Tafsir of An-Najm 53:11

Surah An-Najm (The Star): Verse 11

{مَا كَذَّبَ الْفُؤَادُ مَا رَأَى} The heart did not deny what it saw.

Issue 1: Whose heart is meant?

1. The Famous Opinion: It refers to the heart of Muhammad (peace be upon him).
   • The meaning is: His heart did not lie or deny.
   • The definite article al- (the) is used because the subject (Muhammad) was already established through previous verses, such as: "to His Servant" (إلى عبده), "in the highest horizon" (وهو بالافق الاعلى), and "Your companion has not strayed" (ما ضل صاحبكم).

2. Alternative Interpretation: It could refer to the genus (type) of the heart (جنس الفؤاد).
   • The faculty that denies (falsifies) is usually imagination and fancy (الوهم والخيال).
   • Imagination raises objections: How can God be seen? How can Gabriel be seen when he is more subtle than air, and air cannot be seen?
   • Imagination also posits limitations: If God were seen, He would be in a direction and form, which contradicts His nature as the Divine. If Gabriel were seen (even in the form of Dihyah or another), his true nature would be altered, which would undermine trust in all perceived realities.
   • Therefore, the verse affirms that the heart (the faculty of true understanding) does not deny the reality of seeing God or seeing Gabriel as the Prophet (PBUH) saw them, even if the imaginative self (النفس المتوهمة والمتخيلة) rejects it.

Issue 2: What is the meaning of "did not deny" (ما كذب)?

1. First View (Al-Zamakhshari): His heart did not say that what his eye saw was untrue. If his heart had said that, it would have been lying about the vision. This aligns with Al-Mubarrid's view: the heart testified to the truth of what was seen.

2. Second View (Qira'ah with Shaddah): If read as ما كذَّب (with a shaddah on the dhal), it means: The heart did not claim that what was seen was mere illusion (خيال) without reality.

3. Third View (Affirmation of Possibility): This verse confirms what we established: When the Prophet (PBUH) saw Gabriel, God created in him a necessary knowledge (علما ضروريا) that what he saw was not an illusion.
   • The intended meaning is: It was not permissible for the heart to lie (ما جوز أن يكون كاذبا).
   • Negating possibility (نفي الجواز) is often used to mean actual occurrence (الوقوع). Examples: "Nothing is hidden from Allah among them" (لا يخفى على الله منهم شىء), "Vision cannot grasp Him" (لا تدركه الابصار), "Your Lord is not heedless" (وما ربك بغافل). These negate the possibility of these things happening.
   • This contrasts with verses negating actual occurrence, such as: "We will not allow the reward of the doers of good to be lost" (لا نضيع أجر المحسنين).

Issue 3: Who is the seer in "what he saw" (ما رأى)? The heart, the eye, or something else?

1. First View: The Heart (الفؤاد): The meaning is: The heart did not deny what it saw; it affirmed that what it perceived through the heart was true and sound.

2. Second View: The Eye (البصر): The heart did not deny what the eye saw; it did not claim the visual perception was illusion.

3. Third View: The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH): This aligns with the interpretation that "the heart" refers to the general faculty. The verse means: Hearts testify to the truth of what Muhammad (PBUH) saw (in the vision), even if the faculties of mere imagination do not acknowledge it.

Issue 4: What was seen in "what he saw" (ما رأى)?

Based on the previous differences, there are three possibilities:

1. The Lord (Allah) Himself.
2. Gabriel (peace be upon him).
3. The wondrous Divine Signs (الآيات العجيبة الإلاهية).

Addressing the Objection to Seeing God (Allah):

• Objection: How is seeing God possible without implying He has a body or occupies a location?
• Response: When an intelligent person contemplates an existing object and says, "God sees this," and then contemplates a non-existent thing and says, "God sees this," the mind distinguishes between the two statements, validating the first and rejecting the second.
• Seeing (الرؤية) here means Knowledge (العلم). If it only meant knowledge, saying "the existent is known to God" and "the non-existent is known to God" would be equivalent, which is not the case.
• Therefore, God is a Seer (رائي) without needing to be opposite (مقابل) the seen object, nor does He occupy a direction or location.
• This difficulty arises because the imagination (الوهم) is accustomed to seeing things only when they are opposite (in front of) the observer.
• Analogy: You see the moon reflected in water. In reality, you did not see the moon in its actual location above the sky; rather, the light rays from your eye hit the water, and the water reflected those rays toward the sky (where the moon is). Your imagination, having seen most things directly opposite the pupil, assumes that seeing something behind it requires turning toward it. Thus, the imagination concludes that the moon is seen in the water.
• Imagination often overpowers intellect in this world because worldly matters are largely sensory/imaginative. In the Hereafter, illusions vanish, intellects clarify, and things will be seen for their existence (لوجودها), not for their localization (لتحيزها).

Further Defense of Seeing God:

• Anyone who denies the possibility of seeing God must also deny the possibility of seeing Gabriel (PBUH). Denying the latter implies denying prophethood, which is disbelief (كفر).
• Furthermore, those who doubt God's visibility argue: If God could be seen, He must be seen, since our senses are sound, and He is not behind a veil or infinitely distant (as He is not in a location). If He could be seen but we don't see Him, it implies a flaw in our observable reality—we might as well say a mountain exists nearby, but we don't see it.
• Rebuttal: We respond by pointing to Gabriel's descent upon Muhammad (PBUH) while others were present but did not see him. If seeing were obligatory (وجب), everyone would see him. If they claim a veil existed, we respond: If a veil exists, it must be visible according to their own logic, but a veil cannot veil if it is visible!

Conclusion on Sight and Knowledge:

• Texts indicate that Muhammad (PBUH) saw his Lord with his heart (بفؤاده), meaning his sight was directed to his heart, or he saw with his eye, meaning his heart was directed to his eye.
• According to the Ahl al-Sunnah, sight (الرؤية) is through Will (الإرادة), not the servant's power. If God conveys knowledge through the eye, it is sight; if He conveys it through the heart, it is gnosis (معرفة). God is capable of creating a perceiver for the known object in the eye, just as He is capable of creating a perceiver in the heart.
• This issue (whether the vision was with the eye or heart) was debated among the Companions regarding its actual occurrence, and disagreement on the occurrence implies consensus on the possibility (الجواز). We will not elaborate further on this established point of jurisprudence.

{أَفَتُمَارُونَهُ عَلَى مَا يَرَى} Then will you dispute with him concerning what he sees?