Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation (2005)
22 in a preserved tablet.
86. Sūrat al-Ṭāriq 1
the All-beneficent, the All-merciful.
1 By the sky,
by the nightly visitor,
2 (and what will show you what is the nightly visitor?
3 It is the brilliant star):
4 there is a guard 2 over every soul.
5 So let man consider from what he was created.
6 He was created from an effusing fluid
7 which issues from between the loins and the breast-bones.
8 Indeed He is able to bring him back [after death],
9 on the day when the secrets are examined,
10 and he shall have neither power nor helper.
11 By the resurgent sky,3
12 by the furrowed earth:
13 it is indeed a decisive word,
14 and it is not a jest.
15 Indeed they are devising a stratagem,
16 and I [too] am devising a plan.
17 So respite the faithless;
give them a gentle respite.
1 The sūrah takes its name from verse 1 which mentions ‘the nightly visitor’ (ṭāriq).
2 Or ‘watcher.’
3 Or ‘by the sky endowed with rains.’
