6/74-83 — Abraham's reasoning
Fa-lammā janna ʿalayhi'l-laylu raʾā kawkaban qāla hādhā rabbī fa-lammā afala qāla lā uḥibbu'l-āfilīn
"When the night covered him he saw a star and said, 'This is my Lord!' When it set he said, 'I do not love those that set.'"
| Stage | What is seen | What is said | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kawkab — a star | Hādhā rabbī | Lā uḥibbu'l-āfilīn |
| 2 | Al-Qamar — the moon | Hādhā rabbī | La-in lam yahdinī rabbī… |
| 3 | Al-Shams — the sun | Hādhā rabbī hādhā akbar | Innī barīʾun mimmā tushrikūn |
And at each stage something grows larger: star → moon → sun. The measure is the other side's own measure: size. In the third this is said openly: hādhā akbar.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the sequence: the reasoning is carried out within the other side's measure, and that measure is shown to exhaust itself. All three set.
The أ-ف-ل root: to set, to vanish from sight. The choice of the word is worth recording: the shared attribute is not size but vanishing.
There is disagreement over this passage in the classical works of tafsīr, and it must not be concealed:
| Reading | The words hādhā rabbī |
|---|---|
| 1 | A demonstration to his people — a hypothetical acceptance said in order to refute their logic from within |
| 2 | A search — the stages of the reasoning as actually undergone |
| 3 | In the form of a question — in the sense "is this my Lord?" |
But an indication that can be verified from the text may be recorded: verse 76 begins with fa-lammā janna ʿalayhi'l-layl, and verse 83 names the whole passage wa tilka ḥujjatunā ātaynāhā Ibrāhīma ʿalā qawmih — "and that was Our argument, which We gave to Abraham against his people." This is an indication that supports the first reading. I record it as an indication, not as a preference.
وَحَآجَّهُۥ قَوْمُهُۥ قَالَ أَتُحَٰٓجُّوٓنِّى فِى ٱللَّهِ وَقَدْ هَدَىٰنِ (80) — the root ح-ج-ج was treated at al-Jāthiya 45/25 and Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) 40/47.