Al-Falaq الفلق

Say - I hold onto the Lord of the Falaq

First, let's start with the first verse and the word "Falaq," which comes from the root Fā Lām Qāf and is used for:

- a cleft in a mountain (a mountain pass)

- fragments of a bowl

- splitting something open

- to cleave through

The central meaning is to split a solid, hard object in a way that reaches its depth. (Mu'jam al Ishtiqaqi)

"Falaq" is commonly taken to mean the morning because to the viewer, morning light seems to split through the darkness of the night. It is as if the morning light cleaves through the darkness of the night and then takes all over it. In this Surah's context, "Falaq" means the power to destroy as we will see. When you cleave through something, you destroy it. For now, we can conclude from the root that "Falaq" refers to cleaving and penetrating through something, no matter how solid and rigid it is, reaching its very depth and shattering it into pieces.

The word Rabb translated as Lord has root meanings of love, caretaking, looking after and nurturing. It comes from the root letters Ra Ba Ba which was originally used for a thick drink made by heavily filtering fruit juice so that only the most pure and thickest part remained; as well as for upbringing children. The root meaning is to make something weak strong and firm (Mu'jam al Ishtiqaqi). The thin juice was turned into something thick and solid. Parents upbring their children which is to say that they look after them when they are weak in their childhood until they become strong and adults.

So it invokes the name of God that denotes the love, care and kindness of God. This comes together perfectly with the word Awz which is translated as "hold onto". Awz comes from the root Ein Waw Dhaal which was originally used for

• Meat clinging to the bone
• Grass that grew at the base of a rock which prevented the animals from grazing on it.

The root meaning is for something weak and tender to to hold onto to something solid and strong. (Mu'jam al Ishtiqaqi)

In the above two examples, soft meat is clinging to the bone and the soft grass is being protected by the strong and hard rock which prevents the animals from consuming it.

You can see how the two root meanings of the words Rabb and Awz come together. Rabb means to make a weak object strong and solid while Awz means for a weak and tender object to cling to something solid and strong for protection.

So the weak and helpless human being is being told to hold onto his strong and capable Master who is capable of protecting him. Holding onto Allah does not simply mean saying these words, it also means obeying Allah. When you cling and hold onto Allah, it means you hold onto his words, and Allah Himself. You hold onto to his commandments, His book and His ordinances. When you do that, the human being - originally weak and incapable, will become strong and capable.

The word Falaq then specifies how Allah is Rabb. He is the Lord of Falaq. The Master who has the power to break apart and shatter anything. Anything harming us, anything of danger to us, He has the power to cleave through it and break it into pieces. Falaq was most commonly used for the morning. Just as the morning light cleaves through and takes over the darkness of the night, so can the Lord and Master of Falaq, cleave through all the darkness in our own lives and turn it into light.. Darkness inplies danger, evil and grief. He can turn the darkness into light. He can turn grief into joy, he can shatter the danger facing us give us joy.