Article Surah 92 · Ayah 4
Meaning of Verse 4 - Surah Al Lail
Meaning of Verse 4 - Surah Al Lail
This is that for which an oath has been sworn by the night and the day, and the creation of the male and the female. It means to say: Just as the night and the day, and the male and the female, are different from each other, and their effects and results are mutually contradictory, so are the aims and objects for which men are endeavoring and struggling; different in their nature and contradictory with regard to their results. Reference Link
Explanation of Verse 4 - Surah Al Lail
4) The ways you take differ greatly
In the previous surah Allah (swt) spoke continuously in the third person but in this surah Allah (swt) switches to speaking in the second person. The third person can sometimes seem general and feel as if a statement is not directed at oneself. For example, when someone says ‘a person should be kind and generous’ it does not make the listener think that he is being addressed but when someone says ‘you should be kind and generous’ it becomes more specific and is akin to taking a universal lesson and making it directly applicable to you. Thus, the previous surah had universal lessons which we now learn are not just theory but are actually lessons that apply directly to the audience. In the previous surah Allah (swt) was talking about Thamood a distant nation that no longer exists as they were destroyed but in this surah we learn through the change from third to second person that the audience is now ready for these lessons directly and so Allah (swt) is turning his attention towards the Quraysh whom the specific warning is for.
The word kum has been interpreted in a number of ways. One opinion is that is addressing the many different efforts of the Muslims which ultimately in the end complement each other. Most mufassiroon however have said that it refers to the whole of humanity. The word sa’ee means to pace at a speed faster than walking but slower than running. People often pace up and down when they have an urgent or important matter to deal with. Allah (swt) used this word to describe Fir’aun in Surah An-Naziat when he was pacing up and down stressed out with trying to find a way to counter Musa’s growing influence, ‘The he turned away hastily’ (An-Naziat 79:22). Allah (swt) is essentially saying that the concerns people are running towards, in both a religious and non-religious sense, are diverse and contradictory in the same way the night and the day and the male and the female are. In a religious sense for example, the Muslims are making efforts for the establishment of the deen and the non-Muslims are making efforts in the opposite direction to harm the teachings of the deen. In the dunya also everyone has different concerns, problems and responsibilities which push them in different directions.
There are two words used in the Quran for different and diverse. The word mukhtalif is used to describe two wholly and originally different things. Shatta however is for something that was once whole but subsequently was separated into different entities. Allah (swt) says in the Quran:
‘The night is also a sign for them: We strip the daylight from it, and– lo and behold! – they are in darkness’ (Surah Ya Sin 36:37)
Allah (swt) describes that day as being snatched or pulled from the night almost as if the day is broken away from the night. Similarly, the first woman Hawwa was broken away from Adam (as) and mankind was originally upon the way of Islam and Adam (as) until that way got shattered into different paths. Humanity is meant to be a united nation whose efforts are one and the same. Yet, just like night and day, male and female come together to become a whole so too do the opposite efforts of the Muslims and non-Muslims come together to fulfil a greater plan. This changes the way we look at the seerah of the messenger (saw). If the two opposite efforts of the Muslims trying to further the cause of Islam and the disbelievers trying to oppose it did not come together then the verses instructing people to be patience and the verses instructing the believers to make hijra for example would not have come down. All the efforts and struggles in the life of the messenger (saw) are not the result of a one directional effort on the part of the believers but rather it is in addition to the opposing effort of the disbelievers. So, although the people are divided (shatta) in their motives and ideologies, they are all under the One main plan of Allah (swt).
In Ash-Shams we learnt of the balanced creation of the nafs and how Allah (swt) programmed it to recognise its evil capacity and its capacity to protect itself, what is good for it and what is bad for it. An innate nature, its fitrah, which allows this person to recognise these things was put inside of it by Allah (swt). Yet, despite this pre-programmed ability we learn in this surah that man’s efforts are all over the place. Even though we all know what is essentially good and what is bad we still don’t find everyone doing good and avoiding evil. We find some doing good and others doing bad and hence our efforts differ. Allah (swt) also mentioned in Ash-Shams the internal feelings of the nafs but here we find the outwardly state of the nafs which is the efforts and actions one makes. So what happens inside and outside the person is being compared in these two surahs. In the previous surah the ones who make the effort to cleanse themselves are the ones who have attained success and now Allah (swt) will describe how you attain that success.