And when He, glorified and exalted is He, finished with the matter of the People of the Book regarding belief in Allah, the Prophet, and the Book which is guidance coming to them, alluding to that by fulfilling the covenant; He turned to His saying: ﴿And establish prayer﴾ meaning: preserve the worship that is mandated every day with all its conditions and pillars. ﴿And give zakah﴾ meaning: the obligatory charity every year, so that you may gather the attributes of the righteous who are guided by this Book ﴿Those (p-333) who believe in the unseen and establish prayer and spend from what We have provided them﴾ [Al-Baqarah: 3], being good-doers in that between themselves and the truth and between themselves and the creation. These two acts of worship are either bodily or financial, thus they were specified in mention, because of their nature to attract all other acts of worship and to follow them. Zakah, Al-Harali said, is growth in the outward sense and in the inward essence of the soul.

﴿And bow﴾ is from rukūʿ, which is a middle position between standing and prostration, occurring outwardly from the standing position and inwardly from the heart. It is specified for the middle nation that gathers the two extremes, 'with' meaning companionship from the higher with protection, and from the lower with good following, and from the equal with good fairness. It has ended.

And His saying: ﴿the bowing﴾ along with its companion is an affirmation of the matter of prayer and a command to be in this religion with those who followed Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, for indeed the prayer of the Jews has no rukūʿ in it, as will be clarified in Surah Al-Imran, if Allah, glorified and exalted is He, wills.

Al-Harali said: And the consistent with that, meaning with what has passed, is a discourse of understanding that is understood by the mention of establishing prayer, which follows belief. It is as if the discourse of understanding is: (p-334) so return and rectify and announce what you have concealed and clarify what you have mixed and advise whoever seeks your advice and establish your direction to Allah with prayer and show kindness to the followers after teaching them about zakah, and complete your prayers with what completes the prayer from the just rukūʿ in action between the state of standing in prayer and its prostration, which manifests the sign of Allah's greatness with the bowing ones who are the Arabs, whose first prayer was established in perfection. It has ended. And it is permissible (p-335) that what is meant by rukūʿ is the prayer, as it was expressed by it due to the specificity of this nation with it. It is as if it was said: and pray with the praying ones in congregation, for the sake of further emphasis on the congregation.