Interpretation of the Quran- Surat Al-Fajr (89)- Lesson (1)- Verses [1-4]: Importance of Contemplation in the Signs of Allah

Interpretation of the Quran- Surat Al-Fajr (89)- Lesson (1)- Verses [1-4]: Importance of Contemplation in the Signs of Allah Praise be to Allah, the Lord of Creations, and Peace and blessings be upon our prophet Muhammad, the faithful and the honest. Oh, Allah, w e know nothing but w hat You teach us. You are the All- Know er, the Wise. Oh Allah, teach us w hat is good for us, and benefit us from w hat You taught us, and increase our know ledge. Show us the righteous things as righteous and help us to do them, and show us the bad things as bad and help us to keep aw ay from them. O Allah our Lord, lead us out from the depths of darkness and illusion, unto the lights of erudition and know ledge, and from the muddy shallow s of lusts unto the heavens of Your Vicinity. Some explanations of ayaat 1-4 of surat Al-Fajr: Dear brothers, the surah w e are going to examine today is al-Fajr. Allah Most High says: In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful “By the Daw n; By the ten Nights, And by the Even and the Odd.And by the Night w hen it departs. Is there (not) in this a mighty oath for a man open to reason?” (Al-Fajr, 89:1-5) Commentators vary as to the interpretation of the above ayaat. Some of them say: the daw n is something w ell-know n; the ten nights are the first ten days of Dhul-Hijja; some others say that they are those of the month of Muharram. As for "the Even and the Odd" –that those are the tw o forms of the salah: the salah of four raka'h is "the even", and the salah of uneven number of raka'h is "the odd". As for "the night w hen it departs" –it means "disappears". These are some of the interpretations of these ayaat. How ever, some of the commentators give a specific meaning to these ayaat, w hich turns them into one-subject matter. If one, for example, says to you: "a w atch, a hand, a face, a crow n", and you analyze every w ord individually, you w ill perceive that each of them is unrelated to the others. But w hen you consider other meanings of these w ords, you w ill say: the w atch w ith its hands, its face and w inding-crow n. The explanations of some interpreters of the ayaat in question aim at the coherence of the subject Allah Most High is telling you about. “By the Daw n; By the ten Nights,” What is, then, the relationship betw een the Daw n and the ten Nights, and the Even and the Odd, and the Night w hen it departs? The first and the last ayaat are clearly about the Universe, but those in betw een them are unrelated to it. The daw n is something everybody is familiar w ith. Where, then, does its greatness lie? It lies in the night. If you hire a boat to take you to an island by night, you w ill certainly feel gloom or fear. Go to a forest at night! You cannot deny that you w ill feel desolate. Then the daw n breaks and you see everything clearly; you then feel comfortable. The meanings of al- fajr: It carries many meanings. The strict or narrow ed meaning of this ayah is that the earth is a sphere w hich revolves around itself at a thousand and six hundred kilometers per hour. This revolution around itself takes place simultaneously w ith its revolution around the sun; the part of the earth's surface w hich comes to face the sun receives its rays, and those disperse darkness. If the earth didn't revolve around itself, the daw n w ouldn't exist; and if the shape of the earth w eren't spherical, the daw n w ouldn't break gradually. If the earth w ere cubic, the sun w ould rise abruptly, and it can be easily imagined how harmful the sudden sunrise and sunset w ould be. The expression "by the Daw n" means that the earth is spherical; and also that it revolves around itself; and it also means "the sun". If the earth revolved and the sun did not exist, its revolution w ould be useless, and so w ould be the day w ithout the night. “And from among His Signs are the Night and the Day, and the Sun and the Moon.” (Fussilat, 41: from ayah 37) “And a Sign for them is the Night. We w ithdraw therefrom the Day,” (Ya-Sin, 36: from ayah 37) The Day and the Night are, then, tw o Signs, and so is the Sun. Were it not for the night, you w ouldn't know about it. You know the value and the w armth of the sun w hen you feel its rays at sunrise. Also, the cold makes you appreciate its importance and that of the gentle and gradual stream of sunlight caused by the globular shape of the earth. When our Lord the Great and Almighty says "by the Daw n", this means that it is a remarkable Sign, w orthy of all attention. Have w e ever thought about it? Have w e ever sat after the salah of fajr to think about it? When Allah sw ears in this ayah by the Daw n, He w ants to draw our attention to some of His Signs. Allah has created everything according to adequate measure: "By the ten Nights,” Everybody know s that the earth has an object attached to it, a kind of satellite –the moon, the complete revolution of w hich around the earth lasts one month, and its tw elve revolutions form the lunar year, w ith the months of Rajab, Sha'ban, Ramadan, etc. On comparing these lunar months w ith the solar ones, w e find that there is a considerable difference betw een the tw o. The solar year is longer than the lunar year by ten days. To give more details –the moon revolves around the earth to form the lunar year, and the earth revolves around the sun to form the solar year, and the difference betw een the tw o is ten nights. As all of you know , Ramadan comes ten days earlier every year. “And they stayed in their Cave three hundred (solar) years, adding nine (lunar years).” (al-Kahf, 18:25) As regards the above ayah, some commentators say that w hen you calculate the difference betw een the three hundred years, the lunar and the solar ones, you w ill find that it is exactly 9 years. Who created this difference betw een the revolution of the moon and the revolution of the earth around the sun? Indeed, it is exquisitely planned; everything functions according to precise measurement. Man comes to know Allah by means of reflection: “Verily, We have created all things according to qadar (proportion and measure).” (al-Qamar, 54:49) Some have interpreted this ayah in terms of the hearing, the sight, the smell and other senses; the distance betw een the earth and the sun, and the earth and the moon, and the distance betw een the sun and the other planets; all of them, having been designed w ith perfect precision and unparalleled w isdom. There is yet another interpretation w hich affirms the coherence of these ayaat w hich makes them into a harmonious one-subject matter. By the Daw n: the system w hich includes the sun, the earth, the moon, the spherical shape, the revolutions, w arm sunrays, etc. By the ten Nights: think about this marvelous system that Allah Most High made on a tw ofold patterns –lunar and solar year; and made the ten-night difference betw een the tw o, exactly as mentioned in this surah. The Even: in pairs –the earth and the moon are an even (number), w hile the sun is an odd number; hence, the connection betw een the Even and the Odd, and the ten Nights and the Daw n is indeed accurate. Can man get to know Allah w ithout reflecting on these ayaat? Man acquires know ledge of things by means of his senses. You can see things by the agency of your eyes and you can hear the sounds they make by the agency of your ears, and you can feel them by the agency of your hands. But how can you get to know Allah the Exalted and Glorious? Only by the agency of reflection. Allah Most High has created this miraculous Universe and, furthermore, the precise faculty of reflection. If man duly uses this ability, he w ill come to know Allah, and w hen one know s Allah, one know s everything. "O Son of Adam! If you look for Me, you find Me; and w hen you find Me, you find everything; and w hen you miss Me, you miss everything, and I should be more beloved by you than everything else." Is it so difficult to infer from the various kinds of the Universe Signs mentioned by Allah that w e should reflect on them seriously? Certainly, these are the themes for contemplation, and if you w ant to know Allah, there are His Signs. When Man reflects on Allah's Creation, he comes to know Him: Imagine somebody asks you: Didn't you w ant a set of furniture for your bedroom? You say that you did, and this person takes you to tw o carpenters, one of w hom is black and the other w hite, asking you to choose one for placing your order.

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