Tafseer of The Star · An-Najm · 53:11
The heart did not lie [about] what it saw.
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.
And His saying مَا كَذَبَ الْفُؤَادُ مَا رَأَى ("The heart did not belie what it saw"). He, exalted is His mention, says: the heart of Muḥammad did not belie for Muḥammad that which it saw, but rather it confirmed it as true.
The people of interpretation differed concerning that which his heart saw and did not belie. Some of them said: that which his heart saw was the Lord of the worlds; and they said: He placed his sight in his heart, so that he saw Him with his heart and not with his eye.
* Mention of who said that:
Saʿīd ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: my uncle Saʿīd, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Saʿīd, related to me, on the authority of Isrāʾīl ibn Yūnus ibn Abī Isḥāq al-Sabīʿī, on the authority of Simāk ibn Ḥarb, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying مَا كَذَبَ الْفُؤَادُ مَا رَأَى ("The heart did not belie what it saw"), he said: he saw Him with his heart, ﷺ.
Khallād ibn Aslam related to us, saying: al-Naḍr ibn Shumayl informed us, saying: ʿAbbād, that is Ibn Manṣūr, informed us, saying: I asked ʿIkrima about His saying مَا كَذَبَ الْفُؤَادُ مَا رَأَى ("The heart did not belie what it saw"), he said: do you wish that I should say to you that he saw Him? Yes, he saw Him, and then he saw Him, and then he saw Him, until the breath stops.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, saying: ʿĪsā ibn ʿUbayd related to us, saying: I heard ʿIkrima, when he was asked whether Muḥammad had seen his Lord, say: yes, he saw his Lord.
He said: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, saying: Sālim, the freedman of Muʿāwiya, related to us, on the authority of ʿIkrima, the like of that.
Aḥmad ibn ʿĪsā al-Tamīmī related to us, saying: Sulaymān ibn ʿAmr ibn Sayyār related to us, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Zarbī, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Sulaymān, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "I saw my Lord in the most beautiful form, and He said to me: O Muḥammad, do you know about what the highest assembly (al-malaʾ al-aʿlā) disputes? I said: no, O Lord. Then He placed His hand between my shoulders, and I felt the coolness of it between my breast, so that I knew what is in the heaven and on the earth. I said: O Lord, it is about the ranks (al-darajāt), the expiations (al-kaffārāt), the moving of the feet toward the congregational prayers, and the waiting for one prayer after another. I said: O Lord, verily, You have taken Ibrāhīm as a bosom friend (khalīl), and You have spoken to Mūsā directly, and You have done this and done that? Then He said: did I not expand your breast for you? Did I not remove your burden from you? Did I not do for you? Did I not do?" He said: "Then He entrusted to me matters which I am not permitted to tell to you." He said: "And that is His saying in His Book" — He tells it to you —: ثُمَّ دَنَا فَتَدَلَّى فَكَانَ قَابَ قَوْسَيْنِ أَوْ أَدْنَى فَأَوْحَى إِلَى عَبْدِهِ مَا أَوْحَى مَا كَذَبَ الْفُؤَادُ مَا رَأَى ("Then he drew near and descended, so that he was at a distance of two bow-lengths or nearer. Then He revealed to His servant what He revealed. The heart did not belie what it saw"), "and He placed the light of my sight in my heart, so that I beheld Him with my heart."
Muḥammad ibn ʿUmāra and Aḥmad ibn Hishām related to me, both of them saying: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsā related to us, saying: Isrāʾīl informed us, on the authority of al-Suddī, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, concerning مَا كَذَبَ الْفُؤَادُ مَا رَأَى ("The heart did not belie what it saw"), he said: he saw Him twice with his heart.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn ʿAṭiyya related to us, on the authority of Qays, on the authority of ʿĀṣim al-Aḥwal, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: verily, Allah singled out Ibrāhīm by the bosom friendship (khulla), and He singled out Mūsā by the speaking, and He singled out Muḥammad by the beholding — Allah's blessings be upon them.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Ziyād ibn al-Ḥuṣayn, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning مَا كَذَبَ الْفُؤَادُ مَا رَأَى ("The heart did not belie what it saw"), he said: he saw Him with his heart.
He said: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, on the authority of someone who heard Ibn ʿAbbās say concerning مَا كَذَبَ الْفُؤَادُ مَا رَأَى ("The heart did not belie what it saw"), he said: Muḥammad saw his Lord.
He said: Ḥakkām related to us, on the authority of Abū Jaʿfar, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, مَا كَذَبَ الْفُؤَادُ ("The heart did not belie"), that is: it did not belie Him, مَا رَأَى ("what it saw"), he said: he saw his Lord.
He said: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Abū Jaʿfar, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, concerning مَا كَذَبَ الْفُؤَادُ مَا رَأَى ("The heart did not belie what it saw"), he said: Muḥammad saw his Lord with his heart.
And others said: no, that which his heart saw and did not belie was Jibrīl — peace be upon him.
* Mention of who said that:
Ibn Buzayʿ al-Baghdādī related to me, saying: Isḥāq ibn Manṣūr related to us, saying: Isrāʾīl related to us, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh, concerning مَا كَذَبَ الْفُؤَادُ مَا رَأَى ("The heart did not belie what it saw"), he said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ saw Jibrīl with a garment of brocade (rafraf) that filled the entire region between the heaven and the earth.
Ibrāhīm ibn Yaʿqūb al-Jūzajānī related to us, saying: ʿAmr ibn ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: Ḥammād ibn Salama related to us, on the authority of ʿĀṣim, on the authority of Zirr, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh, that the Prophet ﷺ said: "I saw Jibrīl at the Lote-tree of the utmost boundary (sidrat al-muntahā); he had six hundred wings, from which his feathers shook off pearls and rubies."
Abū Hishām al-Rifāʿī and Ibrāhīm ibn Yaʿqūb related to us, both of them saying: Zayd ibn al-Ḥubāb related to us, that al-Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid related to him, saying: ʿĀṣim ibn Abī al-Najūd related to me, on the authority of Abū Wāʾil, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh, he said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "I saw Jibrīl at the Lote-tree of the utmost boundary; he had six hundred wings." Al-Rifāʿī added in his narration: then I asked ʿĀṣim about the wings, but he gave me no report, so I asked my companions, and they said: each wing covered the region between the east and the west.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying مَا كَذَبَ الْفُؤَادُ مَا رَأَى ("The heart did not belie what it saw"), he said: he saw Jibrīl in his form which is his actual form; he said: and that is what he saw at another descent.
The Qurʾān reciters differed in the reading of His saying مَا كَذَبَ الْفُؤَادُ مَا رَأَى ("The heart did not belie what it saw"). Most of the reciters of Medina, Mecca, Kufa and Basra read it as "kadhaba" with light pronunciation (takhfīf), except ʿĀṣim al-Jaḥdarī, Abū Jaʿfar al-Qāriʾ and al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, for they read it as "kadhdhaba" with doubling (tashdīd), in the meaning: that the heart did not declare false that which it saw, but rather marked it as truth and veracity. And it may be that its meaning, when it is read thus, is: the possessor of the heart did not declare false what he saw. And we have already explained the meaning of the one who reads it with light pronunciation (takhfīf).
Which of the two readings, in my judgment, is therein closest to the correct, is the reading of the one who reads it with light pronunciation, because of the agreement of the authoritative proof of the reciters upon it; and the other reading is not rejected in its correctness, because of the correctness of its meaning.
