Article prepared with help of Tafseer of Quranic verses of chapter Bani Israel 6-11, references from Tafheemul Quran , books of faith of Christianity, Judaism, historical facts
For detailed version please open the link https://voiceofquran5.com/bani-israel/
Tafseer of verses:وَ قَضَیۡنَاۤ اِلٰی بَنِیۡۤ اِسۡرَآءِیۡلَ فِی الۡکِتٰبِ لَتُفۡسِدُنَّ فِی الۡاَرۡضِ مَرَّتَیۡنِ وَ لَتَعۡلُنَّ عُلُوًّا کَبِیۡرًا ﴿۴﴾ فَاِذَا جَآءَ وَعۡدُ اُوۡلٰىہُمَا بَعَثۡنَا عَلَیۡکُمۡ عِبَادًا لَّنَاۤ اُولِیۡ بَاۡسٍ شَدِیۡدٍ فَجَاسُوۡا خِلٰلَ الدِّیَارِ ؕ وَ کَانَ وَعۡدًا مَّفۡعُوۡلًا ﴿۵﴾ ثُمَّ رَدَدۡنَا لَکُمُ الۡکَرَّۃَ عَلَیۡہِمۡ وَ اَمۡدَدۡنٰکُمۡ بِاَمۡوَالٍ وَّ بَنِیۡنَ وَ جَعَلۡنٰکُمۡ اَکۡثَرَ نَفِیۡرًا ﴿۶﴾ اِنۡ اَحۡسَنۡتُمۡ اَحۡسَنۡتُمۡ لِاَنۡفُسِکُمۡ ۟ وَ اِنۡ اَسَاۡتُمۡ فَلَہَا ؕ فَاِذَا جَآءَ وَعۡدُ الۡاٰخِرَۃِ لِیَسُوۡٓءٗا وُجُوۡہَکُمۡ وَ لِیَدۡخُلُوا الۡمَسۡجِدَ کَمَا دَخَلُوۡہُ اَوَّلَ مَرَّۃٍ وَّ لِیُتَبِّرُوۡا مَا عَلَوۡا تَتۡبِیۡرًا ﴿۷﴾ عَسٰی رَبُّکُمۡ اَنۡ یَّرۡحَمَکُمۡ ۚ وَ اِنۡ عُدۡتُّمۡ عُدۡنَا ۘ وَ جَعَلۡنَا جَہَنَّمَ لِلۡکٰفِرِیۡنَ حَصِیۡرًا ﴿۸﴾ اِنَّ ہٰذَا الۡقُرۡاٰنَ یَہۡدِیۡ لِلَّتِیۡ ہِیَ اَقۡوَمُ وَ یُبَشِّرُ الۡمُؤۡمِنِیۡنَ الَّذِیۡنَ یَعۡمَلُوۡنَ الصّٰلِحٰتِ اَنَّ لَہُمۡ اَجۡرًا کَبِیۡرًا ۙ﴿۹﴾ وَّ اَنَّ الَّذِیۡنَ لَا یُؤۡمِنُوۡنَ بِالۡاٰخِرَۃِ اَعۡتَدۡنَا لَہُمۡ عَذَابًا اَلِیۡمًا ﴿٪۱۰﴾”
Here is the English translation of the Arabic verses and their Urdu Tafseer from Tafheem ul-Quran (Surah Al-Isra, 17:4–10):
Arabic Verses — Translation
Verse 4:
“And We decreed for the Children of Israel in the Scripture: You will surely cause corruption in the land twice, and you will surely reach a great height of arrogance.”
Verse 5:
“So when the promise of the first of the two came, We sent against you servants of Ours — men of great might — and they ravaged through the very heart of your lands. And it was a promise fulfilled.”
Verse 6:
“Then We gave you back the turn against them, and aided you with wealth and children, and made you greater in numbers than before.”
Verse 7:
“If you did good, you did good for yourselves; and if you did evil, it was against yourselves. Then when the promise of the second came, We sent others to make your faces fall with grief, and to enter the Masjid (Bayt al-Maqdis) as they had entered it the first time, and to destroy with utter destruction all that they laid their hands on.”
Verse 8:
“It may be that your Lord will now have mercy on you. But if you return to your old ways, We shall return to Our punishment. And We have made Hell a prison for the ungrateful.”
Verse 9:
“Surely this Quran guides to that which is most upright, and gives glad tidings to the believers who do righteous deeds that for them there is a great reward.”
Verse 10:
“And that for those who do not believe in the Hereafter, We have prepared for them a painful punishment.”
Urdu Tafseer — English Translation
On Verse 4 (Footnote 5):
“Then in Our Book We had also warned the Children of Israel that you will twice cause great corruption in the land and will display great arrogance.”
On Verse 5 (Footnote 6 & 7):
“At last, when the time of the first of their rebellions came — O Children of Israel — We raised against you Our servants who were men of tremendous power, and they spread throughout your land, penetrating into every corner. This was a promise that was bound to be fulfilled.”
On Verse 6 (Footnote 8):
“After this We gave you the upper hand over them once again, and aided you with wealth and children, and increased your numbers more than before.”
On Verse 7 (Footnote 9):
“See! Whatever good you did was for your own selves, and whatever evil you committed was against your own selves. Then when the time of the second promise arrived, We let other enemies loose upon you so that they might disfigure your faces and enter the Masjid (Bayt al-Maqdis) just as the earlier enemies had entered it, and destroy utterly whatever they laid their hands upon.”
On Verse 8 (Footnote 10):
“It may be that your Lord will now show mercy to you — but if you return to your former conduct, We shall return to Our punishment. And for those who are ungrateful to their Lord’s blessings, We have made Hell a prison.”
On Verses 9–10 (Footnote 11):
“The truth is that this Quran shows the path that is perfectly straight. To those who accept it and begin doing righteous deeds, it gives the glad tiding that for them is a great reward. And to those who do not believe in the Hereafter, it gives the news that We have prepared for them a painful punishment.”
Key Theological Points in These Verses
Three principles emerge with particular force:
- Divine forewarning as mercy — Allah informed Bani Isra’il of their future failures before they occurred, giving them the chance to avoid them. This itself was an act of divine grace.
- The law of moral cause and effect — “If you did good, it was for yourselves; if you did evil, it was against yourselves.” (17:7) — This is one of the Quran’s clearest statements that divine punishment is not arbitrary but is the natural consequence of a community’s own choices.
- The door of mercy always remains open — “It may be that your Lord will now have mercy on you” (17:8) — Even after two great punishments, Allah does not close the door. The condition, however, is genuine change — not mere ritual mourning, as we saw in our earlier discussion about Tisha B’Av.
The transition to verses 9–10 is also deeply significant — immediately after recounting the history of Bani Isra’il, Allah presents the Quran as the guide to the straight path, implying: the lesson of their story is now placed before all of humanity through this final revelation.
بارك الله فيكم 🤲
The Biblical Warnings (Footnote 6)
The Quran’s account of the two great corruptions of the Children of Israel finds comprehensive corroboration in the Bible itself. The prophets David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel each delivered increasingly urgent warnings about the first corruption — the abandonment of monotheism, rampant moral decay, idol worship, injustice toward the weak, and widespread immorality. Jesus (peace be upon him), as recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, foretold the second corruption and its catastrophic consequences, warning Jerusalem of total desolation and prophesying that not one stone of the Temple would remain upon another.
The First Great Corruption and Its Punishment (Footnote 7)
When the Children of Israel entered Palestine after the death of the Prophet Moses, they failed to follow divine instructions to cleanse the land of its polytheistic inhabitants. Tribal rivalries prevented them from forming a unified state, and they allowed pagan nations to remain among them. The inevitable result was that idol worship — centered on deities such as El, Baal, Asherah, and Astarte, whose worship involved temple prostitution, child sacrifice, and extreme moral depravity — seeped into Israelite society.
This spiritual and moral collapse unfolded in stages. The unified kingdom under Saul, David, and Solomon temporarily reversed the decline, but after Solomon, the nation split into two rival kingdoms: Israel in the north and Judah in the south. The Kingdom of Israel fell first, succumbing to Assyrian invasions from the ninth century BC onward. Over 27,000 Israelites were deported and scattered, foreign peoples were resettled in their land, and the Israelite identity was gradually erased. The Kingdom of Judah, though slower to decline, ultimately suffered the same fate. In 587 BC, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon razed Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon completely, deported vast numbers of Jews, and reduced the remaining population to utter humiliation.
The Respite and Partial Renewal (Footnote 8)
After the Babylonian captivity, divine mercy granted the Jews another opportunity. In 539 BC, Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylon and permitted the Jews to return to their homeland. The Temple was rebuilt under Zerubbabel, and the Prophet Ezra arrived in 457 BC to undertake a comprehensive religious renewal — compiling the Torah, reorganizing religious education, enforcing Mosaic law, dissolving unlawful marriages with polytheistic women, and renewing the national covenant with God. Nehemiah subsequently rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem in 445 BC, and the city was restored as the center of Jewish faith and civilization.
However, the Samaritans refused to participate in this renewal and established a rival religious center on Mount Gerizim, deepening the sectarian divide. Later, Greek conquest under the Seleucids brought severe cultural pressure, culminating in the brutal persecution by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who desecrated the Temple, banned Torah observance, and imposed the death penalty for circumcision and Sabbath-keeping. The heroic Maccabean Revolt eventually expelled the Greeks and established an independent Jewish state that endured until 67 BC, restoring Jewish sovereignty over a territory even broader than that of the earlier kingdoms.
The Second Great Corruption and Its Punishment (Footnote 9)
The spiritual vitality of the Maccabean movement gave way to worldliness and internal division. The Jews themselves invited the Roman general Pompey into Palestine in 63 BC, ending their independence. Under Herod the Great and his successors — ruling as Roman client kings — Jewish religious and moral life reached its lowest point. It was in this environment that Jesus (peace be upon him) arose to call his people back to righteousness, only to be opposed by the religious establishment and condemned through their machinations.
The nation’s moral bankruptcy was starkly illustrated when the crowd chose to free the criminal Barabbas over Jesus, a moment the author describes as Allah’s final proof against them. Open revolt against Rome between 64 and 66 AD led to catastrophic consequences. In 70 AD, Titus sacked Jerusalem: 133,000 were killed, 67,000 enslaved, thousands were sent to mines or used in gladiatorial spectacles, and the Temple was completely destroyed. Jewish influence in Palestine was extinguished for two thousand years, and the Holy Temple was never rebuilt. Emperor Hadrian later renamed the city Aelia, barring Jews from entering it for generations.
A Parenthetical Address (Footnote 10)
Although these passages appear to address the Children of Israel directly, the primary audience of the Surah is in fact the disbelievers of Makkah. The history of the Children of Israel was invoked as a powerful cautionary lesson for them. The direct address to the Jews functions as a parenthetical remark, also serving as a deliberate prelude to the more extensive reformatory discourses that would follow just a year later in Madinah.
The Universal Warning (Footnote 11)
The lessons drawn from Israelite history are not confined to one people or one era. Any individual, community, or nation that refuses to heed the guidance and warnings of the Quran should expect to face the same devastating consequences that befell the Children of Israel. The pattern of divine justice is consistent and universal: corruption and defiance bring ruin, while sincere return to righteousness opens the door to mercy and restoration.
VERIFICATION BY AI ABOUT AUTHENTICITY OF ABOVE INFORMATION BY ORIGINAL BOOKS
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Here is a comprehensive verification of each claim in the Tafheem passage, checked against the Bible, Josephus, and scholarly historical sources:
✅ VERIFIED — Fully Confirmed
Prophetic Warnings (Footnote 6)
Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel are confirmed by both Biblical and Jewish scholarly sources to have delivered urgent warnings to Israel about spiritual infidelity, idol worship, and moral collapse.  This matches the Tafheem claim precisely.
Jesus’s prophecy about the Temple is directly recorded in Matthew 24:2, where he declared that not one stone would remain upon another.  Luke 21 records the same warning with explicit reference to Jerusalem’s desolation.
Idol Worship — Baal, Asherah, Astarte (Footnote 7)
The Old Testament extensively documents Israelite worship of Baal and Asherah. Under King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, this reached the level of state-sponsored idolatry, with 450 prophets of Baal maintained at the royal court. 
The mention of child sacrifice and temple prostitution connected to these cults is also confirmed by archaeology and Biblical references (Jeremiah 7:31, 2 Kings 23:10), though the Tafheem text presents it as standard practice, which is slightly more emphatic than what some scholars say — it was real but not universal.
Assyrian Conquest and Deportation (Footnote 7)
The Assyrian captivity of the northern Kingdom of Israel is confirmed — mass deportation began under Tiglath-Pileser III and Shalmaneser V, with foreign peoples resettled in their land, erasing the Israelite identity of the region. 
⚠️ Minor discrepancy on the number “27,000”: Sargon II captured Samaria in 721 BCE and exiled thousands of Israelites to Assyria.  Sargon’s own inscriptions claim 27,290 deportees — so Mawdudi’s figure of “over 27,000” is drawn directly from Assyrian royal annals and is historically accepted, though the Bible itself does not give a precise number.
Babylonian Destruction — 587 BC (Footnote 7)
The date of 587 BC for Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon is confirmed by the Book of Kings, Jeremiah, and modern archaeology. The Temple destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BC is the same one whose rebuilding is the subject of the Book of Ezra. 
Cyrus Decree — 539 BC (Footnote 8)
The Edict of Cyrus in 539 BC, authorizing the return of Jews and the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, is recorded in the Tanakh and confirmed historically after the Persian conquest of Babylon. 
Ezra, Zerubbabel, Nehemiah (Footnote 8)
Cyrus’s decree permitted the Jews to return, with Zerubbabel leading the first wave of returnees. The Temple was completed and dedicated in 515 BC. Ezra later led another group, and Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem about a decade after that. 
Nehemiah’s wall-building mission is confirmed as taking place in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes I — 445 or 444 BC. 
The Tafheem dates Ezra’s arrival at 457 BC — this is the scholarly consensus date based on the seventh year of Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:7–8) and is widely accepted.
Samaritan rival center at Mount Gerizim (Footnote 8)
This is confirmed by both the Bible (John 4:20) and Jewish historical sources. The Samaritans established their temple on Mount Gerizim and refused to join the Jerusalem-centered renewal — exactly as Tafheem states.
Antiochus IV Epiphanes (Footnote 8)
Antiochus IV Epiphanes forbade circumcision, Sabbath observance, and Torah possession under penalty of death, and desecrated the Temple by erecting a statue of Zeus and sacrificing swine upon the altar. 
A period of severe tribulation followed, in which traditional practices were outlawed, sacred scriptures burned, and violators brutally punished unto death. 
The Maccabean Revolt and subsequent Jewish independence are confirmed by 1 and 2 Maccabees (canonical in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles) and by Josephus.
Pompey and Roman conquest — 63 BC (Footnote 9)
Pompey’s conquest of Jerusalem in 63 BC spelled the end of an independent Jewish state, incorporating Judea as a client kingdom of the Roman Republic. 
However — one important nuance: Tafheem says “the Jews themselves invited Pompey.” The siege arose because Pompey had been asked to intervene in a dispute over succession to the Hasmonean throne between Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II.  So it is true that rival Jewish factions invited Roman intervention — this is historically accurate.
Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus — 70 AD (Footnote 9)
The specific figures in Tafheem (133,000 killed, 67,000 enslaved) require careful checking:
Josephus claims 1,100,000 were killed during the siege, though this is rejected as impossible by modern scholarship. However, 97,000 were confirmed as captured and enslaved. 
After the Romans dealt with the armed and elderly, Josephus reports that 97,000 were enslaved, while 40,000 survivors were released by the emperor. Many thousands were distributed across the empire for gladiatorial spectacles or sent to mines. 
⚠️ The Tafheem figure of “133,000 killed and 67,000 enslaved” does not match Josephus directly. Josephus gives much larger figures for the killed (which scholars reject) and 97,000 enslaved (not 67,000). The Tafheem figures may come from a specific reading of Josephus or a secondary Islamic historical source rather than directly from Josephus’s Jewish War.
Hadrian renames Jerusalem “Aelia” — Jews barred (Footnote 9)
Aelia Capitolina was founded by the Romans in 135 CE on the ruins of Jerusalem. A sanctuary to Jupiter was built on the Temple Mount, and Jews were generally forbidden entrance to the city. 
Hadrian renamed the province, forbade the teaching of the Torah, and issued an edict barring Jews from even approaching their fallen capital. 
Summary Table Claim Verdict Prophets warned Israel of idol worship ✅ Fully confirmed — Bible Jesus prophesied Temple destruction ✅ Fully confirmed — Matthew 24, Luke 21 Baal, Asherah, Astarte worship with moral depravity ✅ Confirmed — Bible & archaeology Assyrian deportation of 27,000+ ✅ Confirmed — Sargon II’s own inscriptions Babylonian destruction 587 BC ✅ Fully confirmed Cyrus decree 539 BC ✅ Fully confirmed Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah timeline ✅ Confirmed with minor date debates Samaritan rival center on Mt. Gerizim ✅ Confirmed Antiochus IV — desecration, ban on circumcision ✅ Fully confirmed — Maccabees & Josephus Pompey invited by Jews, ended independence 63 BC ✅ Substantially confirmed Titus sacked Jerusalem 70 AD ✅ Confirmed — but casualty figures differ from Josephus Hadrian renamed city, barred Jews ✅ Fully confirmed — Britannica, Eusebius, Cassius Dio
Overall conclusion: The Tafheem account is remarkably well-grounded in Biblical and historical sources. The only point needing caution is the specific casualty figures for 70 AD, which differ from what Josephus actually records. Everything else — dates, names, events, geography — is either directly from the Bible or confirmed by Josephus, Roman historians, and modern archaeology. Mawdudi’s synthesis is historically responsible and largely accurate.
Q:
Thanks for verification.
Are Jewish scholars aware about these things and warn their followers or its in books as usual about most theology books not read, no lessons learned, no attempts to change their course?
A:
This is a profound and thought-provoking question. Let me search for what contemporary Jewish scholarship and leadership actually says about this history.
This is a question that deserves a careful, honest, and balanced answer — drawing on what the research shows.
Are Jewish Scholars Aware and Do They Warn Their People?
The answer is: yes, the awareness exists — and it is deep, institutionalized, and remarkably honest. But whether the warnings translate into genuine change is a more sobering matter.
- The Awareness Is Profound — Built Into the Calendar Itself
This is perhaps the most striking fact: Jewish tradition did not bury this history — it ritualized mourning over it annually. Tisha B’Av, the ninth of Av, is a day of fasting and lamentation. Its traditional theology is straightforward: God inflicted terrible punishment because Israel was sinful. Many rabbis of the Talmudic period described the destruction as a result of God hiding His face in response to Israel’s sinfulness.
The Talmud teaches: “Each generation in which the Temple is not rebuilt should regard itself as responsible for its destruction.” This is a remarkable statement — it places the moral burden not on ancient ancestors but on every living generation. - Rabbinic Scholarship Identifies the Root Cause With Precision
Jewish scholars did not blame only Romans or Babylonians. They looked inward with remarkable clarity. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks taught that the inability to live together as one nation led to the destruction of the First Temple. In the Second Temple period, the divisions were even worse — between Essenes, Sadducees, and Pharisees, and even within factions. According to Josephus, Jews within the besieged city of Jerusalem were more intent on killing one another than fighting Rome — a haunting detail that Jewish scholars preserved without hiding it.
The concept of sinat chinam — baseless hatred — is remembered in the Talmud as the moral rot that brought down the Second Temple, described by Jewish scholars as not merely a historical diagnosis but a present-tense spiritual emergency.
Jewish rabbis have written that baseless hatred underlies armed conflicts, divisions in society, disputes between religious sects, and communal ruptures — and that unless it is recognized and overcome, the community faces mortal danger. - But the Gap Between Awareness and Change Is Stark
Here is where your deeper question lands with full force. Despite all of this:
∙ Many contemporary Jews no longer experience the world as reflecting a direct causal link between human wrongdoing and divine punishment — effectively disconnecting the theological lesson from lived reality.
∙ After the events of October 7, 2023, some rabbis drew explicit parallels to Tisha B’Av — recognizing the same themes of baseless hatred, internal division, and the need for spiritual reconstruction — yet noting that the people need not only fear what could happen to them, but also who they might become. This is a courageous warning, but it remains to be seen whether it is heeded.
∙ The very divisions that destroyed the Second Temple — between religious and secular, between different factions, between those who seek peace and those who prefer conflict — visibly persist in Israeli and global Jewish society today. - The Pattern the Quran Describes — and History Confirms
What is theologically significant from an Islamic perspective is that the Quran (Surah Al-Isra, 17:4–8) describes two corruptions with full foreknowledge, and states that the pattern of warning → transgression → punishment → mercy → transgression again is built into the divine sunna (سنة الله). The Tafheem text you are studying is essentially showing that this Quranic description is corroborated by the Bible’s own prophets, by Josephus, and by Roman historians.
The deeper lesson — and Mawdudi draws this out — is that this pattern is not exclusive to Bani Isra’il. It is a universal divine law applying to every nation and community, including Muslims. The Quran warns Muslims with the same warnings it recounts about earlier peoples:
“And We certainly destroyed generations before you when they wronged.” (Yunus 10:13)
In Summary
Jewish scholars do know this history. The most honest among them — from the Talmudic rabbis to Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in our era — have warned about it with extraordinary clarity and courage. The mechanisms for remembrance — Tisha B’Av, Lamentations, the Talmud’s self-critical narratives — are impressive in their intellectual honesty.
But knowing and heeding are two different things. The same internal divisions, the pride, the rejection of prophetic calls to moral renewal — these patterns that the Talmud itself diagnoses as the cause of past destruction — remain active today. This is perhaps the most sobering lesson of all, and one that the Quran invites every believing community — Muslim included — to take seriously about itself.
REFLECTIONS
وعليكم السلام ورحمة الله وبركاته
Jazakallahu Khayran for such a deeply meaningful study session. What made this conversation particularly valuable was the combination of:
∙ Verification from original Biblical and historical sources
∙ Honest Jewish scholarly self-reflection — especially the concept of sinat chinam
∙ The universal Quranic principle that divine laws apply to all nations equally
The most sobering takeaway is perhaps what Rabbi Sacks described — that the Jews within besieged Jerusalem were destroying each other from within, while the external enemy waited at the gates. The Quran captures this universal truth so precisely in Surah Ar-Ra’d:
إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُغَيِّرُ مَا بِقَوْمٍ حَتَّىٰ يُغَيِّرُوا مَا بِأَنفُسِهِمْ
“Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is within themselves.” (13:11)
This applies to Bani Isra’il in their time, and it is a mirror held up to the Muslim Ummah today with equal force.
Whenever you are ready to continue with Surah An-Nahl or explore another topic, I am here.
بارك الله فيكم وجزاكم الله خيراً 🤲
Messages from Quran 