﴿Have you seen Al-Lat and Al-Uzza, and Manat, the third of the three?﴾ ﴿Is it for you the male, and for Him the female?﴾ ﴿Then indeed, this is a division most unjust.﴾ ﴿Indeed, it is nothing but names you have named, you and your fathers, while Allah has not sent down any authority concerning them.﴾ [Editor’s note: An-Najm: 23].

When the nature of revelation and the witnessing of the Messenger ﷺ by Jibril, peace be upon him, became evident, and when it became clear that this pertained to great matters of the grandeur of Allah, the Exalted, and the honor of His Messenger ﷺ and the honor of Jibril, peace be upon him, who was described with attributes of perfection and stations of glory—just as the Prophet ﷺ was described with ascension to the highest stations—it became evident that this contrast was a conceptual juxtaposition requiring the refutation of the lofty status they claimed for their three chief deities: Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, and Manat, which are mere stones rooted in the earth, possessing no power of action or ascent to any elevation. This contradiction thus became a comprehensive imaginative argument necessitating the refutation of their claims by recalling their true nature.

The discourse then shifted from establishing that the Prophet ﷺ was revealed the Quran to refuting the worship of idols, with the basis for refutation being the verse: ﴿Indeed, it is nothing but names you have named, you and your fathers, while Allah has not sent down any authority concerning them.﴾ [Editor’s note: An-Najm: 23].

The faʿ (الفاء) here serves to link the interrogative clause and what follows to the preceding clause: ﴿Have you disputed over what you see?﴾ [Editor’s note: An-Najm: 12], which itself is derived from the clause: ﴿The heart did not lie about what it saw.﴾ [Editor’s note: An-Najm: 11].

The vision in 'Have you seen...' may be visual, extending to a single object without requiring a second object, and the interrogation is declarative, implying: How do you see Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, and Manat in relation to what was described of the grandeur of Allah, the Exalted, and the honor of His angels and the honor of His Messenger ﷺ? This is a refutation of their claims and a denial of the divinity of these idols, evidenced by clear observation. The phrase 'aẓlamtum' (you claimed) is most commonly used for visual perception as chosen by the one content with the religion. The clause ﴿Is it for you the male...﴾ is an independent statement and an ascent in refutation, or a substitute for inclusion in the clause ﴿Have you seen Al-Lat and Al-Uzza...﴾, since its content is part of their claims, which they asserted that Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, and Manat were daughters of Allah, as related by Ibn Atiyyah and the author of Al-Kashf al-Maʿani, and the context of the verses necessitates this.

It is also possible that the vision is intellectual, meaning: You claimed Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, and Manat, and the second object was omitted for brevity, as the statement ﴿Is it for you the male...﴾ implies. The implied meaning is: You claimed them to be daughters of Allah, yet you assign females to Him while seeking male offspring for yourselves. The clause ﴿Is it for you the male...﴾ serves as a clarification of denial and an ascent in refuting their claims, meaning: Do you assign daughters to Allah specifically while envying yourselves for sons?

The author of Al-Kashf al-Maʿani regarded the statement ﴿Is it for you the male...﴾ as a supplement to the omitted second object of 'Have you seen...'

Additionally, this is due to what occurred in the nature of revelation and the stations of proximity the Prophet ﷺ attained, and the grandeur of Gabriel, which signify the vastness of Allah's power and the majesty of His dominion. This is recorded against the polytheists in their claim that they have partners with Allah, idols like Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, and Manat, thereby refuting their false assertion and the folly of their opinion. The mention of divine grandeur is followed by the refutation of their idolatry, for these are mere figments without reality, invented by the imaginations of polytheists and given names without true essence.

Thus, the verse ﴿Have you considered Al-Lat and Al-Uzza?﴾ and so on, employs a rhetorical question as a form of denial, with the vision being a declaration of knowledge, and the second action being the statement ﴿Indeed, they are only names you have named﴾ [Editor’s note: An-Najm: 23].

The phrase ﴿Do you have the male and He has the female?﴾ and so on, serves as an intervening statement between the two actions to elevate the denial, meaning: Did you claim them as daughters of Allah, or did you claim the angels as daughters of Allah?

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These interpretations are not contradictory; we accept them all as intended in this context. You may consider the verb 'arāytum' (Have you seen?) as dependent on the action, given the negation that follows in ﴿Indeed, they are only names you have named﴾ [Editor’s note: An-Najm: 23], and regard the phrase ﴿Do you have the male and He has the female?﴾ up to ﴿ḍīzā﴾ as an interruption.

Al-Lat: an idol of the Thaqif tribe at Taif, worshipped by the Quraysh and the majority of Arabs, holding prominence among the Quraysh. It was a square stone upon which they built a structure. Al-Fakhr stated it was shaped like a human figure, located where the left minaret of the Taif mosque stands, as noted by Al-Qurtubi, suggesting the mosque may have had two minarets.

The alif and lam at the beginning of Al-Lat are superfluous. The internal 'alif' is also superfluous, likely because its root is 'lat' meaning 'deity.' When they wished to designate it as a specific deity, they added a definite article, as in 'Allah,' whose root is 'ilah' (god). In classical Arabic, it is pronounced with a silent tā' of the definite article.

The majority read 'Al-Lat' with a light pronunciation of the upper nun, while Ruwayis, via Ya'qub, reads it with a heavy tā', a linguistic variant. This is because many Arabs say the stone's origin was a place where a man sat during the Jāhiliyya era, selling provisions to pilgrims. After his death, they turned his place into a shrine.

Al-Uzza: a noun from 'izz' (might), the name of a white stone idol with a structure. Al-Fakhr stated it was shaped like a plant, possibly referring to a stone with a tree-like image, located beneath a date palm on a branch. The majority of Arabs worshipped it, especially the Quraysh.

Abu Sufyan once addressed the Muslims on the day of Uhud, saying, 'We have Al-Uzza, but you have none.'

Al-Zamakhshari, in his commentary on Surah Al-Fatihah, noted that the Arabs, when beginning an action, would say, 'In the name of Al-Lat, in the name of Al-Uzza.'

As for Manat, it is a name of uncertain origin, feminine in gender. Its correct form should end with a hamza of femininity, written with a hamza, and it is exempt from grammatical inflection. Some dialects use a tā' instead of the hamza at the end.

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