[By the Dawn;
And by the ten nights;
And by the even and the odd] Fajr:1-3
By the Dawn:
Allah takes an oath by the dawn (or Fajr). When Allah takes an oath by something it is to highlight its significance and Allah subḥāneh wa t’āla can take an oath by whatever He wills, we on the other hand, cannot swear by anything or anyone but the Almighty.
If we were to translate it literally Fajr would translate to, ‘to explode’. The morning time is called Fajr because the sun light explodes through the darkness of the night.
By the Ten Nights:
There are several different opinions regarding which ten nights are referred to in this āyah, and the congregation of the Mufassirīn are of the opinion that this is referring to the ten of Dhul-Ḥijjah.
Ibn Kathīr quotes a ḥadīth that speaks of the virtues of these ten days: “There are no days during which the righteous action is so pleasing to Allah than these days (i.e. the first ten days of Dhul-Ḥijjah).” He ﷺ was asked: “O Messenger of Allah, not even Jihad in the Cause of Allah?” He ﷺ replied, “Not even Jihad in the Cause of Allah..”
By the Even and the Odd:
The commentary on this āyah exceeded 30 different opinions, each not too far from the other.
1. Some said, ‘the even’ refers to the 10th of Dhul-Ḥijjah and the odd refers to the of ‘Arafah (9th of Dhul-Ḥijjah).
2. Ḥasan al-Baṣrī said, the creation is created in pairs thus the even refers to the creation. And Allah is one thus ‘the odd’ (in terms of number) refers to Him (in Arabic the word over here for odd is witr, which translates to singular).
3. Abū ‘Āliyah said, ‘the even’ and ‘the odd’ refers to ṣalah; some have even number of units and others have odd.
These are the main commentaries on this āyah; others are simply variants of the above opinions. But as you can tell the importance that is given to the initial days of this blessed month cannot be comprehended.
So how do we approach this month? Sheikh Moḥammed ash-Shanqītī was asked this question, he replied, “The best way to welcome any season of worship is to increase in Istighfār. Because sins prevent success.”
Start with istighfār.
Increase your amount of Dhikr.
Extra units of prayers.
Fast if you can, try and fast.
And if you are amongst the blessed few who are going to Ḥajj, then don’t forget us from your du’ā`s. =)
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