَّهَ»
1
…where the object is you — «لَن يَضُرُّوكُمْ»
That split is worth pausing on. The Qurʾān uses this exact construction — the particle لَن, which negates a future emphatically, followed by the verb to harm — only four times. Three of them reassure that God cannot be harmed. The fourth, 3:111, is the only one that says a people will never harm you — and it is the verse about Ahl al-Kitāb. So the answer the text gives to 'what will they do?' is placed inside a sentence that has already capped it: illā adhan, nothing but annoyance. Read with 5:64 and 2:109 the shape is consistent — the attempt is real and named, the outcome is not left to them, and the believers' own instruction in 2:109 is «فَٱعْفُوا۟ وَٱصْفَحُوا۟», pardon and overlook.
What is attempted, and what is said of the attempt
interpreted· quran by quranLeft column: the harms the Qurʾān explicitly attributes. Right column: the clause that limits each, in the same verse. Pairing them is a reading; every line is a quotation.
What the text says of the outcome
أَطْفَأَهَا ٱللَّهُIn each case the limiting clause is in the same āya as the accusation, and its subject is God.
- «أَطْفَأَهَا ٱللَّهُ» — God extinguishes it 5:64
- «لَن يَضُرُّوكُمْ إِلَّآ أَذًى» — never harm you but an annoyance 3:111
- «يُوَلُّوكُمُ ٱلْأَدْبَارَ ثُمَّ لَا يُنصَرُونَ» — they turn their backs, then are not aided 3:111
- «فَٱعْفُوا۟ وَٱصْفَحُوا۟ حَتَّىٰ يَأْتِىَ ٱللَّهُ بِأَمْرِهِۦ» — pardon, until God brings His command 2:109
What the text says is attempted
يَسْعَوْنَ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ فَسَادًاNamed acts, in the imperfect — ongoing rather than closed.
A scope note, because these verses are the most often quoted out of scope of any on this page.
Who the verses actually name matters, and the Qurʾān is careful about it in the same passages. 5:64 opens on «وَقَالَتِ ٱلْيَهُودُ» and closes on an attribute — God does not love the corrupters — a judgement on the act. 2:109 says many of Ahl al-Kitāb, not all. 3:111 arrives immediately after 3:110, which states that «مِّنْهُمُ ٱلْمُؤْمِنُونَ» — among them are believers — and is followed two verses later by 3:113: «لَيْسُوا۟ سَوَآءً», they are not all alike, describing an upright community among them reciting through the night. And 7:168 states the purpose of their whole scattering as return: «لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ». The page records the accusations because the text states them; it records the qualifications for the same reason.
Is 17:4–8 a prediction of dated events, or a law of history?
interpretedA live disagreement among mufassirūn, held here as a fork. Both readings work from the same five verses; neither is crowned. The Qurʾān names no army, no city and no century in the passage, which is precisely why the question stays open.
The decree says corruption twice and a reckoning after each. Does the text point at two identifiable events in the past, or state a repeating law that has no fixed number of instances?
Reading ATwo events, already past
حادثتان معيّنتانThe two corruptions and their two reckonings are specific historical episodes; the passage is narrative prophecy, now fulfilled.
- «مَرَّتَيْنِ» — twice — is a number, and a number resists being read as 'indefinitely'.
- «وَكَانَ وَعْدًا مَّفْعُولًا» at 17:5 — a promise fulfilled — reads most naturally of something already accomplished.
- The Qurʾān Ḥakīm margin notes record the view of some mufassirūn identifying them with the destructions of the sanctuary — while stating plainly that the Qurʾān leaves events, places and the 'servants of great might' unnamed.
- The second reckoning is described in concrete detail: faces disfigured, the masjid entered as they entered it the first time 17:7.
Reading BA law, stated in a worked example
سنّة جاريةThe passage states the same rule the Qurʾān states everywhere — deeds return to their doer — and uses their history as the case that demonstrates it.
- The passage's own hinge is a general moral clause, not a date: «إِنْ أَحْسَنتُمْ أَحْسَنتُمْ لِأَنفُسِكُمْ» 17:7.
- The closing verse re-opens what a completed prophecy would close: «وَإِن عُدتُّمْ عُدْنَا» — if you return, We return 17:8. A fulfilled prediction does not need a conditional future.
- The Qurʾān applies the identical logic to every community: «وَتِلْكَ ٱلْأَيَّامُ نُدَاوِلُهَا بَيْنَ ٱلنَّاسِ» 3:140, and it tells this whole story as a mirror — 'so ask the Children of Israel' 17:101.
- 7:168 gives the stated purpose of their scattering as return — «لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ» — which is the language of an open test, not a closed sentence.
The atlas records the fork — it crowns no reading.
Test your reading
The decree of 17:4 promises corruption twice and a reckoning after each. What sits between the two reckonings?
ثُمَّ رَدَدْنَا لَكُمُ ٱلْكَرَّةَ عَلَيْهِمْ
The other corruption on the horizon
countedYaʾjūj and Maʾjūj are named in exactly two verses — 18:94 and 21:96 — and the Qurʾān never connects them to Banī Isrāʾīl. They are placed here for what the two passages share: the root f-s-d, and a barrier that holds until a promise comes. The link is thematic and stated as such; identifying them with any people is not something this page will do.
وَحَرَٰمٌ عَلَىٰ قَرْيَةٍ أَهْلَكْنَٰهَآ أَنَّهُمْ لَا يَرْجِعُونَ
And there is prohibition upon [the people of] a city which We have destroyed that they will [ever] return
Read directly before the next verse: a town destroyed is barred from returning — حَتَّىٰٓ — until…
حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَا فُتِحَتْ يَأْجُوجُ وَمَأْجُوجُ وَهُم مِّن كُلِّ حَدَبٍ يَنسِلُونَ
Until when [the dam of] Gog and Magog has been opened and they, from every elevation, descend
…until Yaʾjūj and Maʾjūj are opened and they pour from every height. The same verb of corrupting the land that 18:94 uses of them is the verb of 17:4; the Qurʾān draws no line between the two, and neither does this page.
The cast around their story
interpreted· quran by quranThe figure counts are computed — name-tokens over the same Tanzil text as every count on this page. The grouping into acts is a reading.
The house
يَعْقُوبYaʿqūb — named 16 times, and twice more as Isrāʾīl himself (3:93, 19:58). The people are literally his children.
The deliverance
مُوسَىMūsā, 136× — the most-named human in the Qur'ān. Hārūn, 20×, his deputy on the mount. Firʿawn, 74× — the oppression they are delivered from.
The kingdom
دَاوُۥدُṬālūt (2×), the king they demanded; Jālūt (3×), the giant he faced; Dāwūd (16×), who slew him and received kingship; Sulaymān (17×), his heir 27:16.
The mirror in full
interpreted· quran by quranمِنْ أَجْلِ ذَٰلِكَ كَتَبْنَا عَلَىٰ بَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ أَنَّهُۥ مَن قَتَلَ نَفْسًۢا بِغَيْرِ نَفْسٍ أَوْ فَسَادٍ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ فَكَأَنَّمَا قَتَلَ ٱلنَّاسَ جَمِيعًا وَمَنْ أَحْيَاهَا فَكَأَنَّمَآ أَحْيَا ٱلنَّاسَ جَمِيعًا وَلَقَدْ جَآءَتْهُمْ رُسُلُنَا بِٱلْبَيِّنَٰتِ ثُمَّ إِنَّ كَثِيرًا مِّنْهُم بَعْدَ ذَٰلِكَ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ لَمُسْرِفُونَ
Because of that, We decreed upon the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption [done] in the land - it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one - it is as if he had saved mankind entirely. And our messengers had certainly come to them with clear proofs. Then indeed many of them, [even] after that, throughout the land, were transgressors.
The law of the one soul, decreed upon them — their story generalised to all mankind.
وَلَقَدْ ءَاتَيْنَا بَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ ٱلْكِتَٰبَ وَٱلْحُكْمَ وَٱلنُّبُوَّةَ وَرَزَقْنَٰهُم مِّنَ ٱلطَّيِّبَٰتِ وَفَضَّلْنَٰهُمْ عَلَى ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ
And We did certainly give the Children of Israel the Scripture and judgement and prophethood, and We provided them with good things and preferred them over the worlds.
The full endowment in one verse: Book, judgement, prophethood, provision, preference.
أَوَلَمْ يَكُن لَّهُمْ ءَايَةً أَن يَعْلَمَهُۥ عُلَمَٰٓؤُا۟ بَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ
And has it not been a sign to them that it is recognized by the scholars of the Children of Israel?
Mecca is pointed to their scholars as evidence for this revelation.
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ كُونُوٓا۟ أَنصَارَ ٱللَّهِ كَمَا قَالَ عِيسَى ٱبْنُ مَرْيَمَ لِلْحَوَارِيِّـۧنَ مَنْ أَنصَارِىٓ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ قَالَ ٱلْحَوَارِيُّونَ نَحْنُ أَنصَارُ ٱللَّهِ فَـَٔامَنَت طَّآئِفَةٌ مِّنۢ بَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ وَكَفَرَت طَّآئِفَةٌ فَأَيَّدْنَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ عَلَىٰ عَدُوِّهِمْ فَأَصْبَحُوا۟ ظَٰهِرِينَ
O you who have believed, be supporters of Allah, as when Jesus, the son of Mary, said to the disciples, "Who are my supporters for Allah?" The disciples said, "We are supporters of Allah." And a faction of the Children of Israel believed and a faction disbelieved. So We supported those who believed against their enemy, and they became dominant.
The last word on them is a split — and help for the faction that believed.
Banī Isrāʾīl in the web of the Qur'ān
interpreted· quran by quranThe figures and ideas their story runs through. Dashed lines are opposition; every relation is drawn from an explicit verse, not inferred. The two future nodes are the passage's own terms — «وعد الآخرة» 17:7, 17:104 and the clause «إلى يوم القيامة» that seals 7:167 and 5:64.
A mirror, and a door left open
interpreted· quran by quranThe name is counted here down to the single token, and the sorting into situations is honest about being a reading. What the map cannot settle is the one thing the story is for: it is held up as a mirror, and a mirror asks who is looking. The Qur'ān leaves the two corruptions of 17:4 unnamed, and it leaves the last clause open on both sides — 'if you return, We return' 17:8. The shape is what can be asserted: grace, breach, return — and the door is shut on no one. Read as history it is one people's account; read as a mirror it is every community's, which is how the Qur'ān itself reads it when it says 'so ask the Children of Israel' 17:101.