وَمِنَ اللَّيلِ فَاسجُد لَهُ وَسَبِّحهُ لَيلًا طَويلًا

And prostrate to Him for a watch of the night and glorify Him the night long.

EXEGESIS

Usjud is an imperitive verb from sujūd, which means to prostrate. It may specifically refer here to ṣalāh, the mandatory prayer. Hence, celebrate the name of your Lord morning and evening, and prostrate to Him for a watch of the night can be applied to the morning prayer (ṣalāt al-fajr), the afternoon prayer (ṣalāt al-ʿaṣr), the prayer after sunset (ṣalāt al-maghrib), and the evening prayer (ṣalāt al-ʿishāʾ).^{‎[1]Zamakhshari, 4/675; Mizan, 20/141.}

Sabbiḥ is also an imperitive, from tasbīḥ, which means to engage in the exaltation and glorification of God.^{‎[2]Lisan, 2/471.} Here, glorification may refer to the night prayer.^{‎[3]Tabrisi, 10/625-626.} The qualifier of length (ṭawīlan) can be applied to the night.^{‎[4]Mizan, 20/141.} It can also be applied to the action of glorification itself, as if to say: and glorify Him at night, a prolonged glorification.^{‎[5]Mizan, 20/141.} Either way, it is calling the Messenger to spend a considerable portion of the night in prayer as in verses 73:1-4. This call is also directed to the followers of the Messenger by extension, and at each person’s individual capacity (73:20).

EXPOSITION

Standing in the face of the champions of sin and faithlessness and their incessant machinery necessitates a pristine and effective source of spiritual fuel and motor power: prayer (2:45, 2:153).^{‎[6]Qutb, 6/3785-3786.}

Verse 25 calls for the constant remembrance of the Lord’s name in every action and thought, at every time.^{‎[7]Tabrisi, 10/625.} The pillar of all of these actions is prayer and supplication, morning and evening. In order to embed these actions into the fibre of each day, specific times for prayer had been prescribed. Thus, Muslims can organise their lives around the constant remembrance of God during strategic points of the day.

Verses 25-26 is not the Quranic source of prescription of the full five daily obligatory prayers in Islam. They are in line with the divine command that says: Maintain the prayer at the two ends of the day, and during the early hours of the night (11:114). Here, the two ends of the day are dawn and sunset. They are also in line with the divine command that says: So be patient with what they say, and celebrate the praise of your Lord before the rising of the sun and before the sunset, and glorify Him in watches of the night and at the day’s ends, that you may be pleased (20:130). The full five daily prayers were prescribed, when God said: Maintain the prayer from the sun’s decline till the darkness of the night, and [observe particularly] the dawn recital. Indeed the dawn recital is attended [by angels] (17:78). The sun’s decline is specifically from noon onwards, when the sun crosses the meridian. Note that this evidences Islam’s phased approach at building the Muslim character through the pillar of ritual prayer.

INSIGHTS FROM HADITH

1. It has been reported that Aḥmad ibn Muhammad asked Imam al-Riḍā (a) about the glorification of God (tasbīḥ) in this verse and he said: ‘[It is] the night prayer (ṣalāt al-layl).’^{‎[8]Tabrisi, 10/626.}

REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE

Some exegetes have taken verses 25-26 to refer to the prescription of the five obligatory prayers as well as the night prayers.^{‎[9]Razi, 30/759; Alusi, 15/183.} Linguists agree that aṣīl is ʿashī.^{‎[10] Lisan, 11/16; Tahqiq, 1/321.} They differ in that some of them believe ʿashī refers to a portion of the day that begins at noon.^{‎[11] Lisan, 15/60.} However, there are a number of reasons that weaken the support for this claim.

First, looking at the Quranic use of the word, we see that it excludes noontime. Verses 30:17-18, for example, state: So glorify Allah when you enter evening and when you rise at dawn. To Him belongs all praise in the heavens and the earth, at nightfall (ʿashiyyan) and when you enter noontime. Here, we see that ʿashī is used to express at nightfall, and tuẓhirūn is used to express you enter noontime. If ʿashī included the time from noon onwards, there would be no need to repeat ḥīna tuẓhirūn (when you enter noontime). This is one reason to take ʿashī or ʿashiyyan, and therefore aṣīl, to mean the last part of the day. Another reason to take aṣīl to be the last part of the day is that the Quran always pairs it up with bukrah, which was shown earlier to be the earliest part of the day (25:5, 33:42, 48:9, 76:25). Moreso, ʿashiyyah, another conjugated form of ʿashawa, is paired with ḍuḥā in verse 79:46, with ḍuḥā known to be the early morning.^{‎[12] Lisan, 14/475.}

Second, analysing the meaning of ʿashawa (the root of ʿashī), most linguists agree that it is the weakening of vision or sight.^{‎[13] Lisan, 15/56.} In turn, ʿashawa can also be to neglect, meaning to cease attending to something as if not seeing it or its importance (43:36).^{‎[14] Lisan, 10/57.} However, the linguists who said that ʿashī is from noon till sunset, such as Azharī,^{‎[15] Lisan, 15/60.} have taken ʿashawa to mean the turning towards or turning away from something, depending on the preposition that followed it. For example, if the expression was ʿashā ilā al-nār, it means he turned towards the fire, and if it was ʿashā ʿan al-nar, it means he turned away from the fire. From there, they took ʿashī to commence at noon because the shade turns away from the west towards the east, while the sun turns away from the east towards the west, as Abū al-Haytham explains it.^{‎[16] Lisan, 15/60.} However, this derivation of the meaning of ʿashī is not sound for two reasons. First, ʿashī is a noun and not a verb followed by a preposition, and thus expresses a different meaning. Secondly, ʿashā ilā al-nār does mean he turned towards the fire, however, more precisely, it means that being under the cover of night, when one’s vision is weaker, he turned towards the fire to seek its light, as Abū Zayd explains.^{‎[17] Lisan, 15/58.} Hence, the root meaning of words that have ʿashawa as their root always go back to a weakening of vision and not to a turning away or towards something. Hence, to take ʿashī to mean noon onwards because of the movement of the sun past the zenith towards the west, is lacking evidence.

[1] Zamakhshari, 4/675; Mizan, 20/141.
[2] Lisan, 2/471.
[3] Tabrisi, 10/625-626.
[4] Mizan, 20/141.
[5] Mizan, 20/141.
[6] Qutb, 6/3785-3786.
[7] Tabrisi, 10/625.
[8] Tabrisi, 10/626.
[9] Razi, 30/759; Alusi, 15/183.
[10] Lisan, 11/16; Tahqiq, 1/321.
[11] Lisan, 15/60.
[12] Lisan, 14/475.
[13] Lisan, 15/56.
[14] Lisan, 10/57.
[15] Lisan, 15/60.
[16] Lisan, 15/60.
[17] Lisan, 15/58.