At-Tariq · Makki · ayah 2 of 17

At-Tariq 86:2

وَمَآ أَدْرَىٰكَ مَا ٱلطَّارِقُ

“And what can make you know what is the knocker?”

Saheeh International

Essence

The ayah stops you mid-sentence with a question: you who can look anything up, do you actually know what comes to you in the dark?

A reflection

Where the hunt ends

Adrāka comes from dirāya, knowledge won by effort. The lexicons give the picture behind it. A hunter creeps towards his game behind a camel, using it as a screen until he is close enough to shoot. That screen-animal is the dariyya. To work out where the game was before you could see it was tadarrā. So dirāya is knowledge reached by stalking, patience and skill.

Now hear the question: wa mā adrāka, and what has made you know? It is addressed first to the Prophet ﷺ, the one man on earth receiving revelation. Even he is told that this is not something he could have stalked his way to. One classical note puts it plainly. The thing's rank is beyond what the grasp of creatures can reach, so it must be received from the All-Knowing Creator.

We are proud hunters of knowledge. A coffee taster can name the farm and the altitude from a single sip, and the room applauds. Ask him what his teenage son was thinking at breakfast, and he has no idea. We can find almost anything with a search bar. What we cannot do is search our way to the meaning of a star, or of our own lives. The ego enjoys knowing. It dislikes being told.

The angels showed the right posture long ago. Asked to name what they had not been taught, they said: glory be to You. We have no knowledge except what You have taught us (2:32). Their humility was not ignorance. It was accuracy.

Is it condescending for God to say 'you do not know'? Consider who is speaking, and what He does next. His knowledge takes in everything, and people grasp nothing of it except what He wills (2:255). And the very next ayah answers the question. It is not a door shut in your face. It is a teacher leaning in before handing you something. Humility here is not humiliation. It is the posture of someone about to be taught.

The full entry has 4 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.