Surah AL-FALAQ / الفلق in Arabic | Surah 113

Surah Al-Falaq, translated as « the daybreak », is the 113th of the Holy Quran. Composed of five verses, it has a particular value alongside Surah An-Nas, revealed in the same Medinan context, and is one of the protective surahs revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, which allows one to obtain sublime merits and blessings sought by all believers.

Circumstances of the revelation of Surah Al-Falaq

According to the collection of prophetic traditions of Bukhari, the mother of the believers Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, related in a hadith that the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, was bewitched following the Battle of Hudaybiyya, by a hypocrite allied with the Jewish people of Medina, by the name of Labid Ben A'sam. He paid a servant who worked in the Prophet Muhammad's house and asked him to retrieve a comb and some hair.
The Prophet, following the sorcery he suffered, was affected psychologically and physically. He said to Aisha:

« O Aisha, do you know that God has inspired me with the decision I had asked of Him? Two men came to me; the first sat down near my head and the other at my feet. The one who placed himself at my head said to the other: « Of what does this man complain? ». And the other answered: « He has been bewitched » « Who bewitched him? » asked the first. The other replied: « Labid ben A'sam, a man of the Bani Zurayq, a hypocrite and the ally of the Jews. – And with what? – With a comb and a few hairs found in the sheath of a palm spathe. – Where are these objects? – Under a stone near the well of Dharwan ».

Aisha continued that Ali, Zubayr and Ammar ben Yasser, may Allah be pleased with them, had been charged with removing these objects from the well, which they had beforehand drained. They found inside a cord that contained twelve knots. Allah, at that moment, sent down the two protective surahs An-Nas and Al-Falaq. Each time the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) recited a verse, a knot came undone. Once the last knot was undone, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, felt better, relieved. Jibril ('alayhi salam) exorcised him with these words:

« In the name of God I exorcise you against every thing that harms you, against every envious one and every evil eye ». He was asked: « O Messenger of Allah, why do you not seize this vile man to execute him? ». He answered that Allah had healed him, and that he was loath for this deed to be the cause of an animosity against men ». Reported by Bukhari

This surah, just like Surah An-Nas, is a protection and a remedy of inestimable benefits for the believers in order to protect themselves from all evil.

Link between the surahs Al-Ikhlas and Al-Falaq

In the two surahs there are similarities but also particularities. There is a link between the Supreme Protector and the one who seeks protection. There are, that said, differences between that against which one seeks protection.
In Surah Al-Ikhlas, the believer declares that Allah is the Samad, that He is the Absolute whom everyone and everything needs. The believer admits that everyone turns toward Him but that He needs nothing, nor anyone. Here in Surah Al-Falaq, one expresses it clearly by seeking refuge with Him, against all evil.
In expressing our need to the Samad, one seeks the fruits of this request for protection against:

• the evil of all that He has created, a protection against what one does not know
• the night, one seeks a protection against fear
• Against the effects of sorcery, such as physical and psychic harm, depression
• A protection against jealousy, every form of jealousy

By saying « qul a'udhu bi Rabil Falaq » the believer seeks protection against the visible and invisible evils, and the first Name by which the Creator asks us to implore Him is the Lord of the daybreak. Al-Falaq is often translated as the daybreak, but one must also understand it in the sense of opening. Allah calls Himself thus to tell us that He is the One who cleaves the sky to let the dawning day appear when all was but darkness.
In the same way, the injustice done to men is darkness, and in reciting these surahs one hopes from Allah to make appear the protection, the healing, His Light in our hearts. The Creator of all things is the One who has the keys to cleanse our hearts and our lives by His Light.
Moreover, one can say that Tawhid, the Oneness of Allah, is Light and that all that is injustice done to people arises from a lack of Tawhid, since injustice is darkness.
Al-Falaq is also the name given to a valley in Hell. Al-Falaq is therefore a protection against all evil but is also addressed to the criminals, as if to tell them that the evil they commit will lead them to Al-Falaq in Hell.

More detailed explanations

Qul: This imperative made to the Prophet (and to us), « Say », encompasses the fact of admitting our humility before Allah, who is the Only One able to erase the effects of the evils we suffer. It is to declare to Him our need and to eliminate our ego so as to let penetrate into the heart clairvoyance, sincerity in all our requests. It is also a commandment, an order, therefore to admit one's submission to the Most High. How can one be in need of protection and disobey one's Protector at the same time?

Char: It is a word that encompasses all evil, all animosity. The word « evil » in Arabic is here employed with Char, which represents lack (of goods, of health, misfortune), something hostile, and its opposite is Good (all that is positive). Contrary to the other words that can express « evil » in Arabic, such as:

• « bi e ssa » expressing something bad, the defects of something, and whose opposite is « benefit », quality
• Or such as « sou e » which is a bad, detestable act and whose opposite is « hassanat » meaning « good deed ».

Ma khalaq: This means all that Allah has created. In saying this, Allah tells us to seek protection against all that He has created and that could constitute an evil. He did not reduce evil to that of the Jinn, but to all the evil He has created in His Creation. In reality, everything can contain an evil, even in the things that are beautiful and good for us. For example, fire is something good for us but it can burn us. Water represents life and is a good, but it can engulf us, drown us. Likewise the sky and its catastrophes, our vehicles, the evil within ourselves, that of the creatures whose nature is sometimes dangerous for us, etc.

No one truly knows where the evil is at times, so one must humbly guard against it with this surah.

Ghassiq: It is the deep night, the period when the Jinn come out and begin their mischief. This does not mean that the whole night is dangerous or bad, but that many bad things happen in it and that one must protect oneself from it.

Nafathati fil 'uqad: Allah reveals that the sorcery He suffered was done by a group of women who gathered to blow lightly on knots (the knots made in the cord found in the well).

Why would someone do so much evil? The following verse asks us to seek protection against that.

Hassidin idha hassad: against the evil of the envious one when he envies. Allah does not say « if » he envies but « when » he envies. When one envies, one falls into evil, one does evil. It is an invisible evil that one cannot see, cannot recognise.

Some differences between all these evils:

Among all that Allah has created and the evils that Allah has cited in particular, Allah indeed makes distinctions, to Him the Glory and the Majesty: « Ghassiq » is a darkness, no matter which one; there is no precision on the date when the harmful side of this darkness will appear, or any sign of repetition that would make one understand that it is every night. Likewise, Allah did not specify which envious one, but in reality an envious one who could do evil, for not all envious ones necessarily do evil to people, contrary to the sorceresses for whom Allah specified by adding a determiner before the word « blowers », as if to say that He is speaking of sorceresses in particular, even if, of course, all the persons practising sorcery necessarily want evil upon the creatures.

By not employing a determiner, all sorcerers could have felt concerned and the impact would not have been the same. This surah is, on the contrary, precisely intended to make understand to the family whose women gathered in Medina in the middle of the night to blow on knots, as a ritual of sorcery, and to do evil to the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him.

A way of revealing that Allah alone knows the unseen. The Prophet could not know it by himself. It is a revelation intended to target the sorceresses who bewitched the Prophet specifically, but also to ask us to protect ourselves with this surah against all those who do likewise.

In Islam no jealousy is permitted except in 2 cases: money and knowledge (the Quran), which one may hope to have in one's innermost self, in order to make use of it in the path of Allah.

Every other kind of jealousy is divided into two: that which emanates from the ego and that which emanates from the refusal to believe in Allah, the refusal of the message of Allah. Instead of discussing the animosity aroused by the disbelievers, just as those of the time of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, had shown an even greater animosity toward him and toward prophethood as is revealed in the Quran, Allah wants us to change our attitude, to protect ourselves and to improve.

"You, (Muslims) you love them, whereas they do not love you; and you have faith in the whole Book. And when they meet you, they say: « We believe » and once alone, out of rage against you, they bite the tips of their fingers. Say: « Die of your rage. » In truth, Allah knows well the contents of the hearts. Verse 119 Surah 3 Imran

Allah knows better what composes the hearts and what can do us evil. What He wants is to cleanse us and enlighten us with His Light.