Tafsir of An-Najm 53:24

Al-Najm (The Star): Verse 24

أم للإنسان ما . . . . . (Or is it for man that he should have whatever he wishes?)

The common understanding is that أم (am) here is a disjunctive particle (أم منقطعة), meaning: "Does man have whatever he chooses and desires?"

Regarding {ما تمنى} (what he wishes/desires), there are several interpretations:

1. Intercession (Shafa'ah): They wished for intercession, but they have no right to it.
2. Their Claim: Their statement: "And if I am returned to my Lord, I will surely have the best of returns" (Fussilat: 50).
3. Al-Walid ibn al-Mughirah's Claim: His statement: "I will surely be given wealth and children" (Maryam: 77).
4. A Group's Aspiration: A group wished to be prophets, but they did not attain that high station.

If one asks: Can أم (am) here be conjunctive (متصلة)?

We reply: Yes, and the preceding clause then admits of two possibilities:

1. It relates to the preceding verse: {ألكم الذكر وله الانثى} (Do you assign to Him the male and to Himself the female?) (Al-Najm: 21). It is as if He said: "Do you truly assign the male to Him and the female to Himself, or do you assign to yourselves what you desire and wish for?" In this case, the subsequent statement {تلك إذا قسمة ضيزى} (That, then, is an unfair division) (Al-Najm: 22) and what follows are parenthetical clauses inserted between two connected statements.
2. The preceding clause is omitted (elliptical). The explanation for this is that we established that {أفرءيتم} (Have you considered?) (Al-Najm: 19) serves to clarify the falsehood of their claims, indicating that this falsehood is evident without needing proof. This is like someone saying, "So-and-so is fit for kingship," and another person replies to a third, "Have you not seen what this person says?" without explicitly stating that he is not fit for kingship, intending that meaning by mentioning it alone regarding his unsuitability.

Therefore, here, Allah says: {أفرءيتم اللات والعزى} (Have you considered Al-Lat and Al-‘Uzza?), meaning: Do they deserve worship, or is it for man that he worships whatever his nature desires, even if it does not deserve worship?

Under this interpretation, أم للإنسان means: Does man have the right to worship based on mere desire and longing? This is supported by the verse: {وما تهوى الانفس} (and what the souls desire), meaning: You worshipped what your souls desired, which does not deserve worship; do you have the right to do that?

{فلله الاخرة والاولى} (For to Allah belong the Hereafter and the first [life]).