Study the Quran

Tafsir

Scholarly commentary explaining a verse — its context, its meaning and how the scholars have understood it.

Al-Isra 17:38

Word by word

كُلُّ ذَٰلِكَ كَانَ سَيِّئُهُۥ عِندَ رَبِّكَ مَكْرُوهًا

All that [i.e., the aforementioned] - its evil is ever, in the sight of your Lord, detested.

Ibn Kathir (Abridged) English Ma'arif al-Qur'an English Tafsir Muyassar Arabic Tafsir Ibn Kathir Arabic All sources

Ibn Kathir (Abridged)

Hafiz Ibn Kathir

Condemnation of strutting

Allah forbids His servants to strut and walk in a boastful manner:وَلاَ تَمْشِ فِى الاٌّرْضِ مَرَحًا(And walk not on the earth with conceit and arrogance.) meaning, walking in boastful manner and acting proud, like those who are arrogant oppressors.إِنَّكَ لَن تَخْرِقَ الاٌّرْضَ(Verily, you can neither rend nor penetrate the earth) means, you cannot penetrate the earth with your walking. This was the opinion of Ibn Jarir.

Ma'arif al-Qur'an

Mufti Muhammad Shafi

After having described details of the injunctions appearing above, it was said in the last verse: كُلُّ ذَٰلِكَ كَانَ سَيِّئُهُ عِندَ رَ‌بِّكَ مَكْرُ‌وهًا (That which is evil, of all these, is detestable in the sight of your Lord - 38).

As for what has been forbidden in the said injunctions, their repugnance is obvious. But, within these there are some commandments where rights of parents and relatives have been enjoined or fulfillment of promises has been made mandatory. Here too, the purpose is to avoid doing the opposite of it, like hurting parents, breaking off from relatives and going back on solemn promises. Since all these things are haram or reprehensible, therefore, it has been called 'makruh' in a general sense of 'detestable' which includes the haram and makruh both. (Bayan al-Qur an)Note

The injunctions described in the fifteen verses cited above are, in a way, the explanation of the effort acceptable in the sight of Allah mentioned in: وَسَعَىٰ لَهَا سَعْيَهَا (and makes effort for it as due - 19). There it was said that not every effort is acceptable with Allah. Instead, the effort made in accordance with the Sunnah and teaching of the Holy Prophet ﷺ is the only one acceptable with Him. Main divisions of such acceptable effort have been mentioned in these injunctions which take up the rights of Allah first and then the rights of the servants of Allah.

A gist of Torah in fifteen verses

Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn ` Abbas ؓ said that the commandments of the entire Torah have been reduced to fifteen verses of Surah Bani Isra'il. (Mazhari)

Tafsir Muyassar

Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Saudi Arabia

جميع ما تقدَّم ذِكْرُه من أوامر ونواهٍ، يكره الله سيِّئَه، ولا يرضاه لعباده.

Tafsir Ibn Kathir

Hafiz Ibn Kathir

وقوله تعالى : ( كل ذلك كان سيئه عند ربك مكروها ) أما من قرأ سيئة أي : فاحشة فمعناه عنده كل هذا الذي نهينا عنه من قوله : ( ولا تقتلوا أولادكم خشية إملاق ) إلى هاهنا فهو سيئة مؤاخذ عليها ( مكروها ) عند الله لا يحبه ولا يرضاهوأما من قرأ ( سيئه ) على الإضافة فمعناه عنده كل هذا الذي ذكرناه من قوله ( وقضى ربك ألا تعبدوا إلا إياه ) إلى هاهنا فسيئه أي فقبيحه مكروه عند الله هكذا وجه ذلك ابن جرير رحمه الله .

Tafsir is provided for educational reference. Paragraph breaks are added for readability — the wording of each commentary is unchanged. For religious guidance, consult a qualified scholar.