Al-Israa 17:38

Condemnation of strutting

Allah forbids His servants to strut and walk in a boastful manner:

(And walk not on the earth with conceit and arrogance.) meaning, walking in boastful manner and acting proud, like those who are arrogant oppressors.

(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.

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)