Surah At-Tariq

It is Meccan without dispute, and it consists of seventeen verses according to the famous opinion, while in at-Taysir it is stated to be sixteen. When He, Glory be to Him, mentioned before it the disbelievers' rejection of the Quran, He, Exalted is His Majesty, drew attention here to the insignificance of man. He, Majestic and Exalted, then digressed from that to a description of the Quran, then He, Glory be to Him, commanded His Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, to grant respite to those deniers, saying, Mighty in speech:

At-Tariq: (1) By the Sky and the Tariq

"By the sky" — this is the well-known entity according to the majority. It has been said that it refers to rain here, which is one of its usages; from which is the saying: "When the sky descends upon the land of a people, we graze [thereupon], even if they are angry." Its state is not hidden.

"And the Tariq" — originally, it is an active participle derived from al-tarq, meaning striking with a force that produces a sound. From this are al-mitraqah (the hammer) and al-tariq (the road/path), because travelers strike it with their feet. It then became, in linguistic convention, a name for one who travels a path, due to the image of him striking it with his feet, until it became famous in that sense, to the point of becoming a literal reality. Then, it became specific to one who arrives at night, because he most often finds the gates closed and so he strikes them. Later, its usage expanded to include everything that appears at night, whatever it may be, even to imaginary forms that appear therein. The Arabs describe them as "tariq" (night-comers), as in the saying: "The phantom came at night, though not like the night-traveler, moving stealthily toward our saddles without veering."

The intended meaning here, according to the majority, is the star that appears at night, either as a generic noun or a specific, well-known star, as will be clarified, if Allah the Exalted wills. And His saying, the Exalted...