al-Insān 76:25-26

Wa'dhkur isma Rabbika bukratan wa aṣīlā · Wa mina'l-layli fa'sjud lahū wa sabbiḥhu laylan ṭawīlā "And remember the name of your Lord morning and evening. And in a part of the night prostrate to Him; and glorify Him through a long stretch of the night."

Root: ذ-ك-ر. It occurs three times in the sūra and this is the second.

In the first verse man was not madhkūr — he was not mentioned. Here the addressee is commanded to remember.

And what the sequence says is this — I record it as my own reading: the first work given to the being that was not mentioned is to mention. The sūra opened with a lack and turned that lack into a command.

ٱسْمَ رَبِّكَ — "the name of your Lord". The verse does not say "remember your Lord", it says "remember His name". Remembrance is set down not as a state of thinking but as a work done with the tongue. The same construction is found at al-Aʿlā 87/15 as well (wa dhakara'sma Rabbihī).

بُكْرَة — root: ب-ك-ر. The first part of the day, early morning. From the same root bākūra (the first-ripening, the earliest produce), bikr (firstborn; untouched), ibtikār (to act early).

The idea of the root is priority: being at the head of the line.

أَصِيل — root: أ-ص-ل. The last part of the day, the time from the afternoon to sundown.

From the same root أَصْل (aṣl) — root, foundation, origin. The historical link between the two senses is disputed among the lexicographers and I make no firm claim of derivation. But that the two stand together is striking: aṣl is the bottom of a thing, aṣīl the bottom of the day.

Together the two words give the two ends of the day. In Arabic this is one way of saying "continually": when the two ends are named, what lies between them is covered.

The particle مِنْ is partitive: in a part of the night. The whole is not asked.

Then comes the second clause: wa sabbiḥhu laylan ṭawīlā — "glorify Him through a long night."

There is an apparent tension: one says "in a part of it", the other "long". The classical explanation is this: two separate spans are given for two separate works — a portion of the night for prostration, a long portion for glorification. That is, the clauses do not cancel one another, they divide.

فَٱسْجُدْ — root: س-ج-د. To put the forehead to the ground; and in the root sense of the word lie bending, submitting. This root was treated in earlier sections.

سَبِّحْ — root: س-ب-ح. Its concrete sense is to move swiftly in water or in air, to swim. Tasbīḥ is to hold God far from deficiency — in the logic of the word there is a moving away, a stripping clear. This root was taken up in the discussion of al-Aʿlā 87/1.

In the classical commentaries it is said that these two verses point to particular times of prayer, and different pairings are made as to which time corresponds to which word.

No legal ruling is issued in this commentary and I adopt no preference as to which of these pairings is correct. The wording of the verse gives no particular name of a time; what it gives is a distribution: the two ends of the day and a portion of the night.

And now the quietest contrast of the sūra becomes visible.

In the thirteenth verse the abrār were مُّتَّكِئِين — reclining, having set down their weight, not needing to move.

In the twenty-sixth verse the addressee is told فَٱسْجُدْ — prostrate; and through a long portion of the night.

That is, the sūra describes the reward as rest and the road as sleeplessness. And it sets the two side by side in the same text, thirteen verses apart.

I record this as my own reading; the content of the two verses is in the text.