I say: Most of the reciters, including Hafs from Asim which is ubiquitous today, recite it asلَا يُكَذِّبُونَكَ which can mean ‘give the lie to’ i.e. deny/reject/disbelieve. The popular interpretation based on this reading is that they (the disbelievers) did not consider the prophet to be a liar in reality (in their hearts), they knew that he was truthful and his message correct, yet they opposed the verses of God for their own selfish motives.

However, Nafi and Kisai (two of the seven normative reciters), one reception of A’sim (i.e. A’sha from Abi Bakr), and al-A’mash recited it as لا يُكْذِبُونَكَ, and this is also attributed to the Commander of the Faithful and Ja’far al-Sadiq in early Sunni works (see Mu’jam al-Qira’at, Vol. 2, Pg. 417 for references). Indeed the grammarians Abu Ubayd and al-Zajjaj preferred this latter over the former. That this is the recitation of the Ahl al-Bayt is confirmed in our sources as can be seen here.

Reciting it in this way gives a different nuance to the meaning of the verse. The Imam explainsلا يُكْذِبُونَكَ to mean they will never be able to find you out (expose the prophet as a liar) by challenging you with their own version of truth (in reality falsehood) which detracts from your greater truth.

See also a paralell report in Tafsir al-Ayyashi (Vol. 2, Pg. 97) on the authority of al-Husayn b. al-Mundhir where al-Sadiq is quoted as giving this recitation and then commenting:

لا يستطيعون ابطال قولك

They will not be able to nullify your statements (assertions)

Consider also a report in Sayyari (Pg. 49) which must be considered to be a variant of the same report as above:

صفوان عن يعقوب بن شعيب عن عمران بن ميثم عن عباية الاسدي قال: قرأ رجل عند امير المؤمنين صلوات الله عليه فَإِنَّهُمْ لَا يُكَذِّبُونَكَ فقال: بلى والله لقد كذبوه اشد التكذيب ولكنها مخففة لا يُكْذِبُونَكَ لا ياتون بحق احق من حقك

Note that whilst in al-Kafi Imran b. Miytham has al-Sadiq quoting the Commander of the Faithful, in Sayyari’s report Imran has Abaya al-Asadi (a Majhul companion of the Commander of the Faithful) quoting the Commander of the Faithful. This opens up the possibility of a mistake in Kulayni’s chain and has the potential to change its grading.

Examples of the Qira’a of the Ahl al-Bayt

Thaqalayn