Tafseer of The Heights · Al-A'raaf · 7:180
And to Allah belong the best names, so invoke Him by them. And leave [the company of] those who practice deviation concerning His names. They will be recompensed for what they have been doing.
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 saying of the Exalted: وَلِلَّهِ الأَسْمَاءُ الْحُسْنَى فَادْعُوهُ بِهَا وَذَرُوا الَّذِينَ يُلْحِدُونَ فِي أَسْمَائِهِ سَيُجْزَوْنَ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ (180) (And to Allah belong the Most Beautiful Names, so call upon Him by them, and leave those who deviate concerning His names; they shall be requited for what they used to do.) (180)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says (and to Allah belong the Most Beautiful Names), and these are as Ibn ʿAbbās said:
15451 – Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my paternal uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: (and to Allah belong the Most Beautiful Names, so call upon Him by them), and among His names are: "al-ʿAzīz" (the Almighty), "al-Jabbār" (the Compeller), and all His names are beautiful.
15452 – Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Hishām ibn Ḥassān, on the authority of Ibn Sīrīn, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, on the authority of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who said: "Verily, Allah has ninety-nine names, one hundred less one; whoever enumerates them all enters the Garden (janna)."
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And as for His saying: (and leave those who deviate concerning His names), by it He means the polytheists (mushrikīn).
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And their deviation (ilḥād) concerning the names of Allah was that they turned them away from what they ought to have been, so that they named by them their gods and their idols, and they added to them and omitted from them; thus they named some of them "al-Lāt", deriving it for themselves from the name of Allah which is "Allah", and they named some of them "al-ʿUzzā", deriving it from the name of Allah which is "al-ʿAzīz".
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And in accordance with what we have said about that, the people of interpretation have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
15453 – Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my paternal uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: (and leave those who deviate concerning His names), he said: The deviation of the deviators was that they invoked "al-Lāt" from among the names of Allah.
15454 – 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: (and leave those who deviate concerning His names), he said: They derived "al-ʿUzzā" from "al-ʿAzīz", and they derived "al-Lāt" from "Allah".
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And the people of interpretation differed over the interpretation of His saying (yulḥidūn – they deviate).
Some of them said: they reject, they invent lies.
* Mention of who said that:
15455 – Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, his saying: (and leave those who deviate concerning His names), he said: The deviation (ilḥād) is rejection.
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And others said: the meaning of it is: they commit shirk (they associate partners with Allah).
* Mention of who said that:
15456 – Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, saying: Abū Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: (they deviate), he said: they commit shirk.
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And the origin of "al-ilḥād" in the language of the Arabs is: deviating from the right aim, straying from it, and turning away. Then it is used for everything that is crooked and not straight, and for this reason the lateral niche of the grave is called "laḥd", because it is at one of its sides and not in the middle. One says of this: "alḥada fulānun yulḥidu ilḥādan" and "laḥada yalḥadu laḥdan wa-luḥūdan". And it has been transmitted from al-Kisāʾī that he distinguished between "al-ilḥād" and "al-laḥd", and he said of "al-ilḥād": that it is deviating from the right aim, and of "al-laḥd": that it is inclining toward something. And he used to read everything that is in the Qurʾān as (yulḥidūn) with a ḍamma on the yāʾ and a kasra on the ḥāʾ, except that which is in [surah] al-Naḥl, for that he used to read as "yalḥadūn" with a fatḥa on the yāʾ and the ḥāʾ, and he claimed that it had the meaning of inclining.
And as for the rest of the people of knowledge of the language of the Arabs, they hold that the meaning of both is one, and that they are two dialects that have come in one word with one meaning.
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And the reciters differed in the reading of it. The general body of the reciters of the people of Medina, and some of the Basrans and Kūfans, read it as (yulḥidūn) with a ḍamma on the yāʾ and a kasra on the ḥāʾ, from "alḥada yulḥidu", throughout the entire Qurʾān.
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And the general body of the reciters of the people of Kūfa read that as "yalḥadūn" with a fatḥa on the yāʾ and the ḥāʾ, from "laḥada yalḥadu".
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Abū Jaʿfar said: And the correct view concerning that is that they are two dialects with one meaning, so with whichever of the two the reciter recites, he attains the correct course therein. Except that I prefer the reading with a ḍamma on the yāʾ, according to the dialect of those who said "alḥada", because it is the more well-known of the two dialects and the more eloquent of them.
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And Ibn Zayd used to say of His saying: (and leave those who deviate concerning His names) that it is abrogated (mansūkh).
15457 – Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said of His saying: (and leave those who deviate concerning His names), he said: These are the people of disbelief (kufr), and it is abrogated; armed fighting (qitāl) abrogated it.
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= And there is no basis for what Ibn Zayd said about that, namely that it is abrogated, for His saying: (and leave those who deviate concerning His names) is not a command from Allah to His Prophet ﷺ to leave the polytheists alone in what they say until He is given permission to fight them; rather, it is a threat from Allah to those who deviate concerning His names and a menace from Him to them, as He said in another place: ذَرْهُمْ يَأْكُلُوا وَيَتَمَتَّعُوا وَيُلْهِهِمُ الأَمَلُ فَسَوْفَ يَعْلَمُونَ [surah al-Ḥijr: 3] (Leave them to eat and enjoy themselves and let hope distract them; they shall soon know), the verse, and as His saying: لِيَكْفُرُوا بِمَا آتَيْنَاهُمْ وَلِيَتَمَتَّعُوا فَسَوْفَ يَعْلَمُونَ [surah al-ʿAnkabūt: 66] (That they may be ungrateful for what We have given them and that they may enjoy themselves; they shall soon know). And it is a saying that has taken the form of a command in the meaning of a menace and threat, and its meaning is: Grant respite, O Muḥammad, to those who deviate concerning the names of Allah, until a term that they shall reach, and they shall soon be requited, when the term of Allah which He has set for them comes upon them, with the requital for their deeds which they used to perform before that, of disbelief in Allah and deviation concerning His names and rejection of His Messenger.
