The Morning Star
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[86:1]
CONSIDER the heavens and that which comes in the night!
[86:2]
And what could make thee conceive what it is that comes in the night?
[86:3]
It is the star that pierces through [life’s] darkness:
[86:4]
[for] no human being has ever been left unguarded.
[86:5]
LET MAN, then, observe out of what he has been created:
[86:6]
he has been created out of a seminal fluid
[86:7]
issuing from between the loins [of man] and the pelvic arch [of woman].
[86:8]
Now, verily, He [who thus creates man in the first instance] is well able to bring him back [to life]
[86:9]
on the Day when all secrets will be laid bare,
[86:10]
and [man] will have neither strength nor helper!
[86:11]
Consider the heavens, ever-revolving,
[86:12]
and the earth, bursting forth with plants!
[86:13]
BEHOLD, this [divine writ] is indeed a word that cuts between truth and falsehood,
[86:14]
and is no idle tale.
[86:15]
Behold, they [who refuse to accept it] devise many a false argument [to disprove its truth];
[86:16]
but I shall bring all their scheming to nought.
[86:17]
Let, then, the deniers of the truth have their will: let them have their will for a little while!
* v.1 : Some commentators assume that what is described here as at-tāriq (“that which comes in the night”) is the morning-star, because it appears towards the end of the night; others – like Zamakhsharī or Rāghib – understand by it “the star” in its generic sense. Now if we analyze the origin of this noun, we find that it is derived from the verb taraqa, which primarily means “he beat [something]” or “knocked [at something]”; hence, taraqa ’l-bāb, “he knocked at the door.” Tropically, the noun signifies “anything [or “anyone”] that comes in the night,” because a person who comes to a house by night is expected to knock at the door (Tāj al-‘Arūs). In the Qur’anic mode of expression, at-tāriq is evidently a metaphor for the heavenly solace which sometimes comes to a human being lost in the deepest darkness of affliction and distress; or for the sudden, intuitive enlightenment which disperses the darkness of uncertainty; or, finally, for divine revelation, which knocks, as it were, at the doors of man’s heart, and thus fulfils the functions of both solace and enlightenment. (For my rendering of the adjurative wa as “Consider,” see sūrah 74, first half of note 23.)
* v.4 : Lit., “there is no human being without a guardian [or “without a watch being kept”] over him or her.” See in this connection note 7 on 82:10-12.
* v.7 : The plural noun tarā’ib, rendered by me as “pelvic arch,” has also the meaning of “ribs” or “arch of bones”; according to most of the authorities who have specialized in the etymology of rare Qur’anic expressions, this term relates specifically to female anatomy (Tāj al-‘Arūs).
* v.11 : Sc., “And, finally, in order to grasp more fully God’s power of creation and re-creation, consider...,” etc.
* v.13 : Lit., “a decisive word,” or “word of distinction,” i.e., between the true and the false – in this case, belief in a continuation of life after “death,” on the one hand, and a denial of its possibility, on the other. (Cf. 37:21, 44:40, 77:13 and 38, and 78:17, where Resurrection Day is spoken of as “the Day of Distinction”; see also note 6 on 77:13.)
* v.15 : Lit., “devise [many] an artful scheme (kayd)”: see note 41 on 34:33, where the almost synonymous term makr is used in the same sense.
* v.16 : Lit., “I shall devise a [yet more subtle] scheme,” sc., “to bring theirs to nought.” The paraphrase adopted by me gives, according to all the authorities, the meaning of the above sentence.