Surat An-Nass (114): Part 2 of the Pair of Protection

As explained in the previous post, Surat An-Nass (114), which means “people,”  is one of two short Surahs (chapters) of protection, the other being Surat Al-Falaq (113), a prayer for protection from “outer” dangers, explained in the post linked above. This, the final Surah of the Quran, is a du’a or prayer/ supplication for protection from inner dangers, from that which could get to our very hearts, feeding us lies that confuse us about the truth. Once deluded, our inner compass, our intuitive sense of truth and falsehood, loses its direction and we become lost. We might even become passionately lost, inverting real ethics by refusing to listen to any truth and looking at Good itself as bad, until what is harmful to us and leads to our total destruction becomes, we insist despite obvious illogic, the true Good. The Quran, in Surat Fatir 35:8, asks the question, “Then is the one to whom the evil of his deed has been made attractive so he considers it good [like one rightly guided]?”

Surat Al-Falaq (113) and Surat Al-Nass (114): Total Protection, Part 1 (113)

Surah 113 Al-Falaq

The final pair of Surahs in the Quran are Surat Al-Falaq (113) and Surat An-Nass (114), often called “Al-Mu’awwidhatan” or the “two of refuge,” are considered the best du’a or supplications to ask Allah for protection against any sort of harm or danger.

They are closely aligned in a number of ways: both begin with the same words “qul ‘authu b’rabb” which means “Say: I seek refuge with the Lord” and then diverge in the description of the Lord of —what— at which point Surah 113 uses the phrase “Lord of Al-Falaq” (often translated “daybreak” but can have the more general meaning of “separating/ cleaving”), and Surah 114 uses the expression “Lord of An-Nass” (people). They follow right after Surat Al-Ikhlas (112) discussed here, which named Allah One and Al-Samad or “Indivisible” (in the absolute sense). So here we have a connecting thread of meaning from Surah 112 in the sense of “separating”: Allah who is never “divided” or “separated” in any sense whatsoever here is invoked as the Lord of “dividing/ separating” in the Surah that immediately follows it! Thus it forms a connection between 112 and 113. Because Allah is the only One entirely Indivisible, He is therefore the only true “Lord of Dividing,” as He created everything, and in the process of creation, divides His creation into the unimaginable multiplicity of things from quasars and stars and planets to microscopic creatures.