Al-Qadr · Makki · ayah 5 of 5

Al-Qadr 97:5

سَلَـٰمٌ هِىَ حَتَّىٰ مَطْلَعِ ٱلْفَجْرِ

“Peace it is[1956] until the emergence of dawn.”

Saheeh International

Essence

For one night heaven greets you with peace until the light breaks through, and the one thing you are taught to ask is to be erased clean.

A reflection

A night that is nothing but peace

On her first morning in a new job, a young woman is met at the door by the founder of the company. He knows her name. He shakes her hand and says, 'We're glad you're here.' Twenty years later, running her own firm, she still tells the story. One greeting from the right person, at the right moment, carried her through years of hard days.

The ayah does not say 'there is peace in it'. It says salāmun hiya: 'peace, it is'. The word 'peace' is placed first, and the sources note what that does. It narrows the meaning: the night is nothing but peace. And the ayah uses the noun rather than an adjective, as if the night were not merely peaceful but peace itself.

The sources gather several meanings under that one word, and they belong together. It is safety: a night whole and sound, in which only good is sent down. It is protection: a night in which the devil cannot work his harm, as one early authority put it. And it is greeting. From sunset to dawn, the angels pass among the believers and say 'peace be upon you', so many times that the whole night becomes a greeting.

The first hearers knew the weight of that word. Before Islam, salām ʿalaykum already meant: I come in peace; there is no war between us. To be greeted with salām by the angels of heaven is to be told that heaven is not at war with you.

One commentator points to an earlier greeting. The angels who visited Ibrāhīm (as) came in and said salāman, 'peace' (51:25). Ibrāhīm, he says, was gladder of that greeting than he would have been of the kingdom of the world. Ibrāhīm served those guests a roasted calf. What the guests of this night want from us, the same commentator adds, is a heart that has been through the fire: softened, and turned back to its Lord.

If a single human greeting at the door can carry someone for twenty years, what could a night of greetings from heaven do for a heart that is willing to receive it?

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.