فَلا أُقسِمُ بِالشَّفَقِ
وَاللَّيلِ وَما وَسَقَ
وَالقَمَرِ إِذَا اتَّسَقَ
So I swear by the evening glow,
by the night and what it is fraught with,
by the moon when it blooms full.
EXEGESIS
Shafaq (evening glow) is derived from the verb shafaqa, meaning to be delicate, hence ashfaqa ʿalā has the meaning of fearing for someone to be lost or harmed, as the heart grows tender for them. The noun shafaq refers to the redness (ḥumrah) that remains in the horizon at sunset. Rāghib defines it as merger of the light of the day with the darkness of the night.
Wasaqa (is fraught with) means to gather and envelope. A stockpile of food is therefore called a wasaq. When used in conjunction with the night, it refers to the time when the darkness of night envelopes everything, causing the animals and birds to gradually gather and settle down for the night in their shelters; hence it can also mean a stable. Some have said that it means the darkness that the night gathers.
Ittasaqa (blooms full) is the eighth form verb of wasaqa, and means to gather together fully. When used for the moon it intends when it gathers all its light, becoming a full moon.
The root wasaqa is only used in this surah in the Quran.
EXPOSITION
The surah once again changes rhyme scheme and begins the next stage of discussion with these three consecutive oaths, related to the consecutive stages of night from its early emergence to the full shining of the moon in the heart of the night’s darkness.
The three oaths, which allude to different stages of night progressing in a natural and gradual process, set the stage for the following verse about the natural, stage-by-stage progression of man from the early stages of his conception to his full development in the hereafter: You will surely fare from stage to stage (verse 19). It also reminds of verse 6: O man! You are labouring toward your Lord laboriously, and you will encounter Him.
See also the next verse for more on the significance of the final of these three oaths.
The negative oath lā uqsimu (So I swear, lit. ‘Nay, I swear’) was discussed in verses 75:1-2. Like there, here too it acts as a negation for the false belief of those who think that there is no resurrection.
Although God may swear by anything He wishes in His creation, His creation may only swear by Him. This is attested to by the narration from Muhammad ibn Muslim, that he asked Imam al-Bāqir (a) concerning verse 53:1 and others like it, to which the Imam replied: ‘God – mighty and glorious – may swear by what He wills of His creation, but His creation may not swear by anything but Him.’
INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS
- ‘Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for a light by day and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea so that the waves roar, the Lord of Hosts is His name.’
- ‘And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be signs to indicate seasons, and days, and years. Let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth.”’
- ‘There will be signs in the sun and the moon and the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men fainting from fear and expectation of what is coming on the inhabited earth. For the powers of heaven will be shaken.’
[1] Tibyan, 10/312; Tabrisi, 10/698; Tahqiq, 6/103, sh-f-q.
[2] See Razi, 31/101.
[3] Tibyan, 10/312; Tabrisi, 10/697; Tabari, 30/76; Thalabi, 10/160; Nemuneh, 26/314; Munyah, 30/92. Ṭabrisī adds that this was the opinion of Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, al-Awzāʿī, and others, and that it is also what has been reported from the Imams. Some others, like Abū Ḥanīfah, have claimed it means whiteness (bayāḍ). Thaʿlabī relates that Mujāhid said it is the whole of the day, and that ʿIkramah understood it to mean whatever is left of the day. Ibn al-ʿArabī says there are four ṭawāliʿ: the first and second fajr, the redness, and the sunrise, as well as four ghawārib: the final whiteness, the whiteness that follows that, the redness, and shafaq (Ahkam, 4/1911). Tabatabai considers shafaq to include three stages: redness, then yellowness (ṣafrah), and then whiteness that follows the sunset (Mizan, 20/245).
[4] Raghib, p. 458.
[5] Baghawi, 5/229; Munyah, 30/92; Tahqiq, 13/115, w-s-q.
[6] Tibyan, 10/313; Tabari, 30/76; Thalabi, 10/160; Lisan, 10/378, w-s-q. One wasaq of food equals sixty sāʿ. Ṭabarī adds that a prophetic hadith is also reported affirming this. Apparently, it originally intended a camel-load (ḥimlu baʿīrin), but then the weight was standardised later (Lisan, 10/378, w-s-q; Tahqiq, 13/115, w-s-q).
[7] Tabari, 30/76; Baghawi, 5/229; Alusi, 15/290; Mizan, 20/245; Munyah, 30/92.
[8] Related in Thalabi, 10/160-161.
[9] This opinion is attributed to Ibn Abbas (Muhit, 10/438).
[10] Tibyan, 10/313; Thalabi, 10/161; Lisan, 10/379, w-s-q.
[11] Or between the thirteenth and the sixteenth nights of the lunar month (Tabrisi, 10/700; Razi, 31/102), although some have limited it to the fourteenth night only (see for example Nemuneh, 26/315).
[12] Tibyan, 9/420; Ibn Kathir, 7/410, commenting on verse 53:1.
[13] Kafi, 7/449; Tahdhib, 8/277, h. 1009; Nur, 5/146. The same narration is also reported from Imam al-Jawād (a) – see Faqih, 3/376.
[14] Jeremiah 31:35.
[15] Genesis 1:14-15.
[16] Luke 21:25.