Al-Layl الليل

Makki · 21 ayat · 21 with pondering

• Ayah 1Every evening a covering you never ordered comes down over everything, sky to doorstep, slowly and completely, and nothing you own can lift it.
• Ayah 2When the day is unveiled, what the dark was hiding stands in plain view, and only its Maker decides when that unveiling comes.
• Ayah 3The oaths come down from the sky to the self: by the One who made male and female before you could choose anything.
• Ayah 4Like night and day, like male and female, your efforts run so far apart that they cannot possibly end in the same place.
• Ayah 5The first road begins with an open hand and a guarded heart, and the gift is left unnamed so that nothing good is excluded.
• Ayah 6Behind every open hand stands a confirmed belief: that the best is real, and that nothing given for Him is ever lost.
• Ayah 7Give, guard and confirm, and Allah saddles you for the road: the good that once took effort becomes the way you naturally move.
• Ayah 8The second road begins with a closing hand and a heart that tells itself a lie: that it needs no one, not even its Lord.
• Ayah 9Under the closed hand lies a quiet verdict on the future: that the best is not real, and nothing given will ever come back.
• Ayah 10The same easing that smooths the giver's road smooths this one too, but this road runs downhill, and every step makes the next one easier.
• Ayah 11Everything the withholder saved stays on the ledge; when he goes over the edge, not one coin of it can stand in for him.
• Ayah 12After the two roads, one sentence of certainty: making the way plain is Allah's own undertaking, and the road of guidance leads to Him.
• Ayah 13Both worlds already belong to Allah, so everything you are chasing in either belongs to Someone you may not yet have asked.
• Ayah 14After both roads, Allah speaks directly: I have warned you of a fire that keeps flaring, so that nobody can say they were not told.
• Ayah 15The blazing fire is described by who ends up held inside it: the most wretched, whose lifetime of effort was toil that led nowhere.
• Ayah 16Two verbs name the whole tragedy: the heart calls the truth a lie, and then the body turns its back and walks away.
• Ayah 17The one who spent his life stepping aside from harm will himself be set aside from the Fire, kept at a distance by Another.
• Ayah 18He gives his wealth away to grow clean and to grow tall: the one transaction where what leaves your hand is what makes you richer.
• Ayah 19He gives to people who never did him a favour, so no one can call it repayment: a gift with no invoice behind it.
• Ayah 20Strip away every other motive and one remains: he wanted the face of his Lord, the Most High, and no applause could compete.
• Ayah 21The surah that opened in covering darkness closes in contentment: the one who wanted nothing from anyone will be given until he is well pleased.