Sūrat al-Layl الليل "The Night"

Holy Quran

Sūrat al-Layl الليل "The Night" is the ninety-second sūrah (chapter) of the Qur'an, containing twenty-one āyāt (verses). This sūrah is one of the first ten to be revealed in Mecca. It contrasts two types of people, the charitable and the miserly, and describes each of their characteristics

Summary

• 1-4 Oaths by various natural objects
• 5-13 The obedient blessed and the covetous accursed
• 14-16 The covetous warned with hell-fire
• 17-21 True believers shall be rewarded hereafter [1]

Date of the revelations

Duration: 2 minutes and 27 seconds.2:27Al-Lail in murattalMasjid al-Haram, Mecca at night

Sūrah Al-Lail is a Meccan sura, and was among the first ten surahs to be revealed. Meccan surahs are chronologically earlier surahs that were revealed to Muhammad at Mecca before the hijrah to Medina in 622 CE. They are typically shorter, with relatively short ayat, and mostly come near the end of the Qur'an's 114 sūwar. Most of the surahs containing muqatta'at are Meccan. According to Yusuf Ali, Al-Lail may be placed in the dating period close to Surat Al-Fajr and Ad-Dhuha (93). It is similar in subject matter to the chapter preceding it, Ash-Shams (91)

Q92:1–11 By night and Day

Allah begins this chapter by swearing a series of oaths: by the night when it envelops the world, by the day when it illuminates and, finally by Himself who has created the male and female (92:1-3). Evidence of these three things are invoked (night, day and gender) to illustrate how the aims and activities engaged in by both individuals and nations, are, in respect to their moral nature, widely divergent. Verse 92:3 literally means, "Consider that which has created [or "creates"] the male and the female", i.e., the elements which are responsible for the differentiation between male and female. This, together with the symbolism of night and day, darkness and light, is an allusion - similar to the first ten verses of the preceding surah (Ash-Shams) - to the polarity evident in all nature and, hence, to the dichotomy (spoken of in the next verse) which characterizes man's aims and motives. Following a style common to the brief chapters, three opposing moral characteristics are presented as illustrations, providing a means from which mankind may judge which of the two lifestyles is being represented

By the night as it envelops; By the day as it appears; By Him Who created male and female; Certainly, your efforts and deeds are diverse; As for him who gives and has taqwa; and believes in al-husnā; We will make smooth for him the path of ease; But he who is greedy and thinks himself self-sufficient; and denies al-husnā; We will make smooth for him the path to evil; and what will his wealth avail him when he goes down (in destruction)

— Quran 92:1-11 -Yusuf Ali

92:1 وَالَّيْلِ إِذَا يَغْشَى

92:2 وَالنَّهَارِ إِذَا تَجَلَّى

92:3 وَمَا خَلَقَ الذَّكَرَ وَالْأُنثَى

Wa-(a)l-laili 'idhā yaghshāBy the night as it envelopsWa-(a)n-nahāri 'idhā tajallāBy the day as it appearsWa mā khalaqa-(a)dh-dhakara wa-(a)l-‘unthāAnd (by)he who created the male and female