1- By the heavens and The Knocker

2- How will you comprehend what the The Knocker is?

3- It is a piercing star. 

 

In Surah 86 –  At Taariq (“The Knocker”) – in verse 1-3 The word “Taariq (or Tariq)” stems from the root “TaRaQa” meaning “knocking, striking.” The word may also mean “to pulsate” like a beating heart, from which the word “pulsar” is derived.

 

For centuries – many translations of the Quran were confused about the meaning of the word  “Taariq”. They often believed it was taken for a name or was left untranslated. Several teachings dating back to the times of the Sahabah denoted it being an astronomical phenomenon and many translations describe it as a star or “night star”. Astronomers in the 18th century began likening “Taariq” to meaning either a large star or a foreign planet like Saturn or Venus. However, none of those truly give justice to the Arabic word “Taariq” which again commonly means knocking like one would do on a door. 

 

As science progressed it is now clearly assumed that the Quran mentioned a star/phenomenon that was to be discovered. This star was indeed discovered, but in the year 1970. 

 

Denoting an object that is far away in space, and like a star produces a regular radio signal. LITTLE GREEN MEN OF THE UNIVERSE In 1967 Jocellyn Bell accidentally stumbled on a gravity time warp a million times greater than that produced by the sun. The object she detected was emitting regular pulses. These pulses were reminiscent of heart-beats. At the time, such a pulsating object was not known to exist in space. At first, it was concluded that these signals might well have been propagated by intelligent beings, inhabitants of other planets. Invitation cards were printed, the media were notified and a seminar was arranged. LGM (Little Green Men) signified that intelligent creatures had been detected and were contacted by radio signals. Not long after, the source of the signals in question was discovered: it was a spinning neutron star, an object whose velocity was incommensurably great. The neutron star had another name: “pulsar.”  Now referred to as PSR B1919+21 is a pulsar with a period of 1.3373 seconds and a pulse width of 0.04 seconds –  it is the first discovered radio pulsar.

 

Bell’s discovery failed to establish contact with the inhabitants of space, but she had found pulsars. The words “pulsar” and “pulsating” seem to accord with the word Taariq of the Quran, which means “knocker.” 

 

Pulsars are rotating neutron stars. Most neutron stars discovered today are in the form of radio pulsars. They are called radio pulsars because they emit radio waves. We can simply connect a radio telescope to a loud speaker and hear a pulsar. Most of the identified Pulsars sound like someone persistently knocking.

 

 

This video link shares some of the sounds signal radio waves generate for several identified pulsars in our universe. 

 

 

CAN YOU COMPREHEND WHAT A PULSAR IS? In the second verse of the sura, The Knocker, we read: “How will you comprehend what The Knocker is?” 

A spoonful of matter taken from a pulsar would weigh one billion tons. Were we to depose a small particle of it on earth, the particle would pierce it and end up in its center. Just think of it, a spoonful of any matter on earth hardly weighing more than a few grams! This shows how difficult it is to conceive of a pulsar. 

 

A pulsar is produced by the compression of stars a couple of times bigger than the sun. The diameter of a pulsar can be about 15-20 km. Were we to compress our world in a like manner, we would have a sphere of 100 meters of diameter. It takes the earth 24 hours to rotate around its own axis, whereas the pulsar rotates around its own axis many times per second; all these things show how difficult it is to comprehend this striking, pulsating star. 

 

Since the concept of a “pulsating star” could not be imagined at that time, it was rendered in translation as it stood, i.e., “Taariq,” the meaning of it being explained in footnotes, in dictionaries and interpretations. The Quran whose every sentence, every word is based on the finest of meanings, wherein lie hidden realms still to be discovered. The more we study the Quran, the more we are enlightened, the more we learn.