Sūrat al-Layl (, “The Night”) is the ninety-second sūrah (chapter) of the Qur'an, containing twenty-one āyāt (verses). This sūrah is one of the first ten to be revealed in Mecca. It contrasts two types of people, the charitable and the miserly, and describes each of their characteristics. Summary 1-4 Oaths by various natural objects 5-13 The obedient blessed and the covetous accursed 14-16 The covetous warned with hell-fire 17-21 True believers shall be rewarded hereafter Date of the revelations Sūrah Al-Lail is a Meccan sura, and was among the first ten surahs to be revealed. Meccan surahs are chronologically earlier surahs that were revealed to the prophet Muhammad at Mecca before the hijrah to Medina in 622 CE. They are typically shorter, with relatively short ayat, and mostly come near the end of the Qur'an’s 114 sūwar. Most of the surahs containing muqatta'at are Meccan. According to Yusuf Ali, Al-Lail may be placed in the dating period close to Surat Al-Fajr and Ad-Dhuha (93). It is similar in subject matter to the chapter preceding it, Ash-Shams (91). Theme and subject matter The mufassirūn (Quranic commentators) note a similarity that in all of the aforementioned three suras the wonder and contrast between night and day are appealed to for the consolation of man in his spiritual yearning. According to an interpretation expounded on in the tafsīr (commentary) written by Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi (d. 1979) entitled Tafhim al-Qur'an, the primary theme of Surat al-Lail is distinguishing between two different ways of life and explaining the contrast between their ultimate ends and results. Sayyid Qutb (d. 1966), who was an Egyptian author, Islamist, and leading intellectual of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, surmised the overall theme of Surat Al-Lail in the introduction to his extensive Quranic commentary, Fi Zilal al-Qur'an (In the shades of the Qur'an) by saying: Within a framework of scenes taken from the universe and the realm of human nature, this surah states emphatically the basic facts of action and reward. This issue had diverse aspects… The end in the hereafter is also varied, according to the type of action and the direction taken in this life… The subject matter of the surah, i.e., action and reward, is by nature double directional, so the framework chosen for it at the beginning of the surah is of dual coloring. It is based on contrasting aspects in the creation of man and