KHUTAB III - 5. COMMENTARY OF THE QUR’ĀN (3)

5. COMMENTARY OF THE QUR’ĀN (3)

Sūrat al-Falaq (Chapter 113)

سُوْرَةُ الْفَلَق

Introduction

          Sūrat al-Falaq was revealed in Makkah according to al-H.asan, ‘Ikrimah, ‘At.ā’, and Jābir, whereas according to Qatādah, and one of the opinions of Ibn ‘Abbās, it was revealed in Medinah.

With regard to the merit of sūrat al-Falaq, and sūrat al-Nās, it is narrated by ‘Uqbah ibn ‘Āmir that Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him) said:

 What wonderful verses have been sent down today, the like of which has never

 been seen! They are: “Say: I seek refuge with the Lord of the dawn,” and “Say:

 I seek refuge with the Lord of men.” (Reported by Muslim, h.adīth no. 403).

In another h.adīth narrated by Uqbah ibn ‘Āmir, when he asked Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him) whether he should recite sūrat Hūd or sūrat Yūsuf, he told him he could recite nothing more effective with Allah than "Say, I seek refuge in the Lord of the dawn." Ah.mad, Nasā'ī and Dārimī transmitted it.

The text

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحمْنِ الرَّحِيْم

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

 قُلْ أَعُوذُ بِرَبِّ الْفَلَقِ

Asad: “Say: ‘I seek refuge with the Sustainer of the rising dawn.’

Pickthall: “Say: I seek refuge in the Lord of the Daybreak.”

A.Y. Ali: “Say:  I seek refuge with the Lord of the Dawn.”

The word falaq means “crack, split” as well as “daybreak, dawn”. The verb falaqa means ”to split, to tear asunder” as well as “to break or to spell the shadows of night”

There are six interpretations of the term falaq, as follows:

1.    The dawn. This is the interpretation of Ibn ‘Abbās as reported by al-‘Awfá, al-H.asan, Sa‘īd ibn Jubayr, Mujāhid, Qatādah, al-Qurz.ī, and Ibn Zayd. The philologist al-Zajjāj said that it is so called because the night breaks away from it. The Arabic expression هُوَ أَبْيَنُ مِنْ فَلَقِ الصُّبْحِ means “it is clearer than the dawn (daybreak)” to indicate something very clear. This is the interpretation of the Qur’ānic commentators in the mass (جُمْهُوْرُ الْمُفَسِّرِيْنَ). The poet Dhū ‘l-Rummah in his poems explaining the wild bull also indicates this meaning, as follows:

 حَتَّى إذَا مَا انْجَلَى عَنْ وَجْهِهِ فَلَقٌ  *  هَادِيْهِ فِي أُخْرَيَاتِ اللَّيْلِ مُنتَصِبُ

           …until dawn revealed its face its foreneck raised

  at the end of the night.[1]

And also,

  يَا ليْلَةً لَمْ أَنْمْهَا بِتُّ مُرْتَفِقاً   *  أَرْعَى النُّجُومَ إلى أَنْ نَوَّرَ الْفَلَقُ

What a night where I was sleepless and remained awake resting

 on my elbow and watching the stars until the dawn lighted.

2.      The creatures, the interpretation of Ibn ‘Abbās as reported by al-Wālī, as well as al-D.ah.h.āk who said that it is all creatures (see no. 6 below).

3.      The name of a prison in Jahannam (Hell) as also reported to be the interpretation of Ibn ‘Abbās. A pit in Jahannam according to Wahb and al-Suddī, and a valley in Jahannam according to Ibn al-Sā’ib.

4.      The name of a tree in Hell, according to ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amr.

5.      One of of the names of Jahannam, according to Abū ‘Abd al-Rah.mān ‘Abdullah ibn Yazīd al-H.anbalī.

6.       Anything that splits from something, such as the mountains and the rocks (because they split with water) according to al-H.asan and al-D.ah.h.āk. Falaq is a name given to anything split from the creature of Allah such as the animals, the dawn, the seed, the fruit-stone, the plant, and others. Al-Qurtubī cites the Qur’ānic verse where this original meaning of falaq (split, break) is used, as follows:

إِنَّ اللَّهَ فَالِقُ الْحَبِّ وَالنَّوَى (الأنعام : ٩٥)

Surely it is Allah Who causes the seed and the fruit-

 stone to split and sprout.  (Q. 6:95, Asad);

فَالِقُ الْإِصْبَاحِ (الأنعام : ٩٦)

 [He is] the One who causes the dawn to break.(Q. 6:96, Asad).

      Mentioning the dawn in this verse gives a hint that as Allah is the Lord of the dawn, He is able to bring it back after the dark night where people are usually afraid. In the same way Allah is also able to remove and protect people from other things they are afraid of. The appearance of the dawn indicates the arrival of happiness and relief. As people at night are waiting for the appearance of the dawn, so people in distress and working are waiting for the dawn of relief and success.

 Abdullah Yusuf Ali’s commentary on this verse is as follows:

Falaq is the Dawn or Daybreak, the cleaving of darkness and the manifestation

of light.  This may be understood in the various senses: (1) Literally, when  the darkness of the night is at its worst, rays of light pierce through and produce the dawn; (2) when the darkness of ignorance is at worst, the light of Allah pierces through the soul and gives enlightenment: xxiv:35; (3) non-existence is darkness and life and activity may be typified by light.  The author and source of all

 true light is Allah, and if we seek Him, we are free from ignorance,

superstition, fear and every kind of evil.

 مِنْ شَرِّ مَا خَلَقَ

Asad: “from the evil of aught that He has created”

Pickthall: “from the evil of that which He created”

A.Y. Ali:  “From the mischief of created things”

          Allah teaches us through Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. to ask protection from all evil things He created. It is also said that the intended person in this verse is Iblīs and his descendants. However, it is not likely to specify Iblīs and his descendants in this verse, because the evilness is general, and we are told by Allah to ask His protection from any evilness.

          A variant reading of khalaqa (meaning “He created”) is khuliqa (meaning “was created”). It is the reading of Ibn al-Sumayfi‘ and Ibn Ya‘mar. This reminds us of a verse in the Qur’ān where the creation of harm is not refferred to Allah by a group of jinn out of courtesy, whereas the guidance is referred to Him, as follows:

وَأَنَّا لَا نَدْرِي أَشَرٌّ أُرِيدَ بِمَنْ فِي الْأَرْضِ أَمْ أَرَادَ بِهِمْ رَبُّهُمْ رَشَدًا (الجن : ١٠)

 And we know not whether harm is boded unto all who are in the earth,

or whether their Lord intendeth guidance of them. (Q. 72:10, Pickthall).

This variant reading has three interpretations, namely, Allah ordered us to ask protection from Him against: (a) anything created (b) Iblīs and his descendants according to al-H.asan, and (c) Jahannam, as reported by al-Māwardī.

 وَمِنْ شَرِّ غَاسِقٍ إِذَا وَقَبَ

Asad: “and from the evil of the black darkness whenever it descends”

Pickthall: “From the evil of the darkness when it is intense”

A.Y. Ali: “From the mischief of Darkness as it overspreads”

The term غَاسِقٍ  “something being dark, namely the night” whereas the verb غَسَقَ  means “to become dark”.  The expression غَسَقَ اللَّيْلُ  or أَغْسَقَ اللَّيْلُ  means “the night became dark”. In poetry Qays ibn al-Ruqayyāt says in his following poem: 

 إنَّ هَذا اللَّيْلَ قدْ غَسقَا    *   واشْتكَيْتُ الهَمَّ والأرَقَا   

 Verily, this night has become dark, and I am still

complaining of sorrow and sleeplessness.

          This is the interpretation given by Ibn ‘Abbās, al-H.asan, Mujāhid, al-Qurz.ī, al-Farrā’, Abū ‘Ubaydah, Ibn Qutaybah, and al-Zajjāj. Al-Zajjāj says that الْغَاسِقُ means “the cold one” referring to the night as it is colder than the day time. However, there are some other interpretations of the term غَاسْقٌ, as the moon, as reported by ‘Ā’ishah; the star as reported by Abū Hurayrah, both from the Prophet; and the group of stars called الثُّرَيَّا (the Pleiades). Despite these various interpretations, they are all included in the verse, as they are all the signs of night without which they would not appear.

          The term وَقبَ  means “to enter”, “to get into”, and in the following poem of an unidentified poet:

وقَبَ العَذابُ عَليْهِمُ فكَأنَّهُمْ  *  لحِقَتْهُمْ نَارُ السَّمُومِ فأحْصِدُوا

  The punishment has come (lit. “entered into”) them , as if they   

are afflicted by the heat of hot sandstorm, so that they become

rotten (lit.  reap [like ripe fruit caused by heat]).

 وَمِنْ شَرِّ النَّفَّاثَاتِ فِي الْعُقَدِ

Asad: “and from the evil of all human beings bent on occult endeavours”

Pickthall: “and from the evil of malignant witchcraft”

A.Y. Ali: “From mischief of those who practice Secret Arts”

          The termنَفَّاثَات  (lit. “female spitters”) means “female magicians” “sorceresses” or “witches”. In Arabia it is a form of witchcraft where a woman  blew  on  a knot  tied in a cord, with or without saliva. In this sense the poet Mutammim ibn Nuwayrah  says in his poem,

 نَفَثْتُ فِي الخيْطِ شَبيهَ الرُّقَى  * مِنْ خَشْيةِ الجِنَّة والحَاسدِ     

 I have blown the string like [doing] magic for

fear of jinn (demons) and envious person.

Ibn al-Anbārī mentions the difference between the term nafatha and tafula according to the Arabic linguists, the former means “to blow without saliva, and the letter means “to blow with saliva”, namely to spit.

The term نَفَّاثَات is the plural of نَفَّاثة  which is صِيْغَةٌ مُبَالَغَةٌ (hyperbole pattern) of نَافِثُةٌ (“a blower, a spitter, a puffer”).  These sorceresses as put by the the Qur’ān commentator Abū ‘Ubaydah were the daughters of a Jew called Labīd (Lubayd) ibn al-A‘s.am.

          There are other readings of النّفَّاثَاتِ  (which is the reading of the mass).

(a)النَّافِثَات  (al-nāfithāt) which is the reading of Ya’qūb, ‘Abd al-Rah.mān ibn Sābit., ‘Īsá ibn ‘Umar as well as Ibn Abī Suray; (b) النُّفَّاثَات  (al-nuffāthāt), the reading of al- H.asan; (c) النَّفَّثَات  (without alif), the reading of Abū al-Rabī‘.

          Asad’s commentary on this verse is as follows:

 Literally “of those that blow [an-naffāthāt] upon knots” an idiomatic phrase current in pre-Islamic Arabia, and hence, employed in classical Arabic to designate all supposedly occult endeavours; it was probably derived from the practice of ‘witchcraft’ and ‘sorcerers’ who used to tie a string into a number of knots while blowing upon them and murmuring magic incantations. The feminine gender of naffāthāt does not, as Zamakhshari and Razi point out, necessarily indicate ‘women’, but may well relate to ‘human beings’ [anfus, sing. nafs, a noun that  is grammatically feminine].  In his explanation of the above verse, Zamakhshari categorically rejects all belief in the reality and effectiveness of such practices, as well as the concept of ‘magic’ as such.  Similar views have been expressed—albeit in a much more elaborate manner, on the basis of established psychological findings—by Muhammad ‘Abduh and Rashid Rida [see Manar 1, 398 ff].  The reason why the believer is enjoined to “seek refuge with God from such practices despite their probable irrationality is—according to Zamakhshari—to be found in the inherent sinfulness of such endeavours

[see Surah 2, note 84] and in the mental danger in which they

 may involve their author.”

 وَمِنْ شَرِّ حَاسِدٍ إِذَا حَسَدَ

Asad: “and from the evil of the envious when he envies”

Pickthall: “And from the evil of the envier when he envieth”

A.Y. Ali: “And from the mischief of the envious one as he practices envy”

          Envy is the worst character. Almost all of the Jews of Medinah did not accept the Prophet’s call out of envy. They were expecting a prophet to appear in Arabia among themselves instead of among the Arabs. They knew him well as they knew their own sons, but they rejected him and fought him.

 The significant of the expression إِذَا حَسَدَ “when he envies” is that if the envier keeps his envy for himself, he would not do any harm to anybody except himself. The caliph ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Azīz, as quoted by Zamakhsharī, said, “I cannot think of any wrongdoer who is more likely to be the wronged one than he who envies another.”  In one hadīth the Prophet said that envy consumes goodness like fire consuming wood. Once the envier expresses his envy in words or action, then he would harm others, and Allah told us to ask His protection against such kind of person.

There is strong relationship between magicians, magic and the devils, as mentioned in the Qur’an as follows:

وَاتَّبَعُوا مَا تَتْلُو الشَّيَاطِينُ عَلَى مُلْكِ سُلَيْمَانَ وَمَا كَفَرَ

 سُلَيْمَانُ وَلَكِنَّ الشَّيَاطِينَ كَفَرُوا (البقرة : ١٠٢)

 And [they] follow that which the devils falsely related against the

 kingdom of Soloman. Solomon disbelieved not; but the devils

 disbelieved, teaching mankind magic … (Q. 2:102).

Conclusion:

          This chapter ends with asking protection against envious people. Envy is the earliest sin ever committed, in heaven by Iblis and on earth by Qābīl (Cain). Because of Iblīs’s envy, he disobeyed Allah by using a misleading analogy; that Iblīs being created from fire, whereas Adam from dust, he should not bow in respect to Adam, thinking that fire is better than dust. A polluted analogy ends up with wrong conclusion. On earth, Qabīl’s envy led him to commit the first murder, killing his own brother Hābīl (Abel). After seeking Allah’s protection against all these evil things, we trust in Him and purify our heart. (1 Sept. 01)

_________

[1] The metre of the poem is al-basīṭ  (الْبَحْرُ الْبَسِيْط) , and the poet used أُخْرَيَاتِ اللَّيْلِ (instead of  آخِرِ اللَّيْل as translated above) to suit the meter.

Bibliography :

Ali, Abdullah Yusuf. The Holy Qur’an

Asad, Muhammad. The Message of the Qur’an

Pickthall, Muhammad Marmaduke.  The Glorious Koran

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