فَٱصْبِرْ عَلَىٰ مَا يَقُولُونَ وَسَبِّحْ بِحَمْدِ رَبِّكَ قَبْلَ طُلُوعِ ٱلشَّمْسِ وَقَبْلَ ٱلْغُرُوبِ وَمِنَ ٱلَّيْلِ فَسَبِّحْهُ وَأَدْبَٰرَ ٱلسُّجُودِ
Fa'ṣbir ʿalā mā yaqūlūna wa sabbiḥ bi-ḥamdi rabbika qabla ṭulūʿi'sh-shamsi wa qabla'l-ghurūb — wa mina'l-layli fa-sabbiḥhu wa adbāra's-sujūd
"So be patient with what they say; and glorify your Lord with praise before the rising of the sun and before its setting. — And glorify Him in part of the night, and after the prostrations."
The verse begins with fāʾ: "so". Everything recounted up to the thirty-eighth verse, that is, issues in what follows.
And the consequence that issues is striking. After the chain of proofs is complete, the command given to the Prophet is not to go on arguing; it is to be patient and to glorify.
I record this as my own reading: the sūra puts into practice here what it will say plainly in the forty-fifth verse. The proof has been presented; making it accepted is not the task.
Its concrete sense: to hold a thing in a place, to confine it, to tie it. Ṣabara'd-dābba — he tethered the animal in a place. Ṣabr — to hold the self in a place. Ṣabbāra — hard, enduring rock.
Patience in Arabic, then, is not a "bearing" but an act of holding. A person holds himself in a place.
And the object of the command is specified: ʿalā mā yaqūlūn — "with what they say". What is to be borne, that is, is not an affliction but speech.
| Verse | Expression | Command / statement |
|---|---|---|
| 39 | fa'ṣbir ʿalā mā yaqūlūn | You: be patient |
| 45 | naḥnu aʿlamu bi-mā yaqūlūn | We: We know |
The same expression, with two different subjects. What falls to you is patience; the knowing is Ours.
سُبْحَان — root س-ب-ح. Its concrete sense: to swim in water or in air, to move swiftly along. Sabaḥa fi'l-māʾ — he swam in the water. The Qurʾān uses this root of the heavenly bodies: "each swimming in an orbit" (al-Anbiyāʾ 21/33 — yasbaḥūn).
And tasbīḥ derives from this sense of the root: to make a thing flow away from what does not befit it, to declare it free of it.
Glorification, that is, is before being praise an act of setting apart: keeping God clear of everything that does not befit Him.
And its place in this sūra is meaningful. What did the preceding verse say? "No weariness touched Us." — that is, a sentence of tanzīh. And immediately afterwards comes the command to glorify.
I record this link as my own reading: the thirty-eighth verse gives the declaring-free as a statement, the thirty-ninth commands the same work as an act.
بِحَمْدِ — root ح-م-د. To praise; and, as was treated in the sections on al-Baqara and al-Fātiḥa, ḥamd is the praise given for a good done by will.
The expression "glorify with praise" joins two movements: a putting at a distance (tanzīh) and a drawing near (praise). One says "He is not so", the other "He is thus".
1. Qabla ṭulūʿi'sh-shams — before the rising of the sun. 2. Wa qabla'l-ghurūb — before its setting. 3. Wa mina'l-layl — in part of the night. 4. Wa adbāra's-sujūd — after the prostrations.
In the classical commentaries it is widely said that these times point to the prayers, and the following correspondences are transmitted:
| Time | The counterpart transmitted |
|---|---|
| Before the rising of the sun | The dawn prayer |
| Before its setting | The noon and afternoon prayers; or the afternoon prayer alone |
| In part of the night | The sunset and night prayers; or the night vigil |
| After the prostrations | The supererogatory prayers said after the obligatory ones; or the witr |
These correspondences are transmitted in the classical sources and the exegetes differ among themselves. In this commentary no legal ruling is issued; what is transmitted is passed on.
And this note is necessary: the wording of the verse does not say prayer, it says glorification. Prayer is the most comprehensive form of glorification, but the wording of the command is wider.
| Reading | Analysis | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| أَدْبَٰرَ (with fatḥa) | The plural of dubur | "The backs of / after the prostrations" |
| إِدْبَٰرَ (with kasra) | The verbal noun idbār | "At the ending / conclusion of the prostrations" |
Both readings are transmitted in the sources on the variant readings. I make no definite ascription as to which imam held which reading.
The difference in sense is small and both point to the same time: after the end of the prostration or of the prayer.
A comparison must be recorded: at al-Ṭūr 52/49 a similar expression comes in the form with kasra: wa idbāra'n-nujūm — "at the withdrawing of the stars". This expression was treated in the section on al-Ṭūr.
Root: د-ب-ر. The back, the end. Dubur — the back; idbār — to turn one's back, to withdraw; tadbīr — to think out the end of a matter; mudabbir — the one who orders its end.