And We placed between them and the cities which We had blessed1225 [many] visible cities. And We determined between them the [distances of] journey,1226 [saying], "Travel between them by night or by day in safety."
Notes
[1225] In the lands of what is now southern Syria and Palestine.
[1226] i.e., We placed the intermediate settlements at calculated distances for the convenience of travelers.
Verse 18 of Surah Saba (34:18), a Meccan surah, is in juz 22, on page 430 of the mushaf. Read it in Arabic with its transliteration, translations and tafsir, and listen to it recited by 73 reciters.
Listen to verse 18 of Surah Saba
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Tafsir of verse 18
Al-Mukhtasar
And I made between the people of Sheba in Yemen and between the cities of the blessed land of Levant, many neighbouring cities, making easier for them the distance of travelling, so they may pass through these cities and towns, stopping when needed, without any difficulty until they reach the land of Levant. And we announced: “Travel through them day and night in complete security from any enemy, hunger or thirst”.
We placed [a chain of] towns between them and the towns We had blessed12, and We made between them well-measured distances13: “Travel through them by night and day safely.”
Notes
[12] i.e., between the land of the people of Sheba and the land of Makkah and Jerusalem.
[13] i.e., We placed between them settlements at measured distances for the travelers’ convenience.
And We placed, between them and the towns which We had blessed, towns easy to be seen, and We made the stages (of journey) between them easy (saying): "Travel in them safely both by night and day."
And We set, between them and the towns which We had blessed, towns easy to be seen, and We made the stage between them easy, (saying): Travel in them safely both by night and day.
Between them and the Cities on which We had poured our blessings, We had placed Cities in prominent positions, and between them We had appointed stages of journey in due proportion: "Travel therein, secure, by night and by day."
And We made between them and the towns which We had blessed (other) towns to be easily seen, and We apportioned the journey therein: Travel through them nights and days, secure.
And We made, between them and the towns which We have blessed, towns apparent, and We well determined traveling between them: "Travel among them nights and days secure."
And [recall] when you said, "O Moses, we can never endure one [kind of] food. So call upon your Lord to bring forth for us from the earth its green herbs and its cucumbers and its garlic and its lentils and its onions." [Moses] said, "Would you exchange what is better for what is less? Go into [any] settlement and indeed, you will have what you have asked." And they were covered with humiliation and poverty and returned with anger from Allāh [upon them]. That was because they [repeatedly] disbelieved in the signs of Allāh and killed the prophets without right. That was because they disobeyed and were [habitually] transgressing.
And how many a city have We destroyed that was insolent in its [way of] living, and those are their dwellings which have not been inhabited after them except briefly. And it is We who were the inheritors.
And Allāh presents an example: a city [i.e., Makkah] which was safe and secure, its provision coming to it in abundance from every location, but it denied the favors of Allāh. So Allāh made it taste the envelopment of hunger and fear for what they had been doing.
