وَلَقَد رَآهُ بِالأُفُقِ المُبينِ

Certainly he saw him on the manifest horizon.

EXPOSITION

Tabatabai writes that the subject of the verb he saw in the verse refers to Your companion of the preceding verse, i.e. Prophet Muhammad (s), while him refers to Gabriel, an opinion with which Qatādah, Mujāhid, Hasan al-Baṣrī,^{‎[1]Tabrisi, 10/678.} and Ṭūsī^{‎[2]Tibyan, 10/287.} all concur.

The verse says the Holy Prophet saw Gabriel on the manifest horizon, which is apparently the same as the one referred in 53:7: while he was on the highest horizon. Incidentally, the word ufuq (horizon) occurs twice in the Quran, once here in this surah and the other in 53:7.^{‎[3]Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’ānic Usage, p. 31.} It is also said that this verse alludes to the Prophet seeing Gabriel in his true form on the horizon where the sun rises,^{‎[4]Tibyan, 10/287.} once at the beginning of his ministry when Gabriel appeared on the highest horizon and covered the entire horizon such that he dazzled the Prophet with the magnificence of his appearance, and another time during the Night of Ascension, the vision of which is recounted in 53:13-18. Thus, this verse is understood to allude to his first vision of Gabriel in his true image at the beginning of his mission.^{‎[5]Amthal, 19/465.}

Other exegetes maintain that the witnessing mentioned in this verse refers to the Prophet witnessing God, not materially but by an inner vision of the heart.^{‎[6]Amthal, 19/465.}

Proponents of both ideas suggest that this vision at the beginning of the Prophet’s mission is clarified and referred to again in 53:1-12.

As for those who maintain that this vision was that of Gabriel, there is some confusion as to when exactly this vision occurred. Was it on the occasion of the revelation of the first five verses of chapter 96, which were the very first verses revealed to the Prophet, or was it a later vision, which precipitated the revelation of 74:1, which is also an early revelation? For further discussions and clarifications, refer to these two surahs respectively. However, it is not improbable that the vision mentioned here is that which took place on the occasion of the first revelation, i.e. the verses 96:1-5, and this seems to be corroborated by reading the preceding verses as well as 53:1-12.

For those who incline to the idea that this vision pertains to that of God in light of 53:1-12, then this would be sensible only if those verses are interpreted to refer to the ascent part of the Prophet’s heavenly ascension, and therefore 53:13-18 would refer to the descent part of the Prophet’s heavenly journey.

[1] Tabrisi, 10/678.
[2] Tibyan, 10/287.
[3] Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’ānic Usage, p. 31.
[4] Tibyan, 10/287.
[5] Amthal, 19/465.
[6] Amthal, 19/465.