113- AL-FALAQ
THE DAYBREAK
Most commentators believe that Sūrahs 113 and 114 were revealed during the Makkan period, although some believe that they were revealed in Madinah (IK, R); still others leave the question open due to lack of conclusive evidence (Bḍ, Bg, Z). Al-Falaq takes its name from the daybreak, by which the Prophet is told to swear in the first verse.
Among those who maintain that Sūrahs 113 and 114 are Makkan, many say they were revealed in relation to an incident in which the Prophet was stricken with an illness as a result of a spell put upon him by a sorceress, a practitioner of black magic. The Archangel Gabriel is said to have told him the location of a knotted string upon which the sorceress had whispered her spell and then revealed these two sūrahs as a means of undoing the spell. The Prophet sent ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib to obtain the string and whisper over it these fourteen verses, which would undo the fourteen-knot spell. Together, the two sūrahs are known as al-Muʿawwidhatān, “The Two Protectors,” and are used by Muslims to this day for protection from many evils, including the evil eye and the casting of spells.
According to the early accounts, there was some debate among the Companions of the Prophet as to whether these sūrahs were part of the Quran or were a special supplication that the Prophet had been given by God apart from the Quran. Regarding this opinion Zirr ibn Hubaysh said, “I asked Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, ‘O Abū al-Mundhir! Your brother Ibn Masʿūd said so-and-so [i.e., “The Two Protectors”] do not belong to the Quran.’ Ubayy said, ‘I asked God’s Messenger about them, and he said, “They have been revealed to me, and I have recited them [as a part of the Quran].”’ Then Ubayy added, ‘So we say [of these verses] what God’s Messenger has said.’”
(source: “The Study Quran” a new translation and commentary by Seyyed Hossein Nasr)
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