Surah At-Tariq 86:1-17 - Quran Translation Commentary

1. Taraqa is to move about in the night, and hence tariq one who comes unexpectedly by night. Accordingly, the verb taraqa is for knocking, since in those days it was the night-comer who knocked at the door (Qurtubi and Rashid No`mani).

During the day the people would not knock, rather, called out the name of the master of the house at the door (Au.).

Hence, all stars are tariq since they appear only in the night (Shawkani).

The Prophet used the same word in the following hadith: نَهَى أَنْ يَطْرُقْ الرَّجُلُ أَهْلَهُ لَيْلاً “He forbid that a man knock at the door of his house unexpectedly at night” (Razi, Ibn Kathir).

Unexpected arrival is disapproved of because it does not allow women at home time to make themselves presentable to their husbands (Au.).

In another hadith the Prophet is reported to have said: اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ طَوَارِقِ هَذَا اللَّيْلِ إِلا طَارِقًا يَطْرُقُ بِخَيْرٍ يا رحمن “I seek Your refuge (O Allah) from the evil of the knocker during the day or night, save for him who knocks with good news - O Rahman.” In this hadith also the Prophet used the same root taraqa (Ibn Kathir, Shawkani, Shanqiti).

2. Sufyan ibn `Uyaynah has said that wherever Allah said ma adraka, He informed the Prophet of the subject. But when He said ma yudrika, He did not inform him of the subject, as in verse (42: 17): {وَمَا يُدْرِيكَ لَعَلَّ السَّاعَةَ قَرِيبٌ} [الشورى: 17] “And what will teach you that the Hour may be close at hand?” (Razi, Shawkani).

Nevertheless, the above statement can only be applied generally and not specifically to every instance (Shanqiti).

3. The thaqib of the original has been interpreted as “the bright one” by Ibn `Abbas, `Ikrimah, Mujahid and others (Ibn Jarir).

4. There are various opinions about which “star” is meant, most of them homing in upon Saturn. (In ancient times tariq was for a particular star that used to appear just before dawn, as in a poetical piece of Hind b. `Utbah: Shawkani).

However, there have been other explanations to the word. Ibn `Abbas has related that once the Prophet was sitting with Abu Talib when a star burst forth and filled the heaven and earth with its light. It scared Abu Talib. “What was that?” He exclaimed. “That was a star hurled down. A sign of Allah,” the Prophet replied. And Allah revealed these verses (Zamakhshari, Razi, Qurtubi).

Fixed and Moving Stars

It may be recalled in this context that in ancient times a clear distinction between planets and stars did not exist, even if the Qur’an used different terms for both: kawkab for planets and najm for stars. Hence najm here has been understood by the ancients to mean the planet Saturn, which, in the words of The Random House Encyclopedia: “The outermost of the planets known in the ancient times, is a conspicuous naked-eye object, although in pre-telescopic times there was no means of distinguishing its rings, which are one of the most beautiful sights in the entire sky.”

However, with the passage of time the difference between kawkab and najm of the Qur’an began to appear. Shihabuddin Ahmad b. Abdul Wahhab, of the eighth (fourteenth century of the Christian era) writes in Nihayatu al-Arab Fi Funun al-Adab: “What are known as 'fixed stars’ are those that fall beyond the seven planets. They are so called (i.e. fixed) because of their relatively slow movement when compared with the seven planets that move much faster. Otherwise all of them are in a circular movement around the hub of the universe” (Bab fi Kawkab al-Thabitah) - Au.

5. As Allah said in another place (13: 11): لَهُ مُعَقِّبَاتٌ مِنْ بَيْنِ يَدَيْهِ وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِ يَحْفَظُونَهُ مِنْ أَمْرِ اللَّهِ (الرعد: 11) “He has attendant angels, before and behind him, watching over him by Allah’s command” (Ibn Kathir, Shawkani).

Thanwi writes: The meaning of watchers or preservers is also possible in view of verses 10 and 11 of surah 82: {وَإِنَّ عَلَيْكُمْ لَحَافِظِينَ (10) كِرَامًا كَاتِبِينَ} [الانفطار: 10، 11] “But, lo! Over you are preservers (of your deeds). Honored (scribes) writing down (all that you do).”

And the implication is that you are surely accountable for your deeds which have been preserved, but will be brought to light only at the proper time, as does the morning star appear at its proper time.

6. “Let man consider his origins and what has become of him. It is a very wide gulf which divides the origins from the final product, the gushing water from man the intelligent, rational being with his highly sophisticated organic, neurological, mental and psychological systems. The reference to this great gulf which the gushing water crosses in order to be made into a communicating being suggests that there is a power beyond the province of man which moves that shapeless and powerless fluid along its remarkable and impressive journey until it is shaped into its magnificent, ultimate form. It implies that there is a guardian appointed by Allah to look after that moist germ, and to guide it through its remarkable journey, which is full of wonders much greater than those met by man throughout life” (Sayyid).

7. Sulb and Tara’ib:

The words in the original are sulb and tara’ib. Sulb is almost unanimously understood to mean the back - here of the male. As for tara’ib, there are wide speculations, but most of them come very near to each other, such as, the bones of the chest including the collar bones (linguistically), the lower ribs, (Zajjaj) the area between the two shoulders just above the breast (Mujahid), the area between the breasts and just above them, or where the necklace-end rests, (Ibn `Abbas, `Ikrimah) and the two hands, legs and the two eyes of a woman (Ibn `Abbas, `Ikrimah and ) - Ibn Jarir, Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir.

However, another possible interpretation is that the liquid gushes forth from between the sulb and tara’ib of the man and the sulb and tara’ib of the woman (Qurtubi).

The preferred meaning however is that it is the area between the two breasts and just above them (Zamakhshari, Shawkani). This is how our poets have used the word (Ibn Jarir).

Yusuf Ali adds: “A man’s seed is the quintessence of his body. It proceeds from his loins, i.e., from his back between the hip-bones and his ribs. His back-bone is the source and symbol of his strength and personality. In the spinal cord and in the brain is the directive energy of the central nervous system, and this directs all action, organic and psychic. The spinal cord is continuous with the Medulla Oblongata in the brain.”

8. That is, if Allah can make a man out of a small amount of liquid, He can also create him anew, (Qurtubi); as Allah said elsewhere in the Qur’an (30: 27): {وَهُوَ الَّذِي يَبْدَأُ الْخَلْقَ ثُمَّ يُعِيدُهُ وَهُوَ أَهْوَنُ عَلَيْهِ} [الروم: 27] “It is He who begins the creation and then repeats it. And that is easier for Him” (Ibn Kathir).

Yusuf Ali comments: “The Creator who can mingle the forces of psychic and physical muscular action in the creation of man, ... can surely give a new life after physical death here, and restore man’s personality in the new world that will open out in the Hereafter.”

9. That is, when all secrets will be laid bare, open for everyone to see what the man used to hide from others including his deceptive dealings. Accordingly, a hadith in Bukhari and Muslim says: إِنَّ الْغَادِرَ يُنْصَبُ لَهُ لِوَاءٌ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ فَيُقَالُ هَذِهِ غَدْرَةُ فُلَانِ بْنِ فُلَانٍ “The deceiver will have a flag on the Day of Judgment, and it will be said, 'This is the deception of so and so, son of so and so’” (Ibn Kathir)

10. Qurtubi remarks: The meaning popularly accepted of raj` is “rains” which return year after year. Poets have also used it in that sense, as in the poetical piece extolling a sword: أبْيَضُ كالرَّجْعِ رَسُوبٌ إذَا... مَا ثَاخَ فِي مُحْتَفَلٍ يَخْتَلِي White, as the rains, that cuts through

and disappears in the body severing it.

This is the opinion of Ibn `Abbas, Hasan, Mujahid and Qatadah (Ibn Jarir). This is also the proper linguistic meaning according to Zajjaj (Shawkani).

In calling the rains raj` the ancient Arabs were perhaps led by their belief that the clouds take their water from the sea and then return it to the earth in the form of rains (Zamakhshari, Razi, Shawkani).

Yet another possibility is that it is the verdure of the spring season which has been alluded to by the word raj`, which is another sense in which the word is used in the Arabic language (Qurtubi).

The verse would then mean: “By the heaven which causes (by means of its rains) the spring verdure to come to surface” (Au.).

Some contemporary scholars have voiced the opinion that the allusion is to the harmful rays of the sun (such as the radiation), which the earth's atmosphere (in a sense heaven of the earth), reflects away. Otherwise, life would have been impossible on the earth (Au.).

11. Al-Sad` of the earth is its splitting up for the verdure: Ibn `Abbas, Hasan, `Ikrimah, Mujahid, Qatadah and others (Ibn Jarir, Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir).

12. The Prophet (saws) has said in a hadith narrated by `Ali (ra): كِتابُ الله فِيهِ نَبَأُ مَنْ قَبْلَكمْ وَخَبَرُ مَنْ بَعْدَكمْ وحُكمُ ما بَيْنَكمْ “The Book of Allah. In it is the news of those before you as well as those after you. It is the judge in your affairs” (Shafi`).

13. This refers to the schemes that the pagans were plotting against the Prophet and his followers (Qurtubi).

14. That showed its effectiveness at Badr (Qurtubi).

Allah’s Schemes

It must be understood that there is no difference of opinion among the scholars that the term kayd should not be applied to Allah unless it is in comparison with the planning and scheming of man against Him. Kayd in fact has in its root two-fold meaning. One, that of adopting a strong course of repercussive measures; and two, of secretive planning. The second meaning is also applicable here. Badr can be cited as an example. The pagans mustered the best of their forces there and were quite confident of defeating the Muslims without any great effort. But Allah reversed the tables on them. First He showed the Muslims lesser in their sight than they actually were, so that the pagans saw no cause for a retreat without a fight. Second, He sent down rains that wetted the earth beneath their feet. Now, the Muslims were on a sand track (that absorbed all the water). But the pagans were on a swampy patch that turned slimy and they began to slip. These (and others: Au.) were the kayd (secret measures) of Allah that He employed to trap and defeat them (Shanqiti).

Sayyid Qutb observes: “Those people who are created out of gushing water issuing between the loins and the breast bones, brought forth without any strength, ability or will of their own, guided along their long journey by the Divine power and destined to that return when the secrets are searched and tried and where they have no strength or support - are devising a scheme against the Prophet and the Muslims! I - the Creator who guides, preserves, directs, brings back to life and puts to trial; the Able; the Victor Who has made the sky, the night visitor, the gushing water and man; the Maker of the universe with its returning rain and the earth splitting with verdure - I, Allah, am devising a scheme of My own. So, there are the two schemes and a battle. It is, in truth, a one-sided battle but described as one between two sides for the sake of sarcasm.”

15. “Gentle forbearance with Evil shows our trust in Allah and Allah’s Plan: for it can never be frustrated. This does not mean that we should assist or compromise with evil, or fail to put it down where we have the power. It means patience and humility where we have no power to prevent Evil” (Yusuf Ali).

The Connection

It will be noticed that the previous surah broached upon the subject of the creation of humans. This surah speaks of the creation of vegetation in verse four: “Who brought forth the pasturage” (Alusi).

Merits of the Surah:

`Ali has reported that the Prophet loved this surah. Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Da’ud, Tirmidhi and Nasa’i have all recorded that the Prophet used to recite this and surah Al-Ghashiyyah (the next surah, no. 88) during the `Eid and Friday Prayers. And, if the `Eid happened to fall on a Friday, he would recite them both. According to a report in Ahmad, as well as with others, the Prophet used to recite this surah, along with Al-Kafirun (109) and Al-Ikhlas (no. 112) in the witr Prayers. The Sahihayn have also transmitted that the Prophet advised Mu`adh (about whom the people complained that he was reciting long chapters in the Prayers) to recite in place Al-A`la, Al-Shams and Al-Ghashiyyah (Ibn Kathir, Shawkani).

The Prophet also recited other su’ar such as: Al-Munafiqun, Al-Jumu`ah and Qaf, but more frequently Al-A`la and Al-Ghashiyyah - Nawawi in Muslim: Au.

Alusi adds: According to a hadith in Tabarani the Prophet recited this surah along with Al-Kafirun in the last maghrib Prayer of his life.