I CALL TO witness the heavens and the night Star --
1
Tafseer
'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : and from his narration on the authority of ibn 'abbas that he said concerning the interpretation of allah's saying (by the heaven and the morning star): '(by the heaven and the morning star) he says: allah swears by the heaven and the morning star
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : by the heaven and the night-visitor! (al-tāriq actually denotes any thing that comes by night, including stars, because they come out at night).
Ali ibn Ahmad al-Wahidi
تفسير : (by the heaven and the morning star; ah, what will tell thee what the morning star is! the piercing star!) [86:1-3].
this was revealed about abu talib. he once went to visit the prophet, allah bless him and give him peace, and the latter offered him bread and milk. as abu talib was sitting and eating, a meteor fell, filling everything with fire. abu talib was scared. he asked: “what on earth can this be?” the prophet, allah bless him and give him peace, said: “this is a meteor that was thrown and it is one of the signs of allah”. abu talib was amazed, and so allah, exalted is he, revealed these verses.
Sahl al-Tustari
تفسير : by the sky and the night-visitor! (! the star of piercing brightness.)he said:the sky (samāʾ) linguistically means loftiness (sumuww) and elevation (ʿuluww). in its inner meaning it refers to the spirit of muḥammad <img border="0" src="images/salatonmassenger.jpg" width="24" height="22">, which subsists with the lord of might. and the night-visitor (ṭāriq) is the star of piercing brightness [86:3], which refers to his heart, that is resplendent (mushriq) with the realisation of god’s oneness (tawḥīd), the upholding of his transcendence (tanzīh), constancy in practices of remembrance (mudāwamat al-adhkār), and in contemplative witnessing of the compeller (al-jabbār).on another occasion he said:that which is piercing is the heart of the believer, that is, it is resplendent (mushriq), purified of uncertainty (shakk), doubt (rayb) and misgiving which the whispering of the enemy and the natural self (nafs al-ṭabʿ) might stir up in it. his words, exalted is he:
