"Say, 'I seek refuge in the Lord of the daybreak from the evil of what He has created, from the evil of darkness when it enshrouds, from the evil of those who blow upon knots, and from the evil of the envier when he envies.'"
Quran 113:1-5
Here is the entirety of the 113th surah, al-Falaq, here rendered as "The Daybreak," which it seems I probably wrote on before but not according to my notes. As you would expect since it's the 113th our of 114 total surahs it's very short. It is linked to the final surah, and they both are, or were anyway, a little controversial. Initially the thought among some followers was that maybe they weren't actually meant to be part of the Quran at all (which would have left it at 112 surahs). We are told that someone even asked the Prophet if they belonged with the rest of the Quran and he replied, "They have been revealed to me, and I have recited them [as a part of the Quran]."
In his commentary Nasr tells us: "Among those who maintain that Surahs 113 and 114 are Makkan (Meccan), many say they were revealed in relation to an incident in which the Prophet was stricken with an illness as a result of a spell put upon him by a sorceress, a practitioner of black magic. The Archangel Gabriel is said to have told him the location of a knotted string upon which the sorceress had whispered her spell , and then revealed these two surahs as a means of undoing the spell. The Prophet sent Ali ibn Abi Talib to obtain the string and whisper over it these fourteen verses, which would undo the fourteen-knot spell. Together, the two surahs are known as al-Mu'awwadhatan, 'The Two Protectors,' and are used by Muslims to this day for protection from many evils, including the evil eye and the casting of spells." You can imagine why the Prophet's followers, doubtlessly gently, asked him if 113 and 114 belonged with the rest of the Quran.
In previous blog posts I've proposed that religions are like spongers, and tend to absorb all sorts of things as they evolve, some of them being superstitious. It doesn't make the core of the prophetic message any less valid, but I do think it is something to keep in mind.
Quran 113:1-5
Here is the entirety of the 113th surah, al-Falaq, here rendered as "The Daybreak," which it seems I probably wrote on before but not according to my notes. As you would expect since it's the 113th our of 114 total surahs it's very short. It is linked to the final surah, and they both are, or were anyway, a little controversial. Initially the thought among some followers was that maybe they weren't actually meant to be part of the Quran at all (which would have left it at 112 surahs). We are told that someone even asked the Prophet if they belonged with the rest of the Quran and he replied, "They have been revealed to me, and I have recited them [as a part of the Quran]."
In his commentary Nasr tells us: "Among those who maintain that Surahs 113 and 114 are Makkan (Meccan), many say they were revealed in relation to an incident in which the Prophet was stricken with an illness as a result of a spell put upon him by a sorceress, a practitioner of black magic. The Archangel Gabriel is said to have told him the location of a knotted string upon which the sorceress had whispered her spell , and then revealed these two surahs as a means of undoing the spell. The Prophet sent Ali ibn Abi Talib to obtain the string and whisper over it these fourteen verses, which would undo the fourteen-knot spell. Together, the two surahs are known as al-Mu'awwadhatan, 'The Two Protectors,' and are used by Muslims to this day for protection from many evils, including the evil eye and the casting of spells." You can imagine why the Prophet's followers, doubtlessly gently, asked him if 113 and 114 belonged with the rest of the Quran.
In previous blog posts I've proposed that religions are like spongers, and tend to absorb all sorts of things as they evolve, some of them being superstitious. It doesn't make the core of the prophetic message any less valid, but I do think it is something to keep in mind.
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