113. Al-Falaq

Al-Falaq ('The Daybreak'), 5 Meccan verses, is the first of the two 'seeking-refuge' surahs (al-Mu'awwidhatan). It takes refuge with the Lord of the daybreak from the evil of what He created, of the dark night, of those who blow on knots, and of the envier (113:1-5), and is recited for protection morning and evening.

A widely reported hadith describes the Prophet reciting both Al-Falaq and An-Nas nightly, blowing gently into his cupped hands after each recitation and then wiping them over as much of his body as he could reach, a practice, known as ruqya, still followed as a form of nightly self-protection across the Muslim world. Reports concerning the codex compiled independently by the companion Ibn Mas'ud describe it as omitting Al-Falaq and An-Nas along with the opening Al-Fatiha, viewing them instead as protective supplications outside the main body of the text rather than as sent-down surahs proper, a minority position later scholarship uniformly rejected once the Uthmanic recension, which includes all three, became the standard consonantal text across the Muslim world.

Al-Falaq's four specific harms, the general evil of creation, the darkness of night, malicious sorcery, and envy, are read by classical commentators as moving deliberately from the most general threat to the most intimate and psychologically painful, envy being singled out last as the harm that arises from within human relationships themselves rather than from an external or supernatural source.

Al-Falaq and the following An-Nas are known together as al-Mu'awwidhatan, 'the two of seeking refuge,' revealed as a means of protection. Tradition reports the Prophet reciting them, blowing into his hands and wiping over himself each night and during illness. Al-Falaq's naming of specific harms, darkness, sorcery, envy, made it a standard recitation in the Islamic practice of seeking God's protection (ruqya).

Classical commentary connects the specific harms named in Al-Falaq, the darkness of night, those who blow on knots, and the envier, to a real, if disputed, episode in the Prophet's biography: several early sources report that he was afflicted by sorcery involving knots tied by a Jewish man named Labid ibn al-Asam, discovered and undone after these two surahs were revealed as remedy, an account the major classical commentators report without exception, though it has drawn theological discussion in later Islamic thought over how to reconcile a prophet being affected by sorcery with the doctrine of prophetic protection from error, a question apologetic and theological writing continues to address rather than one the classical sources themselves treated as settled by the hadith alone. However the episode is read, the two surahs together remain, in ordinary devotional practice, the standard closing recitation of a nightly ritual of protection distinct from formal prayer.