Tafseer of The Splitting Open · Al-Inshiqaaq · 84:16
So I swear by the twilight glow
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
Explanation of the saying of the Exalted: فَلا أُقْسِمُ بِالشَّفَقِ (Nay, I swear by the twilight glow) (84:16).
This is an oath: our Lord swore by the shafaq (the twilight glow). The shafaq is the red glow on the horizon on the western side, where the sun has set — according to the saying of some.
The exegetes have differed about this. Some said: it is the red glow, as we have said. Among those who said that was a group of the people of Iraq.
Others said: it is the day.
* Mention of who said that:
Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Aḥmasī related to me, saying: Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd related to us, saying: al-ʿAwwām ibn Ḥawshab related to us, saying: I said to Mujāhid: "the shafaq?" He said: "Do not say 'the shafaq', for the shafaq belongs to the sun; rather say: the red glow of the horizon."
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — both of them — on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning his saying "the shafaq", he said: the whole day.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid: فَلا أُقْسِمُ بِالشَّفَقِ (I swear by the shafaq), he said: the day.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid, the same.
Others said: the shafaq is a name for both the red glow and the whiteness; and they said: it belongs to the words with opposite meanings (al-aḍdād).
The correct saying about this, in my view, is that one says: Allah swore by the day when it retreats, and by the night when it comes on. As for the shafaq with which the time of the evening prayer (ṣalāt al-ʿishāʾ) begins: that, according to us, is the red glow, for the reason which we have set out in our work, the Book of Prayer (Kitāb al-Ṣalāh).
