This surah and the 114th (and last) surah in the Qur'an, an-Nās, are collectively referred to as al-Mu'awwidhatayn "the Refuges", as both begin with "I seek refuge", an-Nās tells to seek God for refuge from the evil from within, while al-Falaq tells to seek God for refuge from the evil from outside, so reading both of them would protect a person from his own mischief and the mischief of others.

Regarding the timing and contextual background of the believed revelation (asbāb al-nuzūl), it is an earlier "Meccan surah", which indicates a revelation in Mecca as opposed to Medina. Early Muslims were persecuted in Mecca where Muhammed was not a leader, and not persecuted in Medina, where he was a protected leader.

The word "al-Falaq" in the first verse, a generic term referring to the process of 'splitting', has been restricted in most translations to one particular type of splitting, namely 'daybreak' or 'dawn'.[10]

Verse 4 refers to one of soothsayer techniques to partially tie a knot, utter a curse and spit into the knot and pull it tight. In the pre-Islamic period, soothsayers claimed the power to cause various illnesses. According to soothsayers the knot had to be found and untied before the curse could be lifted. This practice is condemned in verse 4.[11]