وَٱلَّذِينَ هُمْ عَلَىٰ صَلَوَٰتِهِمْ يُحَافِظُونَ
This is the clearest structural element of the sūra, and it can be counted directly from the text: the list consists of six items, and the first item and the sixth are on the same subject — the prayer.
| Order | Verse | Field |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | The prayer |
| 2 | 3 | Speech — laghw |
| 3 | 4 | Property — zakāt |
| 4 | 5-7 | The body — furūj |
| 5 | 8 | Relationship — amāna and ʿahd |
| 6 | 9 | The prayer |
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the list's own arrangement: the four items in between are speech, property, the body and relationship — that is, the four fields in which a person comes into contact with others. The list takes these four fields between its two items on prayer. The frame is outside, life is inside.
And the lexicographers record this frame as well; but the meaning loaded onto the frame is interpretation, and I do not present the reading above as binding.
| 23/2 | 23/9 | |
|---|---|---|
| The word | Ṣalāt — singular | Ṣalawāt — plural |
| The particle | Fī — inside | ʿAlā — over / above |
| Kind of predicate | Khāshiʿūn — active participle (a noun) | Yuḥāfiẓūn — imperfect (a verb) |
| The form of the verb | Form I (khashaʿa) | Form III (ḥāfaẓa) — continuity and reciprocity |
| What it reports | An inward state | An ongoing guarding |
All four differences can be verified from the text. And the reading I build on them is the following, which I give as my own reading:
One. Singular and plural. The second verse looks inside a prayer being performed; the ninth looks at the whole of the prayers, that is, at the appointed times and the order.
Two. Fī – ʿalā. Fī reports the inside, ʿalā a watching from above. One tells of what is inside the prayer, the other of standing over the prayer.
Three. Noun and verb. In Arabic a nominal sentence reports fixity (thubūt), a verbal sentence renewal (tajaddud); this is a distinction the lexicographers record consistently. Khushūʿ is given as a settled state, keeping watch as a repeated work.
Four. Form III. The pattern ḥāfaẓa, unlike ḥafiẓa of Form I, reports continuity and reciprocal effort. The same root appeared in the fifth verse as ḥāfiẓūn (active participle, from Form I).
To draw it together — and this drawing together is my own reading: the list opens with the state inside the prayer and closes with the keeping up of the prayers. The difference between the two is the difference between one prayer and a lifetime of prayer. And the list places between the two all the fields in which a person makes contact.