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اَلْفَلَقِ
Dawn

بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ۔

قُلْ اَعُوْذُ بِرَبِّ الْفَلَقِ۔ مِنْ شَرِّ مَا خَلَقَ۔ وَ مِنْ شَرِّ غَاسِقٍ اِذَا وَقَبَ۔ وَ مِنْ شَرِّ النَّفّٰثٰتِ فِي الْعُقَدِ۔ وَ مِنْ شَرِّ حَاسِدٍ اِذَا حَسَدَ۔

In the name of God—the most compassionate, the most merciful.

Say: “I take refuge with the Lord of Dawn from the mischief which He has created, and from the evil of dusk as it settles down, and from the mischief of women spitting on knots and from the evil of some envier when he envies.”

This and the next chapter are called Al-Muawwidhatin or ‘Two Entreaties’ OR else Al-Mudanniyyatan, ‘the Pair that bring one close [to God]’, which are invoked in times of anxiety. This short chapter thus forms a true prayer which may be used to dispel superstitious doubt since it shows that something we think of as being evil may actually have another purpose, especially if we can consider it from some fresh aspect or point of view.

This chapter, containing five verses, was revealed at Mecca. It is a prayer for protection. The title of the chapter is derived from verse no. 1, which asks people to seek refuge in ‘the Lord of the Dawn or Daybreak’ from every kind of ill arising from outer nature and from the envy and the dark and evil plottings of others.

God is the One who rends the darkness of night and brings out from it the light of dawn. It is this God who can remove the dark clouds of trouble overshadowing a man and bring him into the sunshine of well-being.

The present world has been made with a view to putting human beings to the test. So, here there is evil along with good. The only way for man to be safe from the ill effects of evil is to seek refuge in God against it. Evil is of different kinds. For example, the mischief indulged in by evil-hearted people in the dead of the night, and the practitioners of witchcraft. Similarly, there are individuals who, seeing others living prosperously, become jealous and make the latter the victims of their jealousy-inspired actions. A believer should seek refuge in God from the mischief of all such people, and undoubtedly it is God alone who has the power to protect man from all kinds of evil.