51:17 Adh-Dhaariyat (The Winnowing Winds)

{ كَانُوا } أي: المحسنون { قَلِيلًا مِنَ اللَّيْلِ مَا يَهْجَعُونَ } أي: كان هجوعهم أي: نومهم بالليل، قليلاً، وأما أكثر الليل، فإنهم قانتون لربهم، ما بين صلاة، وقراءة، وذكر، ودعاء، وتضرع.

اختلف المفسرون في ذلك على قولين أحدهما أن ما نافية تقديره كانوا قليلا من الليل لا يهجعونه قال ابن عباس رضي الله عنهما لم تكن تمضي عليهم ليلة إلا يأخذون منها ولو شيئا وقال قتادة عن مطرف بن عبدالله قل ليلة لا تأتي عليهم إلا يصلون فيها لله عز وجل إما من أولها وإما من أوسطها وقال مجاهد قل ما يرقدون ليلة حتى الصباح يتهجدون وكذا قال قتادة وقال أنس بن مالك رضي الله عنه وأبو العالية كانوا يصلون بين المغرب والعشاء. وقال أبو جعفر الباقر كانوا لا ينامون حتى يصلوا العتمة والقول الثاني أن ما مصدرية تقديره كانوا قليلا من الليل هجوعهم ونومهم واختاره ابن جرير وقال الحسن البصري "كانوا قليلا من الليل ما يهجعون" كابدوا قيام الليل فلا ينامون من الليل إلا أقله ونشطوا فمدوا إلى السحر حتى كان الاستغفار بسحر وقال قتادة قال الأحنف بن قيس "كانوا قليلا من الليل ما يهجعون" كانوا لا ينامون إلا قليلا ثم يقول لست من أهل هذه الآية. وقال الحسن البصري كان الأحنف بن قيس يقول عرضت عملي على عمل أهل الجنة فإذا قوم قد باينونا بونا بعيدا إذا قوم لا نبلغ أعمالهم كانوا قليلا من الليل ما يهجعون وعرضت عملي علي عمل أهل النار فإذا قوم لا خير فيهم مكذبون بكتاب الله وبرسل الله مكذبون بالبعث بعد الموت فقد وجدت من خيرنا منزلة قوما خلطوا عملا صالحا وآخر سيئا. وقال عبدالرحمن بن زيد بن أسلم قال رجل من بني تميم لأبي: يا أبا أسامة صفة لا أجدها فينا ذكر الله تعالى قوما فقال "كانوا قليلا من الليل ما يهجعون" ونحن والله قليلا من الليل ما نقوم فقال له أبي رضي الله عنه طوبى لمن رقد إذا نعس واتقى الله إذا استيقظ. وقال عبدالله بن سلام رضي الله عنه لما قدم رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم المدينة انجفل الناس إليه فكنت فيمن أنجفل فلما رأيت وجهه صلى الله عليه وسلم عرفت أن وجهه ليس بوجه رجل كذاب فكان أول ما سمعته صلى الله عليه وسلم يقول "يا أيها الناس أطعموا الطعام وصلوا الأرحام وأفشوا السلام وصلوا بالليل والناس نيام تدخلوا الجنة بسلام". وقال الإمام أحمد حدثنا حسن بن موسى حدثنا ابن لهيعة حدثني يحيى بن عبدالله عن أبي عبدالرحمن الحبلي عن عبدالله بن عمر رضي الله عنهما قال: إن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم قال "إن في الجنة غرفا يرى ظاهرها من باطنها وباطنها من ظاهرها" فقال أبو موسى الأشعري رضي الله عنه لمن هي يا رسول الله؟ قال صلى الله عليه وسلم "لمن ألان الكلام وأطعم الطعام وبات لله قائما والناس نيام" وقال معمر في قوله تعالى "كانوا قليلا من الليل ما يهجعون" كان الزهري والحسن يقولان كانوا كثيرا من الليل ما يصلون وقال ابن عباس رضي الله عنهما وإبراهيم النخعي "كانوا قليلا من الليل ما يهجعون" ما ينامون وقال الضحاك "إنهم كانوا قبل ذلك محسنين كانوا قليلا" ثم ابتدأ فقال "من الليل ما يهجعون وبالأسحار هم يستغفرون" وهذا القول فيه بعد وتعسف.

Qualities of Those Who have Taqwa and Their Reward

Allah the Exalted informs about those who have Taqwa, that on the Day of their Return they will be amidst gardens and springs. To the contrary the miserable ones will be amidst torment, punishment, fire and chains. Allah said,

ءَاخِذِينَ مَآ ءَاتَـهُمْ رَبُّهُمْ

(Taking joy in the things which their Lord has given them.) His statement;

ءَاخِذِينَ

(Taking) describes the state of the people of Taqwa in the midst of gardens and springs. They will receive what their Lord gives them, meaning, delight, happiness and favors. Allah the Exalted and Most Honored said,

إِنَّهُمْ كَانُواْ قَبْلَ ذَلِكَ

(Verily, they were before that), in the life of the world,

مُحْسِنِينَ

(gooddoers) As He said:

كُلُواْ وَاشْرَبُواْ هَنِيئَاً بِمَآ أَسْلَفْتُمْ فِى الاٌّيَّامِ الْخَالِيَةِ

(Eat and drink at ease for that which you have sent on before you in days past!)(69:24) Allah the Exalted described the good acts that they performed,

كَانُواْ قَلِيلاً مِّن الَّيْلِ مَا يَهْجَعُونَ

(They used to sleep but little at night.) The scholars of Tafsir have two opinions about this:

The First Opinion

The first is that, they used to spend a little part of every night awake. Ibn `Abbas said, "Every night, they would worship Allah, even during a little part of the night." Qatadah narrated that Mutarrif bin `Abdullah said, "Hardly a night would pass by them that they did not pray to Allah the Exalted and Most Honored, either in the beginning, or the middle of it." Mujahid said, "Only a few nights, if any, would they sleep through the night until the morning without praying Tahajjud." Qatadah said similarly. Anas bin Malik and Abu Al-`Aliyah said, "They used to pray between Al-Maghrib and Al-`Isha'." The Second Opinion They used to spend a little part of the night in sleep. This was preferred by Ibn Jarir. Al-Hasan Al-Basri said:

كَانُواْ قَلِيلاً مِّن الَّيْلِ مَا يَهْجَعُونَ

(They used to sleep but little by night), "They performed voluntary night prayer and would not sleep during the night except a little. They were active and would continue until they were seeking forgiveness right before dawn." `Abdullah bin Salam said, "When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ arrived at Al-Madinah, people quickly gathered around him and I was among them. When I saw his face, I knew that it was not the face of a liar. The first statement I heard from him was,

«يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ أَطْعِمُوا الطَّعَامَ، وَصِلُوا الْأَرْحَامَ، وَأَفْشُوا السَّلَامَ، وَصَلُّوا بِاللَّيْلِ وَالنَّاسُ نِيَامٌ، تَدْخُلُوا الْجَنَّةَ بِسَلَام»

(O people! Feed with food, keep relations to kith and kin, spread the Salam, pray at night while people are asleep, and you will enter Paradise in peace.)" Imam Ahmad recorded that `Abdullah bin `Umar said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said,

«إِنَّ فِي الْجَنَّةِ غُرَفًا يُرَى ظَاهِرُهَا مِنْ بَاطِنِهَا وَبَاطِنُهَا مِنْ ظَاهِرِهَا»

(Verily, there are lofty rooms in Paradise in which their outside can be seen from inside and their inside from the outside.) Abu Musa Al-Ash`ari said, "Who are they for, O Allah's Messenger" He said,

«لِمَنْ أَلَانَ الْكَلَامَ، وَأَطْعَمَ الطَّعَامَ، وَبَاتَ للهِ قَائِمًا وَالنَّاسُ نِيَام»

(For those who use soft speech, feed food and spend the night in voluntary prayer while people are asleep.) Allah said:

وَبِالاٌّسْحَـرِ هُمْ يَسْتَغْفِرُونَ

(And in the hours before dawn, they were asking for forgiveness.) Mujahid and several others said: "They were performing Salah." Others said that they would stand in prayer during the night and delayed asking Allah for forgiveness until the latter hours before dawn. As Allah, the Exalted the Blessed, said;

وَالْمُسْتَغْفِرِينَ بِالاٌّسْحَارِ

(And those who seek forgiveness during the last hours of the night.)(3:17); This is because it is better if asking for forgiveness is done while praying. It is confirmed in the Sahih collections as well as others, from several Companions, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said,

«إِنَّ اللهَ تَعَالَى يَنْزِلُ كُلَّ لَيْلَةٍ إِلَى سَمَاءِ الدُّنْيَا حِينَ يَبْقَى ثُلُثُ اللَّيْلِ الْأَخِيرُ، فَيَقُولُ: هَلْ مِنْ تَائِبٍ فَأَتُوبَ عَلَيْهِ. هَلْ مِنْ مُسْتَغْفِرٍ فَأَغْفِرَ لَهُ. هَلْ مِنْ سَائِلٍ فَيُعْطَى سُؤْلَهُ؟ حَتْى يَطْلُعَ الْفَجْر»

(Allah, the Most High, descends each night to the lowest heaven when the last third of the night remains. He says, "Is there anyone who is repenting so that I may accept his repentance Is there anyone seeking forgiveness, so that I may forgive him Is there anyone asking of Me, so that I may grant him his request" until Fajr begins.) Many of the scholars of Tafsir said that when the Prophet Ya`qub said to his sons:

سَوْفَ أَسْتَغْفِرُ لَكُمْ رَبِّى

(I will ask my Lord for forgiveness for you)(12:98), he delayed doing so until the hours before dawn. Allah the Exalted and Most Honored said,

وَفِى أَمْوَلِهِمْ حَقٌّ لَّلسَّآئِلِ وَالْمَحْرُومِ

(And in their wealth there was the right of the Sa'il and the Mahrum.) After Allah mentioned their quality of performing prayer, He then mentioned their quality of spending in charity and acts of compassion and kindness,

وَفِى أَمْوَلِهِمْ حَقٌّ

(And in their wealth there was the right), a designated part which they dedicated to the Sa'il and Mahrum. The Sa'il is the poor who begs others, and he has a due right. As for the Mahrum, Ibn `Abbas and Mujahid said, "He is the poor person who does not receive a stipend." Meaning he does not receive a stipend from the Muslim treasury, nor does he have a means of income, nor a profession. The Mother of the faithful, `A'ishah may Allah be pleased with her, said about the Mahrum, "He is the displaced, the one who does not have a profession to easily earn an income from." Qatadah and Az-Zuhri: "The Mahrum is the one who does not ask the people for anything." Az-Zuhri added that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said,

«لَيْسَ الْمِسْكِينُ بِالطَّوَّافِ الَّذِي تَرُدُّهُ اللُّقْمَةُ وَاللُّقْمَتَانِ وَالتَّمْرَةُ وَالتَّمْرَتَانِ، وَلكِنِ الْمِسْكِينُ الَّذِي لَا يَجِدُ غِنًى يُغْنِيهِ وَلَا يُفْطَنُ لَهُ فَيُتَصَدَّقَ عَلَيْه»

(The poor (Miskin) is not the one who goes round to the people and asks them for a mouthful or two or a date or two. But the poor is the one who does not have enough to satisfy his needs and whose condition is not known to others, so that others may give him something in charity.) This Hadith is recorded in the Two Sahihs using another chain of narration.

Allah's Signs on the Earth and in Mankind

Allah the Exalted and the Blessed said next,

وَفِى الاٌّرْضِ ءَايَـتٌ لِّلْمُوقِنِينَ

(And on the earth are signs for those who have faith with certainty.) Allah says that there are signs on earth that testify to the might of the Creator and His boundless ability. These signs include what Allah placed on the earth, the various plants, animals, valleys, mountains, deserts, rivers and oceans. He also created mankind with different languages, colors, intentions and abilities, and a variety among them, differences in the power of understanding and comprehension, their deeds, and ultimately earning happiness or misery. Allah put every organ in their bodies in its rightful place where they most need it to be. So He said؛

وَفِى أَنفُسِكُمْ أَفَلاَ تُبْصِرُونَ

(And also in yourselves. Will you not then see) Qatadah commented, "He who thinks about his own creation will realize that he was created with flexible joints so that it is easy for him to perform acts of worship." Allah the Exalted said next,

وَفِى السَّمَآءِ رِزْقُكُمْ

(And in the heaven is your provision,) meaning, rain,

وَمَا تُوعَدُونَ

(and that which you are promised.) meaning Paradise. This was said by Ibn `Abbas, Mujahid and several others. Allah said:

فَوَرَبِّ السَّمَآءِ وَالاٌّرْضِ إِنَّهُ لَحَقٌّ مِّثْلَ مَآ أَنَّكُمْ تَنطِقُونَ

(Then by the Lord of the heaven and the earth, it is the truth, just as you can speak.) Allah is swearing by His honorable Self, all of the matters of the Judgement, Resurrection, and Recompense that they have been promised shall certainly occur. Therefore, it is the truth, there being no doubt about it, so do not doubt its coming, just as you do not doubt that you can speak When he would talk to one of his friends, Mu`adh used to say: "What I am saying is as true as your being here."

Little of the night did they use to sleep mā is extra; yahja‘ūna is the predicate of kānū; qalīlan ‘little’ is an adverb in other words they used to sleep for a small portion of the night and perform prayers during most of it

Remaining Awake at Night for Voluntary Prayers

كَانُوا قَلِيلًا مِّنَ اللَّيْلِ مَا يَهْجَعُونَ (They used to sleep little in the night,... 51:17). The imperfect verb yahja` un is derived from the infinitive huju' which means to sleep at night. The verse describes the quality of the righteous believers is that they spend their nights in voluntary worship of Allah. They sleep little at night and remain awake during the greater part of it. Ibn Jarir preferred this interpretation. Sayyidna Hasan Basri (رح) said: "The righteous perform voluntary night prayers, and do not sleep during the night except a little." Sayyidna Ibn ` Abbas ؓ ، Qatadah, Mujahid (رح) and other leading scholars of Tafsir have taken the particle ma in the sense of negation, that is, grammatically they treat it as ma nafiyah or negative particle, meaning they spend a little part of every night awake, and not sleeping. They would worship Allah and perform voluntary prayers every night, even during a small part of the night. From this point of view, it includes all those people who pray to Allah during any part of the night - whether in the beginning, or in the middle, or at the end of it. Therefore, Sayyidna Anas Ibn Malik ؓ and ` Abul-` Aliyah said: "They used to pray between Maghrib and ` Isha'." Imam Abu Ja'far Baqir said that this includes those people who do not sleep before ` Isha' prayer (Ibn Kathir).

Hasan Basri (رح) reports from Ahnaf Ibn Qais who used to say: "When I compared my deeds with those of the inmates of Paradise, I found that they are a people who occupy a very high, lofty and elevated status; and they are a people whose deeds are incomparable and our deeds cannot match theirs, because they sleep little at nights and worship much. When I compared my deeds with those of the inmates of Hell, I found that they give the lie to Allah and His Holy Prophet ﷺ and are sceptical about the Hereafter [ from which Allah has protected us ]. Therefore, in comparison, our deeds match neither with those of the real inmates of Paradise, nor [ praise be to Allah ] with those of the inmates of Hell. Thus we learn that from the viewpoint of action, our position is what the Qur'an describes: ۔ خَلَطُوا عَمَلًا صَالِحًا وَآخَرَ‌ سَيِّئًا '...(They had mixed a good deed with another that was evil. - 9:102) Thus the best person amongst us is the one who would at least remain within the boundaries of this class of people."

` Abd-ur-rahman Ibn Zaid Ibn Aslam says that a member of the tribe Banu Tamim said to my father: "0 Abu 'Usamah, we do not find that quality in us which Allah mentions in describing the righteous, that is, كَانُوا قَلِيلًا مِّنَ اللَّيْلِ مَا يَهْجَعُونَ. They used to sleep little in the night," because our position is quite the contrary: قَلِیلاً مَّنَ الَّیلِ مَا نَقُومُ ' We are very little awake at night to worship Allah'. My father replied:

طوبی لمن رقد اذا نعس و اتقی اللہ اذا استیقَظ

'Good tidings for him who sleeps away when he feels sleepy and exercises righteousness when he is awake, that is, does not do any work that is contrary to Shari` ah.'"

In other words, acceptance in the sight of Allah is not necessarily restricted to protracted waking hours at night for worship. If a person is impelled to sleep, and does not remain awake for long, but abstains from any sinful activities when awake, he is also worthy of felicitation.

` Abdullah Ibn Salam ؓ reports from the Holy Prophet ﷺ who said:

یٰٓاَیُّھَا النَّاس اَطعِموا الطَّعَامَ وَ صِلُوا الاَرحَامَ وَ افشُوا السَّلامَ وَ صَلُّوا بِالَّیلِ وَ اَلنَّاسُ نِیَامُ تَدخُلُوا الجَنَّۃَ بِسَلاَمِ ۔ (ابن کثیر)

"0 people, feed people, do good to kith and kin, greet each other with salam, pray at night while people are asleep, and you will enter Paradise in peace." (Ibn Kathir)