And there is nothing dearer among things that bring a...

And there is nothing dearer among things that bring a servant of Mine near to Me than the obligations that I have assigned to him.

And indeed he draws nearer to Me gradually through supererogatory acts until I love him, and when I love him, I become the hearing with which he hears, the sight wherewith he sees, the tongue wherewith he speaks, and the hand wherewith he holds, and if he calls Me, I answer him, and if he asks Me I grant him.[^1] Exposition The verb أُسْرِيَ is in the passive sense and means being taken on a night of a journey.

Al-Jawhari says: سَريتُ سُرىً ومَسرًى وَأسرَيتُ بمعنى إذا سِرتُ ليلاً، وبالألف لغةُ أهلِ الحِجازِ. Hence, a journey by night is called إسراء ( isra’ ). The descriptive [expression by night,’ laylan, used with the verb asra ] in the noble verse: ﴿سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي أَسْرَى بِعَبْدِهِ لَيْلًا.﴾ Glorified is He who took His servant on a night journey.

( 17:1 ) is either, as stated by Shaykh Baha’i,[^2] for the purpose of indicating the short period of the night journey by the means of the indefinite ( tankir ) laylan, because the journey between the Masjid al- Haram and the Masjid al-Aqsa takes forty nights. Or it is based on abstraction ( tajrid ) meant for the purpose of conveying the same sense.

In the phrase لَمَّا أُسْرِيَ بِالنَّبِيِّ (‘when the Prophet was taken on the nightly journey’) the related explanatory phrases-’towards the station of Divine proximity for instance’-have been omitted due to their being understood. The expression ما حال المؤمن means, ‘what station and worth does the believer have before Thee?’ In the expression أهانه، من أهان لي ولياً conveys the sense of despising, making light of, scorning, vilifying: أهَانَهُ: أي استَخفَّ به واسْتَهانَ به.

وتهَاونَ به أي استَحقَره. يُقال: رجُلٌ فيه مَهانَة. Apparently the prefix لـ in (لي) refers to the verb, in which case it would mean making light of a believer for his faith in God and for the sake of God, the Exalted. It is also possible that it relates to wali; in which case, that which is meant is ‘making light of in the absolute sense, for any reason whatsoever. Wali here means friend and intimate. In the expression بارز، بارزنيmeans to go out: بَرزَ الرَّجُل يبرزُ بُروزاً، أي خَرجَ.

And here it means to commence hostility and to go to war or to declare it. The expression مساءته is the verbal noun ( masdar mimi ) of ساء, meaning causing distress and vexation.

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