Al-Israa (The Night Journey)

73. “And verily they were about to tempt you away from what We revealed to you so that you would ascribe against Us other than that, and then they would certainly have taken you as a friend.”

Referring to the issues involved in previous holy verses regarding paganism and the pagans, here, He issues a dire warning to the blissful Prophet (S) to be on his guard against this group and their temptations, lest the slightest weakness permeates his beliefs in his campaign against paganism and idolatry, which are to be ensued decisively to the end.

The verse says:

“And verily they were about to tempt you away from what We revealed to you so that you would ascribe against Us other than that, and then they would certainly have taken you as a friend.”

In some quotations, we read that the pagans wanted the Prophet (S) to pay his respect to the idols or they asked for a one-year respite for their pursuit of their worship of the idols, in which case, the prophet (S) was about to condescend to their request.

However, the Almighty protected him. Nevertheless, such quotations are discarded and they are incompatible with the principle of infallibility and decisiveness of the Prophet (S) which has been mentioned in other verses of the Qur’an and which is his usual course in his life.¹

The author of Tafsir Atyab-ul-Bayan states that: As we have it in the verse: /‘an-il-laŏi ’auhayn a/

“…from what We revealed…”

instead of /‘amm a ’auhayn a/, this indicates that attempts made by the pagans for changing the view of the Prophet (S), relates to his diversion of attention from a particular person and not to the revealed matters. However, who has it been the fellow whom Allah has sent His revelations about?

There is a tradition narrated from Imam Baqir and Imam Kazim (as) concerning the issue of ‘Wilayat’ (Succession) of Hadrat Ali (as), in which, the Lord has made certain recommendations to the Prophet (S) through revelations.

The Lord has revealed this verse in order to make the Prophet (S) remain heedless of the jealousy of the people and their rejection as well as their intolerant attitudes, and to invalidate the attempts of the pagans for making the Prophet (S) exceed the limits.