Tafseer of The Rock · Al-Hijr · 15:41
[Allah] said, "This is a path [of return] to Me [that is] straight.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The Qurʾān reciters (qurrāʾ) differed concerning the reading of His word قَالَ هَذَا صِرَاطٌ عَلَيَّ مُسْتَقِيمٌ . The majority of the reciters of the Ḥijāz, Medina, Kūfa, and Baṣra read it as هَذَا صِرَاطٌ عَلَيَّ مُسْتَقِيمٌ with the meaning of: "This is a path leading to Me, straight."
The meaning of the expression would then be: "This is a path whose return is to Me, so that I shall requite everyone according to his deeds," just as Allah the Exalted — blessed be His remembrance — says: إِنَّ رَبَّكَ لَبِالْمِرْصَادِ ("Indeed, your Lord is ever watchful"). This is comparable to the expression of one who threatens and warns another, saying: "Your path runs over me" or "I stand upon your path." So too is His word هَذَا صِرَاطٌ — its meaning is: "This is a path upon Me" and "This is a path to Me." Thus also did those who read it in this way explain it.
Mention is made of those who said this:
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us; and al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad related to me, saying: Shabāba related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us; and al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us; and al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: ʿAbdullāh related to us, on the authority of Warqāʾ — all on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning his word هَذَا صِرَاطٌ عَلَيَّ مُسْتَقِيمٌ . He said: "The truth returns to Allah, and upon Him rests its path; it does not turn aside to anything else."
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid — in accordance with this.
Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf related to us, saying: al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Marwān ibn Shujāʿ related to us, on the authority of Khaṣīf, on the authority of Ziyād ibn Abī Maryam and ʿAbdullāh ibn Kathīr — that they both read: هَذَا صِرَاطٌ عَلَيَّ مُسْتَقِيمٌ , and they said: ʿalayya means ilayya ("to Me") and is on the same level as it.
Al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAṭāʾ related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Muslim, on the authority of al-Ḥasan and Saʿīd, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: هَذَا صِرَاطٌ عَلَيَّ مُسْتَقِيمٌ — he said: ilayya mustaqīm ("to Me, straight"). Qays ibn ʿUbād, Ibn Sīrīn, and Qatāda — according to what has been transmitted from them — read it as هَذَا صِرَاطٌ عَلَيَّ مُسْتَقِيمٌ with rafʿ (nominative) on ʿaliyy, so that it is an attribute of the word ṣirāṭ, with the meaning of: lofty.
Mention is made of those who said this:
Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Ḥammād related to us, saying: Jaʿfar al-Baṣrī related to me, on the authority of Ibn Sīrīn — that he read it as هَذَا صِرَاطٌ عَلَيَّ مُسْتَقِيمٌ , that is to say: lofty.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning his word هَذَا صِرَاطٌ عَلَيَّ مُسْتَقِيمٌ : "Lofty, straight." Bishr said: Yazīd said: Saʿīd said: "Thus do we read it, we and Qatāda."
Al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb related to us, on the authority of Hārūn, on the authority of Abū al-ʿAwwām, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of Qays ibn ʿUbād: هَذَا صِرَاطٌ عَلَيَّ مُسْتَقِيمٌ — he said: lofty.
The correct reading of this, in our judgment, is the reading of those who read هَذَا صِرَاطٌ عَلَيَّ مُسْتَقِيمٌ , in accordance with the interpretation we have mentioned from Mujāhid, al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, and those who followed them in that — because of the consensus (ijmāʿ) of the authoritative testimony of the reciters concerning this reading, and because of the anomalous character (shudhūdh) of what goes against it.
