Accordingly, what must be said is this: it has not been established that pronouncing demonstrative and relative pronouns with yā’ when they are dualized belongs to the dialect of Quraysh—or even to that of the other Arabs. Those grammarians who maintained this did so only by analogy, treating the dual forms of demonstrative and relative pronouns like those of other nouns. Otherwise, there is no evidence in the Quran supporting their claim. No other such indeclinable demonstrative or relative pronoun occurs in the Quran in an accusative or genitive position, and the wording here is “hādhāni” (“these two”). This wording is established by mass transmission, both in pronunciation and in writing.

Whoever claims that the scribe made a mistake is himself gravely mistaken, as has been explained at length elsewhere. The written Quran has been handed down through mass transmission, and several copies were written out, all of them with alif. How, then, could a mistake be conceivable here? Moreover, the reciters recited only what they had heard from others. Muslims were reciting Surah Tā Hā during the lifetimes of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and of Abū Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthmān, and ‘Alī. It was among the earliest portions of the Quran to be revealed. Ibn Mas‘ūd said:

“The Children of Israel, The Cave, Mary, Tā Hā, and The Prophets are among the earliest surahs revealed, and among the first I learned.”

Al-Bukhārī narrated this from him.

It is unanimously agreed to be Meccan. Abū al-Faraj and others said: “It is Meccan by unanimous agreement.” Indeed, it was among the earliest revelations. It has also been reported that a written copy was in the possession of ‘Umar’s sister, and that the occasion of ‘Umar’s conversion was his learning that his sister had embraced Islam, while the surah was being recited in her presence.