الطارق
At Tariq
Verses
17
Revelation
Makki
Period
Makkan
Surah No.
86 / 114
At-Tariq opens with a majestic oath by the sky and the nightly piercing star – identified as the morning star or a brilliant star – followed by the reminder that over every soul is an appointed guardian. The surah then presents the origin of the human being from a fluid to prove the power of resurrection, describes the Day when secret things are examined, and closes by affirming that the Quran is a decisive word and that the disbelievers' plots against it will avail them nothing.
أسباب النزول
Revealed in the Makkan period as another powerful argument against the denial of resurrection. The nightly star piercing the darkness of the sky serves as a metaphor for the Quran piercing the darkness of ignorance, and the human being's origin from a fluid serves as the surah's central argument: the same God who built the human from a drop can certainly return the bones to life. The final verses were revealed as a counter to the Makkan leaders' plots against the Prophet.
“By the sky and the nightly visitor – and what would make you know what the nightly visitor is? It is the piercing star.”
The dramatic triple structure – oath, rhetorical question, answer – draws the listener into a moment of discovery, using the brilliance of a piercing star to establish a sense of divine precision in creation.
“Indeed the Quran is a decisive word, and it is not amusement.”
The surah's definitive description of the Quran's nature – it is not poetry, entertainment, or magic, but a definitive and serious word from the Lord of all creation, demanding a definitive response.