Surah Al-Fajr, The Dawn

Surah 89 · 30 verses · revealed at Mecca

Al-Fajr opens with an oath by the dawn, by ten nights, by the even and the odd, and by the night when it passes away — and then asks whether in that there is an oath for a person of understanding.

The ten nights have generally been taken as the first ten of Dhul-Hijjah, and the surah is widely recited in that season for this reason.

It recalls three peoples — 'Ad of the many-columned Iram, Thamud who carved the rocks in the valley, and Pharaoh of the stakes — and says that your Lord is ever watchful.

Its centre is an observation about how people read their own lives. When God tests a person by honouring him and giving him plenty, he says my Lord has honoured me; and when He tests him by restricting his provision, he says my Lord has humiliated me. The surah answers, no — and then names what is actually wrong: that they do not honour the orphan, do not urge one another to feed the poor, devour inheritance greedily, and love wealth immoderately.

Its closing lines are among the most recited at Muslim funerals anywhere in the world: O soul at peace, return to your Lord, well pleased and pleasing to Him; enter among My servants, and enter My garden.

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