And when he mentioned that He granted them the rank of righteousness in themselves, he mentioned that He granted them the rank of reform for others. He said, magnifying their leadership: "And We made them leaders," meaning signs and objectives to be followed in religion by what He granted them of prophethood. And when the imam may call to ruin and turn away from guidance, if his leadership is apparent without accompanying inner righteousness, he safeguarded against that by His saying: "They guide," meaning they call to us whom We have granted success for guidance "by Our command," which is the spirit that is the action based on knowledge by informing the angels about it [about Us-]. To clarify this, he added to it His saying, magnifying His revelation [to them-]: "And We revealed to them" [meaning -] also "to do" [the] "good deeds" all of which are the laws of religion. And perhaps he expressed by the action indicating that they complied with [all that -] was revealed to them.

And when prayer is the mother of good deeds, he specified it by mention and said: "And establishing prayer." Al-Zajjaj said: The addition is a substitute for the feminine 'ta' of the feminine form. [Meaning it should be from the majority, not from the few-], and the secret of the omission is to magnify the prayer, for with its deficiency compared to our prayer [for what the omission indicated - ] - with this status of greatness, what then is the assumption about our prayer?

And when prayer is between the servant and the Truth, and its spirit is turning away from all that perishes, he added to it His saying: "And giving zakah" [meaning that which is with its being kindness to creation by what prayer called for detachment from the world, so they did what We revealed to them] "And they were to Us" always of disposition and nature "worshippers," meaning performing all that they are commanded to by others, the action of the servant with his lord of all that is due to him of service, and what is right for him of magnification and sanctity.