The Companions must therefore have recited this word. It is impossible that they all recited it with yā’, as Abū ‘Amr did, for had that been the case, no one would have recited it except with yā’, nor would it have been written except with yā’. Thus, we know that they—or most of them—recited it with alif, as the majority of reciters did. The Companions in Mecca, Medina, Syria, Kufa, and Basra recited this surah both during prayer and outside it. The Successors heard it from them, and the generation after the Successors heard it from the Successors. It is therefore impossible that all the Companions recited it with yā’, when the majority of reciters recited it only with alif, having learned their recitation either directly from the Companions or from the Successors, who had learned it from the Companions. This establishes with certainty that the general body of the Companions recited it with alif, just as the majority recited it and as it is written.

Now, we know that the Companions recited only as the Messenger had taught them, in accordance with Arabic usage, specifically the dialect of Quraysh. We therefore know that this eloquent usage, familiar to them in demonstrative and relative pronouns, employs the forms:

“in hādhāni” (“Indeed, these two …”) and “marartu bi-hādhāni” (“I passed by these two”).

They use alif in the nominative, accusative, and genitive alike. Anyone who claims that their dialect uses alif in the nominative must produce evidence for that claim and transmitted examples of their speech, as actually heard from them, in prose and verse. Nothing in the Quran supports his claim; rather, his reliance is on analogy.

We therefore say: