This quick talk summarises my understanding – and the reasons for it – of the oath we find in the Qur'an citing "the ten nights and the even and the odd" at 89:1-5.
See below for notes.
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The Traditionalist has some stories he prefers here rather than to apply himself to the Qur’an. I am not interested in his stories and limit myself to the Qur’an, Arabic, real history, and the use of reason.
This oath presented at 89:5 is a challenge to think – one which clearly indicates for whom it is intended; so let us presume to apply intelligence.
Good example of the pan-textual process which typifies the method behind The Qur’an: A Complete Revelation. It also demonstrates a core doctrine for me.
By the dawn
And ten nights
And the even
And the odd
This form (i.e. the plural form of night: layāl) occurs only four times (19:10, 34:18, 69:7 and here at 89:2).
At 19:10 it says ‘Thy proof is that thou shalt not speak to men three nights being sound’.
At 69:7 it says: ‘Which he made serviceable against them for seven nights[...]’.
If we take the three nights of 19:10 and the seven nights of 69:7 we have the ten nights of 89:2.
The verse at 34:18 has no mention of number and simply states nights, and itself serves to connect this part of the riddle with the next (see note on travel by night to 89:4 below).
And the night when he departs!
Is there not in that an oath for one of intelligence?
This form I verb means to travel by night or depart by night.
The instances where travelling or departing at night are portrayed in the Qur’an by means of this verb in this form all treat of destruction for the rejecters:
• 11:81, 15:65 (Lūṭ leaving his city prior to destruction)
• 20:77, 26:52, 44:23 (Mūsā crossing water prior to the destruction of Firʿawn)
• and 34:18 (the people of Saba' allowed the chance to travel by day and night prior to their destruction).
Thus, there are total of six instances (even number) treating of a total of three scenarios (odd number).
This is, I believe, the meaning of this oath.
It also draws the attention to the method by which God overthrows tyranny; a method about which I bang on on this channel. The idea of creating a caliphate etc was invented later. The word caliphate occurs nowhere in the Qur’an.
The method is:
• A man warns the elite
• The elite (usually) reject
• The society is destroyed by an act of God
The narrative then picks up at 89:5-13 with reminders of stories which followed exactly this pattern:
Hast thou not considered how thy lord dealt with ʿĀd
Iram of the pillars
The like of which had not been created in the lands
And Thamūd who cut the rocks in the valley
And Firʿawn, Lord of Stakes:
Those who transgressed all bounds in the lands
And increased corruption therein
So thy lord poured out upon them the scourge of punishment?
