Wamin sharri ghasiqin itha waqab (surah Falaq: 3)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(113:3) from the evil of night's darkness when it spreads around; *5

Wa min sharri ghasiqin iza waqab

*5) After seeking Allah's refuge generally from the evil of the creatures, now prayer is being taught for seeking refuge from the evil of some special creatures in particular. The word ghasiq in the verse literally means dark. Thus, at another place in the Qur'an it has been said: "establish the salat from the declining of the sun to the darkness of the night (ila ghasaq-il- lain." (Bani lsra'il: 78), and wagab means to enter or to overspread. Prayer has been taught to seek refuge in particular from the evil of the darkness of night, for most of the crimes and acts of wickedness are committed at night, harmful animals also come out at night, and the night was a very dreadful thing in the days chaos prevailed in Arabia when these verses were revealed. Raiders came out in the dark of night and plundered and destroyed settlements. The people who were thinking of putting the Holy Prophet (upon whom be peace) to death, also made their secret plans at night, so that the murder could not be detected. Therefore, command was given to seek Allah's refuge from the evils and calamities which descend at night. Here, the subtle relation that exists between seeking refuge from the evil of the dark night with the Lord of breaking dawn cannot remain hidden from anybody having insight and understanding.
A difficulty is confronted in the explanation of this verse' in view of several authentic traditions. Hadrat `A'ishah has reported: "Once during a moon-lit night, the Holy Prophet (upon whom be peace) look hold of my hand and pointing to the moon said: `Seek Allah's refuge, for this is al ghasiq idha wagab'. (Tirmidhi, Ahmad, Nasa'i, lbn Jarir, Ibn al-Mundhir, Hakim, Ibn Marduyah). To explain this some scholars said that idha wagab here means idha khasaf, i. e. when the moon is eclipsed. But in no tradition has it been mentioned that when the Holy Prophet pointed to the moon, it was in eclipse. In the Arabic lexicon also idha wagab cannot mean idha khalaf. In our opinion the correct explanation of this Hadith is that since the moon rises in the night (in the daytime it does not shine even if it is there in the sky), what the Holy Prophet meant was this: 'Seek God's refuge from the night, the time when it (the moon) appears, for the light of the moon is not as helpful for the one who resists as for the one who attacks, and not as helpful for the victim of the crime as for the culprit.' On this very basis the Holy Prophet (upon whom be peace) is reported to have said: "When the sun has set, devils scatter on every side. Therefore, gather your children together in the house and keep your animals tied down until the darkness of night disappears."