al-Zulumāt has been used in two senses:
1. The term al-Zulumāt (darknesses) is used in the sense of various terrors or dreadful states, as in the following verses:
Say, "Who rescues you from the zulumāt of the land and sea (that is, the dreadful states of the land and sea)?" (al-Anʿām 6:63)
Or, who guides you through the zulumāt of the land and sea (that is, the dreadful states of the land and sea)? (al-Naml 27:63)
2. al-Zulumāt also means stages or phases, as in the following verses:
He creates you in the wombs of your mothers, creation after creation, within three zulumāt (that is, the phases of the abdomen, the womb, and the placenta). (al-Zumar 39:6)
{Yūnus} called out within the zulumāt (that is, the darkness of the night, the darkness of the sea, and the darkness inside the belly of the fish): "There is no deity except You; exalted are You..." (al-Anbiyāʾ 21:87)
The deeds of another group of the disbelievers are like zulumāt in a deep sea (.....) such zulumāt that,
one above another... (al-Nūr 24:40)
By this, the disbelievers are meant: that is, a dark qalb (the heart) within a dark chest within a dark body.