Tafseer of The Star · An-Najm · 53:12
So will you dispute with him over what he 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.
The statement concerning the explanation of His word, the Exalted: أَفَتُمَارُونَهُ عَلَى مَا يَرَى (12) ("Will you then dispute with him about what he sees?")
The reciters differed over the reading of ( أَفَتُمَارُونَهُ ). ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd and most of his companions read it as "afatamrūnahu" with a fatḥa on the tāʾ and without an alif, and that is the reading of the majority of the people of Kūfa, and they explained its meaning as: "do you then deny it?"
Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Hushaym related to us, saying: Mughīra informed us, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, that he used to read: "afatamrūnahu" with a fatḥa on the tāʾ and without an alif, he said: "do you then deny it?"; and whoever read ( أَفَتُمَارُونَهُ ) said: "do you then dispute with him?" And that is what the majority of the reciters of Medina, Mecca, and Basra and some of the Kūfans read as ( أَفَتُمَارُونَهُ ) with a ḍamma on the tāʾ and with the alif, meaning: "do you then dispute with him?"
And the correct opinion concerning that is: that they are two well-known readings with a sound meaning. That is so because the polytheists (mushrikīn) denied that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had seen that which Allah showed him on the night in which he was taken on the night journey, and they disputed about that. So with whichever of the two the reciter recites, he is correct.
And the explanation of the statement is: do you then dispute, O polytheists, with Muḥammad about what he sees of that which Allah has shown him of His signs?
