His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "Allah chooses from among the angels messengers and from among the people. Indeed, Allah is All-Hearing, All-Seeing." "He knows what is before them and what is behind them, and to Allah belong all matters." "O you who have believed, bow and prostrate and worship your Lord and do good that you may succeed."

It is narrated that this verse, up to His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "all matters," was revealed because of the saying of Al-Walid ibn Al-Mughira: "Has the reminder been sent down upon him from among us?" [Sad: 8]. So Allah, exalted and glorified is He, informed that He "chooses" meaning: "from among the angels messengers" to the prophets and others as has been mentioned in the hadiths, "and from among the people" and they are the prophets sent to reform creation, who have combined prophethood and messengership.

And His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "what is before them and what is behind them" is an expression of the encompassing knowledge of Him regarding them. Its reality is: what has occurred before them of events and what will occur after them, and "all matters" is the plural of "matter," and it is not intended here as the source.

Then Allah, exalted and glorified is He, commanded His worship, and specified bowing and prostration in the mention as an honor for prayer.

And people have differed, is there a prostration in this verse? And the position of Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, is that one should not prostrate here. And His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "and do good" is an encouragement regarding what is other than the obligatory acts which have been established as obligatory outside of this context. And His saying, blessed and exalted is He: "that you may succeed" is a hope for the believers, like His saying, glorified is He: "perhaps he will remember or fear" [Ta-Ha: 44], and "success" in this verse is attaining one's desire and reaching one's hope.