Questioner: So in the Surah Al-Falaq, the verse (Arabic 0:04) seek protection against darkness of moon when it is eclipsed. What is the significance of moon eclipsed?
Huzoor: On this I have already given a Dars during the last Ramadan and the Ramadan prior to that. And it occupied about half an hour or more on this particular subject. So you can go through that cassette. The translation moon is not correct. Moon may be described as Ghasik.
But Ghasik doesn’t mean moon. Ghasik is something which has that phenomenon under which moon also falls. It has a general description which also befits moon partly. So some translators translated it as moon. But Ghasik doesn’t mean moon. Ghasik means something which may come at night in the darkness. And may also mean exactly the opposite of moon. Something which is growing in darkness, which is increasing in darkness. That is also Ghasik. And truly speaking, the first meaning should be this. Ghasik means when it has increased in darkness.
At that stage something is about to happen. When the night has deepened, then you begin to hope for the morning. You know that sort of thing. So Ghasik (Arabic 2:00) may also mean this. In this connotation, moon will not be one of the meanings of Ghasik. But when you consider Ghasik as night, when night comes, and the phenomenon attendant upon night begins to unfold, then because moon is also one of those phenomenon we observe, we can say that this is also moon. So it can be translated, I don’t deny that, but it is not the right or direct translation of Ghasik.
