contradiction in the Qur’an regarding swearing by places and times

 Content of the doubt:

Some skeptics claim that there is a contradiction between the words of God Almighty: “And the star when it goes down (1)” (An-Najm), swearing by the star, and His words Almighty: “And this secure city (3)” (At-Tin), swearing by Mecca, and His words Almighty: “And the promised day (2)” (Al-Buruj), swearing by the Day of Resurrection, and between His words Almighty: “So I swear by the positions of the stars (75)” (Al-Waqi’ah), swearing by the positions of the stars, and between His words Almighty: “I swear by this city (1)” (Al-Balad), and His words Almighty: “I swear by the Day of Resurrection (1)” (Al-Qiyamah), and they ask: How can God swear by something in one place, then deny this oath in another place? They aim behind that to confirm that the Qur’an is a creation of humans.

The way to refute the doubt:
The scholars have four views on the meaning of “La”:
“La” is a relative pronoun or redundant, and the meaning is affirmative, so there is no negation in it.
“La” is a response to the words of the polytheists who denied the Prophet - may God bless him and grant him peace -, and his saying “I swear” is a renewed affirmation.
“La” is to negate what the oath indicates of the greatness and magnificence of what is sworn by.
“La” is the lam for the beginning, and its fat-ha is fully pronounced, so an alif is generated from it, and this is well-known in the Arabic language.

Details:
The scholars have four views on the meaning of “La”, which are explained by Dr. Anwar Al-Hadidi as follows:
God - Glory be to Him - swore by the safe land, and by the Day of Resurrection, and by the positions of the stars, and the speech in “la” is one of four aspects:
The first: That “la” is a connection or an addition according to the custom of the Arabs, as they may have pronounced the word “la” without intending negation, but rather to strengthen and confirm the speech, like the saying of Moses - peace be upon him - in what the Holy Qur’an narrated - to his brother Aaron - peace be upon him - when he found his people worshipping the calf during his absence: “He said, O Aaron, what prevented you when you saw them going astray (92) from following me? Did you disobey my command (93)?” (Taha), meaning: that you follow.
And His statement - Glory be to Him - to Iblis when he refused to prostrate to Adam as God commanded him: “He said, ‘What prevented you from prostrating when I commanded you?’” (Al-A’raf: 12), meaning: to prostrate, as evidenced by His statement, Glory be to Him: “He said, ‘O Iblis, what prevented you from prostrating to that which I created with My hands?’” (Sad: 75), and His statement, Glory be to Him: “So that the People of the Scripture may know that they have no power over anything of the bounty of Allah?” (Al-Hadid: 29), meaning: so that the People of the Scripture may know, and His statement, Glory be to Him: “But no, by your Lord, they will not [truly] believe until they make you, [O Muhammad], judge concerning that over which they dispute among themselves and then find within themselves no discomfort from what you have judged and submit in [full, willing] submission (65)” (An-Nisa’), meaning: By your Lord.
The addition of “la” is often mentioned in poetry, such as the saying of Al-Ajjaj:
In a well without Houris he ran away And he did not realize
his lie until he saw the dawn, Jashar[1]
So Houris: destruction, meaning: in a well of destruction and “la” is redundant.

The second: That “la” is a response to the words of the polytheists who denied the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, and his saying: “I swear” is a renewed affirmation like the saying of the speaker: No, by God. “No” is a response to the words that preceded it, and from that is the saying of the poet:
No, by your father, the daughter of Al-Amiri,
the people do not claim that I flee
. However, this interpretation is weakened by the fact that deleting the name of “la” and its predicate is not permissible.

The third: That “la” is for negation, but it does not negate the oath, rather it negates what it indicates of the greatness and magnificence of what is sworn by, as if the meaning of: I do not swear by such-and-such:

Fourth: The lam is the lam of initiation, and the original is: la-aqsam. Its fat-ha was prolonged and an alif was generated from it. The Arabs may sometimes pronounce the fat-ha with an alif, the kasra with a ya’, and the damma with a waw.
An example of this in the fatha is the rajaz poet’s saying:
If the old woman gets angry, divorce
her, and do not please her, and do not flatter her
. The original is: trḍḍha, because the verb is made jussive by the prohibitive la. In the saturation of the kasra with the
ya’, the saying of Qays ibn Zuhair: Did
not the news spread
about what the camels of Banu Ziyad encountered
? The original is: yā’itak, because of the presence of the jussive.
In the saturation of the damma with the waw, the rajaz poet’s saying:
If Amr intended to sleep ,
then he got up and tied the knotted belt
, meaning: sleep. This interpretation is indicated by the reading of al-Hasan and al-A’sha: “I swear” without an alif. The first interpretation is the most correct of them all [2] .
Linguists said: This oath indicates the glorification of what is sworn by, as in Surat Al-Balad, and as in the words of God Almighty: “So I swear by the positions of the stars (75) And indeed, it is a great oath, if you only knew (76) Indeed, it is a noble Qur’an (77)” (Al-Waqi’ah), and as in His words: “I swear by the Day of Resurrection (1) And I swear by the self-reproaching soul (2)” (Al-Qiyamah), all of these are oaths.
This is not from the subtleties of the language, but rather it is from its basics, but the people do not know,
and if “la” is considered negative and the sentence is declarative, then it is restricted; that is: I do not swear by it and you are in it, but I swear by it and you are not in it, so there is no contradiction either.

Conclusion:
There is no contradiction between the verses in which God Almighty swears by Mecca, the Day of Resurrection, and the positions of the stars, and the verses whose appearance suggests that there is no oath; because “la” in these verses does not go beyond four aspects:
Either it is a relative clause or it is redundant and was spoken without the intention of negation, but rather emphasis.
· Either it is a response to the words of the polytheists who denied the Prophet - may God bless him and grant him peace.
· Or it is to negate what the oath is based on, which is to magnify and glorify what is sworn by.
· Or it is that the lam is the lam of initiation, and its fat-ha is fully pronounced, and this is well-known in the speech of the Arabs.

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[1] Jashar: came out.
[2] Al-Bayan fi refutation of the imagined contradiction between the verses of the Qur’an, Dr. Muhammad Abu al-Nur al-Hadid, Al-Amanah Library, Cairo, 1401 AH/1981 AD, pp. 86-88, with some modifications.