Sūrat al-Ṭāriq is a Meccan surah with seventeen verses. It is said to have been the thirty-sixth surah to be revealed, after Sūrat al-Balad.
There is a degree of correlation and connectedness between this surah and Sūrat al-Burūj which precedes it. Firstly, both start with an oath concerning the sky: By the sky, by the nightly visitor (verse 1), and By the sky with its houses (85:1); secondly, Sūrat al-Burūj also deals with the theme of resurrection as a form of returning to one’s origins: It is indeed He who originates and brings back again (85:13), and Indeed He is able to bring him back (verse 8) and By the resurgent sky (verse 11).
The major theme of the surah is man’s journey towards God. Man is called to examine his own creation and his journey through the various stages of life and to draw lessons from that (verses 5-8). His attention is also called to the natural phenomena he witnesses, most specifically the sky and the seasonally returning rains that bring the dead earth to bring back life (verses 11-12). Contained within this theme are the subthemes of accountability and mystery. The journey is not without purpose; man journeys towards God and will be held accountable for his deeds. The journey is also into the unfamiliar. There is much that God knows that man does not; the night reveals the sky and its stars that hold many secrets (verses 1-3), and this night will be used by some to hold secret councils (verse 15).
The surah confronts those who deny the truth of resurrection by calling on them to ponder on the wondrous nature of their own creation and the majesty of the universe in which they reside. Through succinct yet profound examples, the surah weaves a splendorous tapestry of analogies and metaphors to spark the inherent inquisitiveness residing within man to prod him into giving careful thought to the importance of his own actions, his secrets, his intentions, and to know that he will be called into account for all of these.
[1] Zamakhshari, 4/734.