Tafseer of Those drawn up in Ranks · As-Saaffaat · 37:153
Has He chosen daughters over sons?
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 statement concerning the interpretation of His word, the Exalted: أَصْطَفَى الْبَنَاتِ عَلَى الْبَنِينَ (153) ("Has He chosen daughters over sons?")
He, exalted is His mention, says—while rebuking these who ascribe daughters to Allah, the polytheists (mushrikīn) of Quraysh—: Has Allah أَصْطَفَى ("chosen"), O people, الْبَنَاتِ عَلَى الْبَنِينَ ("the daughters over the sons")? The Arabs, when they directed the interrogative form toward rebuke, would sometimes insert the interrogative alif and sometimes omit it, as has been said: أَذْهَبْتُمْ طَيِّبَاتِكُمْ فِي حَيَاتِكُمُ الدُّنْيَا (with shortening) ("Have you consumed your good things in your worldly life")—it may be taken as a question and it may be taken not as a question, and the meaning is one in both cases. When أَصْطَفَى الْبَنَاتِ is not taken as a question, the alif of "iṣṭafā" drops out in the connection (waṣl), and one begins it with the kasra; when it is taken as a question, the alif is pronounced with fatḥa and cut off (qaṭʿ).
It has been transmitted from some of the inhabitants of Medina that he recited this with the omission of the interrogative form and with connection. As for the reciters of Kufa and Basra, they adhere in this to his recitation with the interrogative form and with the fatḥa of the alif in all cases, and that is the recitation which we prefer on account of the consensus (ijmāʿ) of the authoritative reciters concerning it.
