Tafseer of The Star · An-Najm · 53:23
They are not but [mere] names you have named them - you and your forefathers - for which Allah has sent down no authority. They follow not except assumption and what [their] souls desire, and there has already come to them from their Lord guidance.
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 explanation of the statement of the Exalted: إِنْ هِيَ إِلا أَسْمَاءٌ سَمَّيْتُمُوهَا أَنْتُمْ وَآبَاؤُكُمْ مَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ بِهَا مِنْ سُلْطَانٍ إِنْ يَتَّبِعُونَ إِلا الظَّنَّ وَمَا تَهْوَى الأَنْفُسُ وَلَقَدْ جَاءَهُمْ مِنْ رَبِّهِمُ الْهُدَى (53:23) ("They are but names which you have named, you and your forefathers, for which Allah has sent down no authority. They follow nothing but conjecture and that which the souls incline toward, while there has already come to them guidance from their Lord") (53:23).
The Exalted, whose praise is sublime, says: These names which you have given — namely al-Lāt, al-ʿUzzā, and Manāt, the third, the other — are but names which you have given, you and your forefathers, O you who ascribe partners to Allah (mushrikīn), and your forefathers before you. Allah has sent down nothing concerning them — that is to say: concerning these names. He says: Allah has not permitted that to you and has given you no authorization for it.
As Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, concerning His statement مِنْ سُلْطَانٍ ("any authority") ... to the end of the verse.
And His statement إِنْ يَتَّبِعُونَ إِلا الظَّنَّ ("They follow nothing but conjecture"). The Exalted, whose praise is sublime, says: These polytheists (mushrikīn) follow, concerning these names by which they have named their gods, nothing but the conjecture that what they say is true, not certainty. وَمَا تَهْوَى الأنْفُسُ ("and that which the souls incline toward"). He says: and the desire of their souls, for they did not derive that from a revelation that came to them from Allah, nor from a messenger of Allah who informed them about it. Rather, it is a fabrication of their own, or they took it over from their forefathers who were in the same disbelief in Allah as that in which they themselves are.
And His statement وَلَقَدْ جَاءَهُمْ مِنْ رَبِّهِمُ الْهُدَى ("while there has already come to them guidance from their Lord"). He says: To these polytheists there has come from their Lord the clarification concerning that about which they have no certainty — namely their naming of al-Lāt, al-ʿUzzā, and Manāt, the third, with these names, and their worship of them. He says: To them there has come from their Lord the guidance regarding that, and the clarification through the revelation which We have revealed to Muḥammad ﷺ, namely that the worship of them is not fitting, and that worship is due to none but Allah, the One, the Overwhelming.
And Ibn Zayd said concerning that what Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said, concerning His statement وَلَقَدْ جَاءَهُمْ مِنْ رَبِّهِمُ الْهُدَى ("while there has already come to them guidance from their Lord"): but they did not benefit from it.
