in classical tafsir, at tariq is generally understood as a star that appears at night. the word carries the meaning of something that comes at night, which is why it is often translated as the night visitor or night comer. the next verse describes it as the piercing star. the word translated as piercing can also carry the meaning of intense or penetrating brightness, which classical scholars connected with the light of the star piercing through the darkness. some classical scholars suggested specific objects such as the pleiades or saturn, while others simply understood it as a luminous star. some tafsir even point out that the quran does not specify one particular star. and this is where things get really interesting. today we know about pulsars. a pulsar is not an ordinary star like our sun. it is a rapidly rotating neutron star, an incredibly dense remnant left behind after the collapse and explosion of a massive star. as it rotates, it can send powerful beams of radiation from its magnetic poles. when one of these beams sweeps across earth, our instruments detect a pulse. these pulses can be extraordinarily regular. when the detected signal is converted into sound, it can sound like repeated ticking or knocking. and this is why some people see a possible connection between pulsars and at tariq. a star that appears at night a star described as piercing or intensely illuminating an unusual celestial object producing incredibly regular pulses a signal that can sound like repeated knocking but i want to be very clear here. the quran does not explicitly say that at tariq is a pulsar. classical muslim scholars did not identify it as a pulsar either. their tafsir describes a night appearing luminous star and contains different opinions about its exact identity. there is also a claim online that at tariq literally means “to pulsate” and that the word “pulsar” comes from it. that is not correct. pulsar is a modern scientific term associated with “pulsating radio source” and is not derived from the arabic word at tariq. also, a pulsar does not literally make a knocking sound in space. the knocking sound comes from converting its detected electromagnetic pulses into audio. so i am not saying this video proves that the quran predicted pulsars. i am saying there is a fascinating resemblance worth thinking about. the quran describes a remarkable night star using language connected with coming at night and piercing illumination. more than a thousand years later, we discovered objects unlike ordinary stars, rotating incredibly fast and producing highly regular beams of radiation. is at tariq specifically a pulsar? we cannot prove that. could a pulsar fit aspects of the description? yes, and that possibility is fascinating. but maybe the description is intentionally general. maybe it refers to a particular celestial object we have not identified. maybe there are aspects of the wording we still do not fully understand. we do not know. and that does not mean the quran is incomplete. it means our knowledge of the universe is incomplete. because the point of the passage is bigger than identifying one star. after mentioning at tariq, the surah turns our attention toward ourselves and tells us to consider what we were created from. it then argues that the one who created us in the first place is fully capable of bringing us back after death. the message moves from the sky to us. look at what is above you. look at how much of the universe you still do not understand. then look at yourself. where did you come from? and if the one who created all of this created you in the first place, why would bringing you back be impossible? i would rather leave the question open than force a claim that the quran itself never made. not everything needs to be called a scientific miracle. sometimes you can simply look at the verse, look at the universe, and say “Allah knows best.” #quran #islam #pulsar #star #fyp - @quranicdeen