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Sura 17
Aya 7
7
إِن أَحسَنتُم أَحسَنتُم لِأَنفُسِكُم ۖ وَإِن أَسَأتُم فَلَها ۚ فَإِذا جاءَ وَعدُ الآخِرَةِ لِيَسوءوا وُجوهَكُم وَلِيَدخُلُوا المَسجِدَ كَما دَخَلوهُ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ وَلِيُتَبِّروا ما عَلَوا تَتبيرًا

Muhammad Asad

[And We said:] "If you persevere in doing good, you will but be doing good to yourselves; and if you do evil, it will be [done] to yourselves." And so, when the prediction of the second [period of your iniquity] came true, [We raised new enemies against you, and allowed them] to disgrace you utterly,1 and to enter the Temple as [their forerunners] had entered it once before, and to destroy with utter destruction all that they had conquered.
  • Lit., "to bring evil to your faces". Inasmuch as the face is the most prominent and expressive part of the human body, it is often used as a metonym for one's whole being; hence, the "evil done to one's face" is synonymous with "utter disgrace". Most probably, this passage relates to the destruction of the Second Temple and of Jewish statehood by Titus in the year 70 of the Christian era.