His words, Exalted is He:

By the daybreak,

He said:

In its outward meaning, daybreak (fajr) refers to the dawn (subḥ).

He said:

The inner meaning of [the verses] is [the following: By the dawn [89:1] refers to Muḥammad ﷺ, 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;^{1Regarding these Companions, p. 259, n. 2 above.} 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 ﷺ 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),^{2The text has lam tukallimhum, by which may be meant: no misdeeds spoke out against them.} they did not become tainted in this life, and they are cognisant only of God.”^{3Bukhārī, Ṣahīḥ, ‘Kitāb al-Ṭibb’, and ‘Kitāb al-Riqāq’.} Thus has God sworn an oath by him, his Companions and his nation.

That which is sworn to by the oath is:^{4lit.: ‘The answer (jawāb) to the oath is…’}

and by the ten nights,

His words:

[In its outer meaning] it refers to the [first] ten nights of Dhū al-Ḥijja, which are the Well-known Days.^{1The tenth of the Hijrī month of Dhū al-Ḥijja marks the culmination of the Hajj and the commencement of ʿĪd al-Aḍhā.}

and by the even,

[That is], Adam and Eve. It has also been said that it refers to all that God has created as opposites, such as the night and day, light and darkness, and death and life; and the odd: this [refers to] God, Exalted is He.

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.^{1According to one of the traditions cited by Ṭabarī, the night here refers to the ‘Night of Assembly’, which is said to signify the assembly of Muzdalifa. Muzdalifa (also known as Mashʿar) is a place approximately halfway between Mina and Arafat, and it is where pilgrims performing the Hajj spend the night of the ninth to tenth of Dhū al-Ḥijja, after the Day of Arafat. From Arafat the pilgrims proceed to Muzdalifa where the sunset prayers are said. They then spend the night there and pray the dawn prayer. After sunrise they proceed to Mina, with the pebbles they have gathered in Muzdalifa, for the stoning at the Jamarāt, followed by the sacrifice marking the end of the Hajj and the beginning of ʿĪd.}

Assuredly your Lord is ever watchful.

This means: the path of every person leads to Him. He will then reward them for their deeds and they will either be saved or otherwise. And He [elsewhere] says that He will position a patrol (raṣad) of angels with ⸢hooks (kalālīb) and⸣^{1Added on the basis of Z515, f. 133a, F638, f. 65b and F3488, f. 316a.} pikes (ḥasak) on the Traverse over Hell (jisr jahannam), who will question people concerning the religious obligations (farāʾiḍ).^{2By jisr jahannam is meant the Traverse (ṣīrāt), discussed above in p. 135, n. 1. The word jisr is used for the Traverse in Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, ‘Kitāb al-Tawḥīd’, and in Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ, ‘Kitāb al-Īmān’.}

And as for man, whenever his Lord tries him with honour and blessings, he says, ‘My Lord has honoured me.’

He said:

This means, there will be among the believers one who, when his Lord tests him with blessings, says, ‘My Lord has honoured me in the abundance (saʿa) and provision (rizq) that He has given me.’ However, this is really a way of leaving him to degenerate further (istidrāj), and a source of delusion (ightirār).^{1In other words, this person interprets the abundance and provision as being God’s indication of his deserving it in some way. On istidrāj, again see references given on p. 278, n. 8.} Indeed, Ḥasan رضي الله عنه once said, ‘The servant remains in a good state as long as he is aware of that which corrupts his works. Among them [God’s servants] is he whose [action] is made to appear beautiful to him, and among them is he who has been dominated by lust (shahwa).

But when He tests him and restricts His provision for him…

That is, He stints (qatara) His provision for him, …he says, ‘My Lord has humiliated me’ through poverty (faqr). But God says:

‘Not so!’…

‘I did not try him with wealth to honour him (karāma), nor did I try him with poverty to make him despicable to Me (hawān)’.^{1Thus the blessing (niʿma) can be a form of makr from God, especially if one sees oneself as having deserved it, or being honoured by it. On makr see above p. 20, n. 47.}

It has been related that Fatḥ al-Mawṣilī, who was fasting on returning home to his family after the night prayer, said: ‘Give me some supper.’ They answered that they did not have anything to give him for supper. He asked, ‘Why are you sitting in the dark?’ They replied, ‘We don’t have any oil with which to light the lamp.’

He said:

Then he wept for joy and continued to do so until morning saying, ‘O God! Does someone like me get left without supper and without light? O Master, which of my hands was responsible for this?’^{2Cited in Bayhaqī, Shuʿab al-īmān, vol. 7, p. 230. See above the commentary on 29:1, 2, and 37:106, where Tustarī speaks of the benefits of suffering and privation. Overall, there appear to be two lessons in this tradition, one positive and one negative. The positive lesson is about the blessing of deprivation, which we have seen explained several times, while the negative lesson may be a warning about attributing blessings to one’s own actions.}

His words, Exalted is He:

O soul at peace!

He said:

This speech addresses the spiritual self (nafs al-rūḥ), through which the natural self has its life, at peace is [its] affirming God’s reward and His punishment.

Return to your Lord, pleased and pleasing.

by way of the Hereafter, pleased with God through God, pleasing, due to its tranquil repose (sukūn) in God, Mighty and Majestic is He.

Then enter among My servants.

That is, among the company of My friends (awliyāʾ), who are My servants in truth (ḥaqqan).

And enter My paradise.

Sahl said:

Paradise is actually two paradises. One of them is the Garden itself, and the other is life with Life itself (ḥayāt bi-ḥayāt) and permanent subsistence with Permanent Subsistence itself. Similarly it has been related in a report that the angels say to those solely devoted to Him (munfaridūn) on the Day of Resurrection, ‘Proceed to your resting places in Paradise’,^{1The word manāzil, translated here as ‘resting places’, also has the meaning of rank, station or stopping place.} to which they say, ‘What is Paradise to us when we have devoted ourselves solely to [Him] because of a special understanding (maʿnā) which has been [granted] to us from Him? We do not want anything save Him — that is the only good life (ḥayāt ṭayyiba).’ And God knows best.