Important Words:
قاب (chord) substantive noun from قاب (qaba) which means, he was or became near or he approached. قاب means, the portion of a bow that is between the part that is grasped by the hand and the curved extremity; or from one extremity of the bow to the other; measure or space. The Arabs say بینھما قاب قوسین i.e. between them two is the measure of a bow, which means that there is a very close relationship between them. The Arabic proverb رمونا عن قوس واحد i.e. they shot at us from one bow, means, they were unanimous against us. The word thus denotes complete agreement (Lane, Lisan & Zamakhshari).
Commentary:
Whatever may be the significance of the word قاب, the expression قاب قوسین indicates very close union between two persons. In this sense of the expression the verse purports to say that the Holy Prophet continued to scale the heights of spiritual ascension and to approach near God till all distance between them disappeared and the Prophet became, as it were, "one chord to two bows." The verse reminds of an ancient Arab custom according to which when two persons pledged themselves to firm friendship they would join their bows in such a way that they appeared as one and then they would shoot an arrow from that combined bow; thus indicating that they had become, as it were, one person, and that an attack on one was an attack on the other. If the word تدلی be taken to apply to God, the verse would mean that the Holy Prophet went up to God and God came down to him till they both became, as it were, united into one person.
The expression فکان قاب قوسین possesses yet another very beautiful and subtle significance, viz. that while on the one hand the Holy Prophet became so completely merged in his Lord and Creator that he became, as it were, His image (پیکر او شد سراسر صورت رب رحیم), on the other he came down to mankind and became so full of love, sympathy and solicitude that Divinity and humanity became united in him, and in the Quranic words he became the central point of the chord of the two bows of Divinity and humanity.
The words أو أدنی signify that the relationship between the Holy Prophet and God became closer and more intimate than could be conceived.
Verses 8-18 describe the Spiritual Ascension (معراج) of the Holy Prophet, when he was spiritually transported to heavens and was vouchsafed the view of a spiritual manifestation of God, and ascended spiritually very close to his Maker. The Mi‘raj was, in fact, a double spiritual experience, comprising the spiritual ascent of the Holy Prophet, and the descent towards him of God’s manifestation. The Mi‘raj (Spiritual Ascension) has become confused in popular mind with Isra’ اسرا (or Spiritual Night Journey of the Prophet to Jerusalem), from which it is quite distinct and separate. The Isra’ took place in the eleventh or twelfth year of the Call (Zurqani) while the Holy Prophet had the experience of the Mi‘raj or Spiritual Ascension to heavens in its 5th year, shortly after the first migration to Abyssinia, six or seven years earlier. A careful and minute study of the details of these two incidents mentioned in the Hadith also supports this view. For a detailed exposition of the two incidents,—the Mi‘raj and the Isra’,—being separate and distinct from each other, see 17:2.