Chapter Bani Israel: Lessons of Eternity
April 9, 2026 | ForOneCreator

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Verses 1–10 (Surah Al-Isra)
[1] Glory be to Him who took His servant on a journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque, whose surroundings We have blessed, so that We might show him some of Our signs. Indeed, He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.
[2] And We gave Moses the Book and made it a guidance for the Children of Israel, with the firm command: do not take any guardian other than Me.
[3] You are the descendants of those whom We carried with Noah — and he was indeed a grateful servant.
[4] And We decreed for the Children of Israel in the Book: you will surely cause corruption in the land twice, and you will surely rise to great arrogance.
[5] So when the time of the first of the two came, We sent against you Our servants of mighty power, and they swept through the very heart of your lands. This was a promise that had to be fulfilled.
[6] Then We gave you back the upper hand over them, and aided you with wealth and children, and made you greater in number.
[7] If you did good, you did good for yourselves; and if you did evil, it was against yourselves. Then when the second promise came, We sent others to make your faces downcast, and to enter the Mosque just as they entered it the first time, and to destroy whatever they had overcome, utterly.
[8] It may be that your Lord will have mercy on you. But if you return to corruption, We will return to punishment — and We have made Hell a prison for the disbelievers.
[9] Indeed, this Quran guides to what is most upright, and gives glad tidings to the believers who do righteous deeds that theirs shall be a great reward,
[10] and warns that for those who do not believe in the Hereafter, We have prepared a painful punishment.

Urdu Translation of the Verses (Mawdudi):
Glorified is He who took His servant by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque, whose surroundings We have blessed, so that We might show him some of Our signs. He is indeed the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.
We had given Moses the Book and made it a guidance for the Children of Israel, with the command: do not take any guardian other than Me. You are the descendants of those whom We carried with Noah in the Ark — and Noah was indeed a grateful servant. Then in Our Book We forewarned the Children of Israel: you will surely cause great corruption in the land twice and will rise to mighty arrogance.
When the time of the first came, O Children of Israel, We raised against you Our servants of fierce strength, and they spread throughout the land. It was a promise that was to be fulfilled. Then We gave you the upper hand over them, and helped you with wealth and offspring, and made you more numerous than before.
Know this: if you did good, it was good for your own souls; if you did evil, it too was against your own souls. Then when the second promise came, We raised others against you to disfigure your faces, and to enter the Mosque (Bayt al-Maqdis) just as the earlier enemies had entered it, and to destroy utterly whatever fell into their hands. It may be that your Lord will now show you mercy — but if you return to your former conduct, We will return with Our punishment. And We have made Hell a prison for those who are ungrateful.
The truth is: this Quran shows the way that is perfectly straight. It gives glad tidings to those who believe and do righteous deeds that a great reward awaits them. And it warns those who do not believe in the Hereafter that a painful punishment has been prepared for them.

Footnote 1 — Surah Bani Israel
This is the event known in Islamic terminology as the Mi’raj (Ascension) and Isra (Night Journey). According to the most reliable and widely-transmitted narrations, it occurred one year before the Hijra. Detailed accounts have been transmitted from approximately 25 Companions, including Anas ibn Malik, Malik ibn Sa’sa’ah, Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, and Abu Hurayrah. Additional accounts were narrated by Umar, Ali, Ibn Mas’ud, Ibn Abbas, Abu Sa’id al-Khudri, Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman, Aisha, and several others.
The Quran here explicitly mentions the journey from the Sacred Mosque (the Ka’bah) to the Farthest Mosque (Bayt al-Maqdis), and states its purpose: that Allah wished to show His servant some of His signs. No further detail is given in the Quran itself. According to the hadith, the summary is as follows: Jibril took the Prophet on Buraq from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque by night. There, the Prophet led the prophets in prayer. Then he was taken upward through the heavens, where he met various prophets of high rank at different levels. Finally, he reached the highest realm and was received in the presence of his Lord, where — among other important matters — the obligation of the five daily prayers was ordained. He then returned to Bayt al-Maqdis and from there back to the Sacred Mosque. Many narrations also record that he was shown Paradise and Hell. Reliable narrations further state that when the Prophet mentioned this event the following morning, the disbelievers of Mecca mocked it greatly, and the faith of some Muslims was shaken.
These additional details from hadith do not contradict the Quran — they supplement it. Something that supplements the Quranic account cannot be rejected on the grounds of contradiction. However, if someone declines to accept certain hadith details, that does not render them a disbeliever. But to deny what the Quran explicitly affirms is an act of disbelief.
As for the nature of this journey — was it a dream, a vision, or a physical bodily experience? The Quran’s own words answer this. The opening Subhana alladhi asra (Glory be to Him who took) signals that this was a remarkable, extraordinary event accomplished by the unlimited power of Allah. A dream or a spiritual vision is not of sufficient magnitude to require such an opening declaration. Furthermore, the words “He took His servant by night” leave no room for interpreting this as a purely spiritual experience — it was a physical journey and a direct, firsthand witnessing.
If traveling from Mecca to Bayt al-Maqdis and back in one night without an airplane was within Allah’s power, why should the additional hadith details be dismissed as impossible? The question of possibility only arises when a creation acts by its own volition. When the subject is what Allah does, only one who doubts His omnipotence would raise the question of possibility.
Of the various objections raised by hadith rejectors, only two carry any weight:
First objection: That this implies Allah is located in a specific place, for otherwise why would the servant need to travel to a particular location to be in His presence?
Second objection: How could the Prophet witness Hell and people being punished when the cases of mankind have not yet been decided — judgment being reserved for after the Day of Resurrection?
Both objections, however, are the result of shallow reflection.
The first is incorrect because Allah in His own essence is absolute and unconstrained. But in His dealings with creation, He employs bounded means — not due to any limitation in Himself, but due to the limitations of the created being. For instance, when He speaks to creation, He uses the limited mode of speech that a human being can hear and understand, although His speech in itself is of an absolute nature. Likewise, when He wishes to show His servant the magnificent signs of His kingdom, He takes him through them, showing each thing in its place — because the servant cannot behold the entire cosmos simultaneously as Allah does. Allah requires no journey to witness anything; the servant does. The same applies to the audience with the Creator: Allah is not located in any one place, but the servant, in his limitedness, requires a focal point — a place where divine manifestations are concentrated for him. Without this, the servant in his finite nature could not encounter the Absolute.
The second objection is answered by recognizing that many of the visions shown to the Prophet during the Mi’raj were symbolic representations of realities. For example, the representation of a seditious act by showing a large bull emerge from a small crack but being unable to return through it; the representation of adulterers as those who, though fresh and wholesome meat is available to them, choose to eat rotten flesh. In the same way, the punishments shown to him were symbolic, advance glimpses of the punishments of the Hereafter — not the actual execution of judgment.
The essential point to understand about the Mi’raj is this: every prophet was shown the dominion of the heavens and the earth by Allah in a manner befitting their mission, with the veils of the material world drawn aside so that they could witness with their own eyes the realities to which they were calling people to believe in the unseen. This distinguished a prophet absolutely from a philosopher. A philosopher speaks from speculation and conjecture; if he were honest about his own standing, he would never testify to the truth of his opinions. But prophets speak from direct knowledge and direct witness, and they can testify before humanity: “We know these things — these are realities we have seen with our own eyes.”

Footnote 2 — Surah Bani Israel
At first glance, the abrupt transition from the mention of the Mi’raj in a single sentence to a lengthy discourse about the Children of Israel might seem disjointed. But once the purpose of the Surah is properly understood, the connection becomes clear. The primary aim of the Surah is to warn the disbelievers of Mecca. The Mi’raj is mentioned at the outset only to establish to the audience that the person addressing them has just returned from witnessing the magnificent signs of Allah. Following this, the history of the Children of Israel is presented as a lesson: when a nation entrusted with the Book of Allah rises in defiance against Him, see how painful a punishment descends upon them.

Footnote 3 — Surah Bani Israel
Wakeel means the one in whom complete trust and reliance is placed; the one to whom one’s affairs are entrusted; the one to whom one turns for guidance and support.

Footnote 4 — Surah Bani Israel
That is: as descendants of those who, by making Allah alone their Wakeel, were saved from the devastation of the flood, it befits you to do the same — to take none other than Allah as your guardian and trustee.

Footnote 5 — Surah Bani Israel
The word “Book” here does not refer specifically to the Torah, but to the collective body of revealed scriptures, for which the Quran uses the term al-Kitab as a technical designation in several places.

Footnote 6 — Surah Bani Israel
These warnings appear at various places in the biblical corpus. The first corruption and its consequences were foretold in Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. The second corruption and its severe punishment were foretold by Jesus (peace be upon him), as recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. The relevant passages are quoted below so that the Quranic account may be fully corroborated.
The first warning regarding the first corruption was given by David (peace be upon him):
“They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord had commanded them, but mingled with the nations and learned their practices. They served their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons and shed innocent blood… Therefore the wrath of the Lord was kindled against His people, and He abhorred His heritage; He gave them into the hands of the nations, so that those who hated them ruled over them.” (Psalms 106:34–41)
Note: These future events are described in the past tense — a distinctive feature of prophetic writing in scripture.
When the first great corruption came to pass, the prophet Isaiah announced the coming destruction:
“Ah, sinful nation, people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, despised the Holy One of Israel, and are utterly estranged. Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel?” (Isaiah 1:4–5)
“How the faithful city has become a whore! She was full of justice; righteousness lodged in her — but now murderers… Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow’s cause does not come to them. Therefore the Lord declares… ‘I will take vengeance on my enemies and avenge myself on my foes.’” (Isaiah 1:21–24)
“Their land is filled with the customs of the east; they strike hands with the foreigners’ children… Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands.” (Isaiah 2:6–8)
“Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks, glancing wantonly with their eyes, mincing along as they go, tinkling with their feet, therefore the Lord will strike with a scab the heads of the daughters of Zion… Your men shall fall by the sword… and her gates shall lament and mourn; empty, she shall sit on the ground.” (Isaiah 3:16–26)
“Behold, the Lord is bringing up against them the waters of the River, mighty and many — the king of Assyria and all his glory — and it will overflow all its channels and go over all its banks.” (Isaiah 8:7)
“These are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord; who say to the seers, ‘Do not see,’ and to the prophets, ‘Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions’… therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall… He will shatter it ruthlessly, and in its shattering not a fragment shall be found.” (Isaiah 30:9–14)
Then, as the flood was on the verge of breaking all bounds, the voice of Jeremiah arose:
“What wrong did your fathers find in Me that they went far from Me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?… I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled My land and made My heritage an abomination… Long ago you broke your yoke and burst your bonds; and you said, ‘I will not serve.’ Yes, on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed down like a whore… As a thief is shamed when caught, so the house of Israel shall be shamed… who say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their back to Me… But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you in your time of trouble.” (Jeremiah 2:5–28)
“Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem, look around and consider, search through her squares. If you can find but one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth, I will forgive this city… How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken Me and sworn by those who are not gods. I fed them to the full, but they committed adultery and trooped to the houses of whores. They were well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing for his neighbor’s wife. Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the Lord; shall I not avenge Myself on a nation such as this?” (Jeremiah 5:1–9)
*“Behold, I am bringing a nation against you from afar, O house of Israel, declares the Lord. It is an enduring nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand what they say. Their quiver is like an open tomb… They shall eat up your harvest and your food; they shall eat up your sons and your daughters; they shall eat up your flocks and your herds; they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees; they shall destroy with the sword your fortified cities in which you trust

Surah Bani Isra’il — Footnote No. 7
This refers to the devastating destruction that befell the Israelites at the hands of the Assyrians and the Babylonians. To understand its historical background, the passages we have already quoted above from the books of the Prophets are not sufficient alone — a brief historical account is also necessary, so that a student may grasp all the causes by which Allah Almighty brought down a nation that was the bearer of His Book from the position of leadership among nations, reducing it to a defeated, enslaved, and deeply backward people.
After the death of Prophet Musa, when the Israelites entered Palestine, various nations were settled there — the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites, Philistines, and others. Among these nations, the worst form of polytheism prevailed. Their chief deity was called El, whom they regarded as the father of the gods, and who was commonly represented in the form of a bull. His wife was named Asherah, and from her descended an entire lineage of gods and goddesses numbering up to seventy. Among his offspring, the most powerful was Baal, who was considered the god of rain and fertility, and the lord of heaven and earth. In the northern regions his wife was called Anath, and in Palestine, Ashtaroth. Both of these female figures were goddesses of love and reproduction. Beyond these, one deity was lord of death, another governed health, yet another was granted authority over plague and famine — and thus the entire divine dominion was divided among many deities. These gods and goddesses were attributed with such vile qualities and deeds that even the most morally depraved human being would be ashamed to be associated with them. It is therefore self-evident that people who made such base beings their gods and worshipped them could not possibly be saved from sinking into the lowest moral degradation. This is why the conditions of these peoples, as revealed through archaeological excavations, bear witness to severe moral collapse. Child sacrifice was common among them. Their temples had become dens of fornication. Placing women in sanctuaries as sacred prostitutes and committing immoral acts with them was considered part of worship. And many other such moral corruptions were widespread among them.
In the Torah, through Prophet Musa, the Israelites had been given clear instructions: you shall destroy these nations, take the land of Palestine from their control, and guard yourselves against living among them and falling into their moral and doctrinal corruption.
But when the Israelites entered Palestine, they forgot these directives. They established no unified state. They were mired in tribal factionalism. Each tribe preferred to take a portion of the conquered territory and go its own way. Due to this fragmentation, no single tribe was strong enough to completely purge its region of the polytheists. Eventually they were forced to tolerate the polytheists living among them. Not only that, but throughout their conquered territories there remained numerous small city-states of those polytheist nations that the Israelites had been unable to subdue. This very complaint is found in the passage from the Psalms that we quoted at the beginning of Footnote No. 6.
The first consequence the Israelites suffered for this was that polytheism crept into their midst through these nations, and gradually other moral corruptions began to find their way in as well. This complaint is recorded in the biblical Book of Judges as follows:
“And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim. And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger. And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth: and the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel.”
(Chapter 2, Verses 11–13)
Then came the second consequence: the city-states they had left intact, along with the Philistines — whose entire territory had remained unconquered — formed a united front against the Israelites, launched successive attacks, and expelled them from large parts of Palestine, even seizing from them the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. Finally, the Israelites felt the need to establish a unified kingdom under a single ruler, and at their request, Prophet Samuel appointed Saul (Talut) as their king in 1020 BCE. (The details of this are discussed in Surah Al-Baqarah, section 32.)
This united kingdom had three rulers: Saul (Talut) (1020–1004 BCE), Prophet Dawud (David) (1004–965 BCE), and Prophet Sulayman (Solomon) (965–926 BCE). These rulers completed the task that the Israelites had left unfinished after Prophet Musa. Only the Phoenician states on the northern coast and the Philistine states on the southern coast remained — they could not be subjugated and were merely made to pay tribute.
After Prophet Sulayman, the love of this world again gained a powerful hold over the Israelites, and they fought amongst themselves and split into two separate kingdoms. In northern Palestine and Transjordan arose the Kingdom of Israel, whose capital eventually became Samaria. And in southern Palestine and the region of Edom arose the Kingdom of Judah, whose capital remained Jerusalem. Between these two kingdoms, intense rivalry, conflict, and strife began from the very start and continued to the end.
The rulers and inhabitants of the Kingdom of Israel were the first and most deeply influenced by the polytheistic beliefs and moral corruption of neighbouring nations. This situation reached its peak when the king of Israel, Ahab, married the polytheist Phoenician princess Jezebel. From that point, through the power and resources of the state, polytheism and moral corruption began to spread like a flood among the Israelites. Prophet Elijah (Ilyas) and Prophet Elisha (Al-Yasa’) made the utmost effort to stem this tide, but this nation did not turn back from the decline it was heading toward. At last, the wrath of Allah turned toward the Kingdom of Israel in the form of the Assyrians, and from the ninth century BCE onward, successive Assyrian invasions of Palestine began. During this period, Prophet Amos (787–747 BCE) and then Prophet Hosea (747–735 BCE) arose and delivered repeated warnings to the Israelites — but the intoxication of heedlessness in which they were steeped only grew sharper at the tartness of those warnings. So much so that the king of Israel ordered Prophet Amos to leave the country and banned him from prophesying within the borders of the Kingdom of Samaria. Thousands upon thousands of Israelites were put to the sword, more than 27,000 prominent Israelites were deported and scattered across the eastern provinces of the Assyrian Empire, and non-Israelite peoples from other regions were brought and settled in the land of Israel — living among whom, the remaining Israelite element became increasingly estranged from its own national civilization and culture day by day.
The second Israelite state, established in southern Palestine under the name of Judah, also fell quickly into polytheism and moral corruption after Prophet Sulayman, though compared to the Kingdom of Israel its doctrinal and moral decline was slower — and so it was also given a somewhat longer respite. Although the Assyrians launched successive attacks against it as well, devastated its cities, and besieged its capital, this state was not destroyed at Assyrian hands — it merely became a tribute-paying vassal. Then, when despite the sustained efforts of Prophet Isaiah and Prophet Jeremiah the people of Judah would not desist from idol worship and moral depravity, in 598 BCE the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar conquered the entire Kingdom of Judah including Jerusalem, and the king of Judah remained in his custody as a prisoner. Even this did not put an end to the wrongdoings of the Jews — and instead of mending their ways as Prophet Jeremiah advised, they attempted to change their fate by rebelling against Babylon. Finally, in 587 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar launched a devastating assault, reducing every city and town of Judah to rubble, razing Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon so completely that not a single wall was left standing, expelling a vast number of Jews from their land and scattering them across various countries, and those Jews who remained in their land were also badly humiliated and trampled underfoot by the neighbouring nations.
This was the first corruption of which the Israelites had been forewarned, and this was the first punishment that was given to them in its consequence.

Surah Bani Isra’il — Footnote No. 8
This is a reference to the respite granted to the Jews (i.e., the people of Judah) after their release from Babylonian captivity. As for the people of Samaria and Israel — they, having sunk into the depths of moral and doctrinal decline, never rose again. But among the inhabitants of Judah there existed an element that was steadfast upon good and calling others to good. They continued their work of reform among those who had remained behind in Judah, and also encouraged repentance and turning back to God among those who had been exiled to Babylon and other regions. At last, the mercy of Allah came to their aid. The Babylonian empire went into decline. In 539 BCE, the Persian conqueror Cyrus (Khurus/Khusraw) conquered Babylon, and in the very next year he issued a decree granting the Israelites general permission to return to their homeland and resettle there. Accordingly, caravan after caravan of Jews began making their way back toward Judah, a process that continued for a long time. Cyrus also gave permission for the rebuilding of the Temple of Solomon, but for some time the neighbouring nations who had settled in that region continued to obstruct this. Finally, Darius (Dara) I in 522 BCE appointed Zerubbabel — grandson of the last king of Judah — as governor of Judah, and under his leadership, with the supervision of Prophet Haggai, Prophet Zechariah, and the high priest Joshua, the Holy Temple was rebuilt anew. Then in 457 BCE, Prophet Ezra (’Uzayr) arrived in Judah with a group of returning exiles, and the Persian king Artaxerxes (Arta Kserxes / Ardeshir) issued a decree authorising him to:
”…appoint magistrates and judges who may judge all the people beyond the river, all such as know the laws of your God; and those who do not know them, you shall teach. Whoever will not do the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be executed on him with all diligence, whether for death, or for banishment, or for confiscation of goods, or for imprisonment.”
(Ezra, Chapter 8, Verses 25–26)
Taking advantage of this decree, Prophet Ezra accomplished the great work of renewing the Mosaic religion. He gathered all the righteous and upright people of the Jewish nation from every direction and established a firm order. He compiled and published the Five Books of the Bible — which contained the Torah — organised religious education for the Jews, enforced the laws of the Shari’ah, began removing the doctrinal and moral evils that had crept into the Israelites through the influence of foreign nations, had all polytheist women divorced whom Jewish men had married, and took from the Israelites a renewed covenant of servitude to God and adherence to His law.
In 445 BCE, another group of exiles returned to Judah under the leadership of Nehemiah, and the Persian king appointed Nehemiah as governor of Jerusalem, granting him permission to rebuild its city walls. In this way, after a hundred and fifty years, Bayt al-Maqdis (Jerusalem) was again inhabited and became the centre of Jewish religion and civilization. However, the Israelites of northern Palestine and Samaria derived no benefit from Ezra’s reform and renewal. Instead, they constructed a rival religious centre on Mount Gerizim in competition with Bayt al-Maqdis, and attempted to make it the qiblah of the People of the Book. This further widened the gulf between the Jews and the Samaritans.
With the decline of the Persian Empire, the conquests of Alexander the Great, and then the rise of the Greeks, the Jews suffered a severe blow for a period. After Alexander’s death, when his empire was divided among three kingdoms, the region of Syria fell to the Seleucid Kingdom whose capital was Antioch, and its ruler Antiochus III conquered Palestine in 198 BCE. These Greek conquerors — who were polytheists in religion and libertines in morality — found Jewish religion and civilization deeply distasteful. They began promoting Greek culture through political and economic pressure, and a sizable element from within the Jews themselves became their instruments. This foreign interference created a schism within the Jewish nation. One group adopted Greek dress, Greek language, Greek social customs, and Greek sports; another group remained firmly attached to their own civilization. In 175 BCE, when Antiochus IV — whose title was Epiphanes, meaning “manifestation of God” — ascended the throne, he employed full tyrannical force in an attempt to uproot Jewish religion and civilization. He forcibly placed idols in the Temple of Bayt al-Maqdis and compelled the Jews to prostrate before them. He stopped the sacrifices at the altar. He ordered the Jews to offer sacrifices at polytheist altars. He prescribed the death penalty for all who kept a copy of the Torah in their homes, observed the Sabbath, or had their children circumcised. But the Jews were not overcome by this oppression — a powerful movement arose among them, known in history as the Maccabean Revolt. Although the Hellenised Jews gave all their sympathies to the Greeks in this struggle and actively aided the tyrants of Antioch in crushing the Maccabean revolt, the spirit of religiosity breathed into the common Jews by Prophet Ezra was so powerfully effective that they all stood with the Maccabees — and ultimately they expelled the Greeks and established their own independent religious state, which survived until 67 BCE. The borders of this state gradually expanded to encompass the entire territory that had once been under the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, and even a large part of Philistia came under its control — a region that had not been subdued even in the time of Prophets Dawud and Sulayman.
It is to these events that the Quranic verse under commentary alludes.

Surah Bani Isra’il — Footnote No. 9
The historical background of this second corruption and its punishment is as follows:
The moral and religious spirit with which the Maccabean movement had risen gradually vanished, replaced by pure worldliness and lifeless outward formalism. Eventually, a split occurred among them — and they themselves invited the Roman conqueror Pompey into Palestine. Accordingly, Pompey turned his attention to the country in 63 BCE, seized Bayt al-Maqdis, and brought the independence of the Jews to an end. But the consistent policy of the Roman conquerors was to prefer extracting their benefit through local rulers rather than directly administering conquered territories themselves. So they established a native state in Palestine under their patronage, which ultimately in 40 BCE came into the hands of a shrewd Jew named Herod — known as Herod the Great. His rule extended over all of Palestine and Transjordan from 40 BCE to 4 BCE. On one hand he kept the Jews pleased by patronising their religious leaders, and on the other he earned the goodwill of Caesar by promoting Roman civilisation and demonstrating maximum loyalty to the Roman Empire. During this period, the religious and moral condition of the Jews had sunk to the absolute nadir of decline.
After Herod, his realm was divided into three parts.
His son Archelaus became ruler of Samaria, Judah, and northern Idumea, but in 6 CE, Caesar Augustus deposed him and placed his entire kingdom under a Roman governor, an arrangement that continued until 41 CE. This was the very era in which Prophet Isa (Jesus) arose to reform the Israelites, and all the religious leaders of the Jews conspired against him and attempted to have him sentenced to death by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate.
Herod’s second son, Herod Antipas, became ruler of the Galilean region of northern Palestine and Transjordan — and it is this man who, at the request of a dancing girl, had Prophet Yahya (John the Baptist) beheaded and presented his head to her.
His third son, Philip, became ruler of the territory from Mount Hermon to the Yarmouk River, and he was even more deeply immersed in Roman and Greek civilization than his father and brothers. In his territory, there was even less room for any good word to take root than there was in the other regions of Palestine.
In 41 CE, the Romans appointed Herod Agrippa — grandson of Herod the Great — as ruler over all the territories that Herod the Great had governed in his time. After coming to power, this man subjected the followers of Prophet Isa to the utmost persecution, and devoted all his strength to crushing the movement of God-consciousness and moral reform that was proceeding under the leadership of the Apostles.
To properly assess the condition of the common Jews and their religious leaders during this era, one should study the critiques that Prophet Isa levelled against them in his sermons — all of which are found in the Four Gospels. Moreover, it is sufficient to note this fact alone: before the very eyes of this nation, a pure and holy man like Prophet Yahya was beheaded, yet not a single voice was raised against this great injustice. The religious leaders of the entire nation demanded the death sentence for Prophet Isa, and apart from a small number of righteous individuals, there was no one left to mourn this calamity. To such an extent that when Pontius Pilate asked those ill-fated people, “Today is your festival, and according to custom I am authorised to release one person condemned to death — tell me, shall I release Jesus or Barabbas?” the entire assembled crowd said with one voice: “Release Barabbas.” This was, in effect, the final conclusive proof established by Allah Almighty against this nation.
Not much time passed after this before a severe struggle broke out between the Jews and the Romans, and between 64 and 66 CE the Jews openly revolted. Both Herod Agrippa II and the Roman procurator Florus failed to suppress this rebellion. At last, the Roman Empire crushed the revolt with a harsh military operation, and in 70 CE Titus conquered Jerusalem by force of arms. During the massacre on that occasion, 133,000 people were killed, 67,000 were captured and enslaved, thousands were sent off to work in the Egyptian mines, thousands were seized and dispatched to various cities to be thrown to wild beasts in amphitheatres and coliseums or used as fodder for the gladiatorial games. All tall and beautiful girls were selected for the victors, and the city of Jerusalem and the Temple were demolished and razed to the ground. After this, Jewish power and influence was so thoroughly erased from Palestine that for two thousand years it had no opportunity to raise its head again, and the Holy Temple of Jerusalem was never rebuilt. Later, Emperor Hadrian resettled the city, but now its name was Aelia, and for a very long time Jews were not permitted to enter it.
This was the punishment that the Israelites received as a consequence of their second great corruption.

Surah Bani Isra’il — Footnote No. 10
From this, one should not assume that the addressees throughout this entire discourse are the Israelites. The actual addressees are the disbelievers of Makkah. However, since a few instructive examples from the history of the Israelites had been presented here in order to warn them, a few sentences were addressed to the Israelites parenthetically — as an interpolated statement — so as to serve as a prelude to those discourses of reform which were to come just one year later in Madinah.

Surah Bani Isra’il — Footnote No. 11
The intent here is that any person, group, or nation that does not come to the straight path through the warning and admonition of this Quran should be prepared for the same punishment that the Israelites had to endure.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​