Tafseer Ibn Kathir of AL-FALAQ [1]

1. Say: ”I seek refuge with the Lord of Al-Falaq,'' 2. ”From the evil of what He has created,'' 3. ”And from the evil of the Ghasiq when Waqab,'' 4. ”And from the evil of the blowers in knots,'' 5. ”And from the evil of the envier when he envies.''

(He is the Cleaver of the daybreak.).'' (6:96) Allah said,

(From the evil of what He has created,) This means from the evil of all created things. Thabit Al-Bunani and Al-Hasan Al-Basri both said, ”Hell, Iblis and his progeny, from among that which He (Allah) created.''

(And from the evil of the Ghasiq when Waqab,) Mujahid said, ”Ghasiq is the night, and `when it Waqab' refers to the setting of the sun.'' Al-Bukhari mentioned this from him. Ibn Abi Najih also reported a similar narration from him (Mujahid). The same was said by Ibn `Abbas, Muhammad bin Ka`b Al-Qurazi, Ad-Dahhak, Khusayf, Al-Hasan and Qatadah. They said, ”Verily, it is the night when it advances with its darkness.'' Az-Zuhri said,

(And from the evil of the Ghasiq when Waqab,) ”This means the sun when it sets.'' Abu Al-Muhazzim reported that Abu Hurayrah said,

(And from the evil of the Ghasiq when Waqab, ) ”This means the star.'' Ibn Zayd said, ”The Arabs used to say, `Al-Ghasiq is the declination (of the position) of the heavenly body known as Pleiades. The number of those who were ill and stricken with plague would increase whenever it would decline, and their number would lessen whenever it rose.''' Ibn Jarir said, ”Others have said that it is the moon.'' The support for the people who hold this position (that it means the moon) is a narration that Imam Ahmad recorded from Al-Harith bin Abi Salamah. He said that `A'ishah said, ”The Messenger of Allah took me by my hand and showed me the moon when it rose, and he said,

(Seek refuge with Allah from the evil of this Ghasiq when it becomes dark.)'' At-Tirmidhi and An-Nasa'i both recorded this Hadith in their Books of Tafsir in their Sunans. Allah said,

(And from the evil of the blowers in knots,) Mujahid, `Ikrimah, Al-Hasan, Qatadah and Ad-Dahhak all said, ”This means the witches.'' Mujahid said, ”When they perform their spells and blow into the knots.'' In another Hadith it has been reported that Jibril came to the Prophet and said, ”Are you suffering from any ailment, O Muhammad'' The Prophet replied,

(Yes.) So Jibril said, ”In the Name of Allah, I recite prayer (Ruqyah) over you, from every illness that harms you, from the evil of every envious person and evil eye. May Allah cure you.'' In the Book of Medicine of his Sahih, Al-Bukhari recorded that `A'ishah said, ”The Messenger of Allah was bewitched until he thought that he had relations with his wives, but he had not had relations with them.'' Sufyan said, ”This is the worst form of magic when it reaches this stage.'' So the Prophet said,

(O `A'ishah! Do you know that Allah has answered me concerning that which I asked Him Two men came to me and one of them sat by my head while the other sat by my feet. The one who was sitting by my head said to the other one, `What is wrong with this man' The other replied, `He is bewitched.' The first one said, `Who bewitched him' The other replied, `Labid bin A`sam. He is a man from the tribe of Banu Zurayq who is an ally of the Jews, and a hypocrite.' The first one asked, `With what (did he bewitch him)' The other replied, `With a comb and hair from the comb.' The first one asked, `Where (is the comb)' The other answered, `In the dried bark of a male date palm under a rock in a well called Dharwan.') `A'ishah said, ”So he went to the well to remove it (the comb with the hair). Then he said,

(This is the well that I saw. It was as if its water had henna soaked in it and its palm trees were like the heads of devils.) So he removed it (of the well). Then I (`A'ishah) said, `Will you not make this public' He replied,

(Allah has cured me and I hate to spread (the news of) wickedness to any of the people.)''