Another group said that Yāsīn is the name of someone else. They then differed: al-Kalbī said, “Yāsīn is Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.” Another group said that it is the Quran. All of this is plainly strained and unnecessary.

The correct explanation—and Allah knows best—is that the original form is Āl Yāsīn (the family of Yāsīn), like Āl Ibrāhīm (the family of Abraham). The initial alif and lām were omitted because identical letters occurred together, while the name itself indicated what had been omitted. This is common in their speech: when identical letters occur together, they dislike pronouncing them all, so they omit whatever can be omitted without ambiguity, even though they would not omit it where no such repetition occurs. Thus they omit a nūn from innī, annī, ka’annī, and lākinnī, but not from laytanī. Since the lām in la‘alla resembles a nūn, they also omit the nūn after it. This is especially understandable given the Arabs’ customary handling and alteration of foreign names: sometimes they say Ilyāsīn, sometimes Ilyās, sometimes Yāsīn, and occasionally Ya’s.

Thus, according to one reading, the greeting of peace is directed to him, and according to the other, to his family.