Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of The Glorious Koran. An Explanatory Translation (1930)
SÛRAH LXXXVI
At-Ṭâriq takes its name from a word in verse 1. There are other meanings to the word Tdriq, but I have chosen that which must have occurred to every hearer of this Sûrah, especially as in verse 3 it is stated that a star is meant. The Morning Star has here a mystic sense, and is taken to refer to the Prophet himself. Some have thought that it refers to a comet which alarmed the East about the time of the Prophet’s call. Others believe that this and other introductory verses, hard to elucidate, hide scientific facts unimagined at the period of revelation, and are related to the verses following them. Ghamrâwi Bey, my collaborator in the revision of this work, informed me that the late Dr. Sidqi among others considered that the reference here is to the fertilising germ penetrating the ovary, the subject being the same as vv. 5–7.
An early Meccan Sûrah.
The Morning Star
1. By the heaven and the Morning Star 1
2. — Ah, what will tell thee what the Morning Star is!
3. — The piercing Star!
4. No human soul but hath a guardian over it.
5. So let man consider from what he is created.
6. He is created from a gushing fluid
7. That issued from between the loins and ribs.
8. Lo! He verily is Able to return him (unto life)
9. On the day when hidden thoughts shall be searched out.
1 The Arabic word means originally “that which comes at night” or “one who knocks at the door.”
