﴿ وَٱلَّيْلِ إِذَا يَسْرِ ﴾

“Consider the night as it runs its course!”

and by the night when it passes away!Night is the Night of the Assembly (laylat al-jamʿ): it passes away along with all that is in it.[89:1�4]He said:The inner meaning of [the verses] is [the following: By the dawn [89:1] refers to Muḥammad , from whom the lights of faith, the lights of acts of obedience and the lights of the two worlds of existence gushed forth (tafajjarat); and by the ten nights, [89:2] [refers to] the ten Companions, regarding whom [the Prophet] testified [that they would] enter Paradise; by the even, [refers to] the obligatory practice (farḍ) and the Sunna; and the odd [89:3], [refers to having] the intention of sincerity (nīyat al-ikhlāṣ) towards God, Exalted is He, in all acts of obedience, without regard for anyone else during them. And by the night when it passes away [89:4], [refers to] the Prophet�s nation and the �great blackness� (sawād aʿẓam), as [was mentioned by the Prophet when] he said, �On the night I was taken on the journey, I saw a great blackness from heaven to earth, so I asked, �What is this blackness, O Gabriel?� He replied, �This is your nation (umma), and there are belonging to you seventy thousand among them who will enter Paradise [directly] without reckoning (ḥisāb). They are not harmed by misdeeds (khaṭāyā), they did not becometainted in this life, and they are cognisant only of God.� Thus has God sworn an oath by him, his Companions and his nation.That which is sworn to by the oath is: