وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمُ ٱرْكَعُواْ لَا يَرْكَعُونَ
The sūra's last diagnosis. And in a text of fifty verses, the only verse that tells what the addressee does.
Note: throughout the sūra the addressee has been named by an attribute — deniers, guilty. What they do was not said. The forty-eighth verse gives a single behaviour.
This preference is meaningful: what is told is not the source of the command but the answer given to the command. Whoever says it, the outcome is the same.
The word's technical sense within the prayer settled later; the root itself is a general bending. It is recorded as being used in Arabic of an old man bent at the waist, or of a person leaning towards something.
| View | What it says | Its ground |
|---|---|---|
| The prayer | When they are told "pray" they do not pray; bowing is used as the name of the prayer | The word's dominant use in the Qurʾān; and the call to "perform the prayer" having been made in Mecca |
| Submission in general | When they are called to submit to the truth they do not bend | The general sense of the root; and the sūra's content being about denial rather than prayer |
Both views have been defended and they do not exclude one another. The prayer is the bodily form of submission; whoever refuses one has refused the other.
I impose no preference. But this should be recorded: when the word's general sense is preserved the verse works more broadly — and it accords better with the sūra's method of describing its addressee by an attribute.
In this commentary this root was treated at al-Baqara 2/43. The finding there:
"Perform the prayer, give the alms, and bow with those who bow." The first two commands are familiar; the third is striking. It does not say "bow" — it says "bow with those who bow". That is, what is asked is not merely that the act of worship be performed but that it be performed together… The meaning of this command within its context is important too: the addressee is a community that has received a scripture but has become divided. That the command given to a divided community should be "bow together" is no coincidence.
| al-Baqara 2/43 | al-Mursalāt 77/48 | |
|---|---|---|
| Wording | Wa'rkaʿū maʿa'r-rākiʿīn | Idhā qīla lahumu'rkaʿū lā yarkaʿūn |
| Mood | Command | Statement (the outcome of the command) |
| Addressee | A community that has received a scripture | The deniers |
| Emphasis | Togetherness — with whom | Refusal — whether it is done |
| What it tells | The content of the command | The response to the command |
The two verses are the two ends of the same command. Al-Baqara gives the command and says how it is to be done; al-Mursalāt records its refusal.
And there is a relation between them — I record it as my own reading: in al-Baqara the command was a command to join a community (maʿa'r-rākiʿīn). What is refused in al-Mursalāt is also a joining. That is, what is refused is not merely a bodily movement but a taking of one's place in a rank.
This accords with the whole argument of the sūra. The sūra's name is yawm al-faṣl — the day of separation. And the criterion of the separation is not set on that day; it is set in this world, in what is done when "bow" is said.
The imperfect conveys continuity. That is, not a single refusal but a refusal repeated every time it is said.
And this sets up a formal correspondence with the sūra's refrain: the refrain is repeated ten times, the refusal is repeated every time. I record this as my own reading.
The closest counterpart of this verse in the Qurʾān is bowing's being demanded in the hereafter and proving impossible:
"On the day the shin is bared and they are called to prostrate, and they cannot. Their eyes cast down, humiliation covering them. And they used to be called to prostrate while they were sound." (al-Qalam 68/42-43)
| al-Mursalāt 77/48 | al-Qalam 68/42-43 | |
|---|---|---|
| When | In this world | On that day |
| The call | Urkaʿū — bow | Yudʿawna ila's-sujūd — they are called to prostrate |
| The answer | Lā yarkaʿūn — they do not bow | Lā yastaṭīʿūn — they cannot |
| The difference | They do not want to | They are not able |
And al-Qalam's last sentence frames the link itself: "And they used to be called to prostrate while they were sound." That is, the incapacity of that day is named as the counterpart of the unwillingness of this world.
I record this parallel as an observation. I do not claim a deliberate reference between the two sūras; but the content of the two verses tells the same idea from two times.
And this suits the sūra's general technique. Al-Mursalāt 35-36 said that the capacity for speech does not work. Now verse 48 says that the capacity for bowing is not used in this world. One capacity is not used; then one capacity does not work.