His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "Did you not see that Allah is glorified by whoever is in the heavens and the earth, and the birds are lined up? Each one has known its prayer and its glorification, and Allah is Knowing of what they do." "And to Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and to Allah is the final return."

"Did you not see" is an alert, and "the vision" is the vision of thought. Sibawayh said: It is as if he said: Be aware, Allah is glorified by whoever is in the heavens. And "glorification" here means exaltation and purification. It is from the rational beings by speech and by prayer from every follower of a religion. There is a difference of opinion regarding the glorification of the birds and others that have been mentioned in the Book regarding their glorification. The majority hold that it is a true glorification. Al-Hasan and others said: It is a figurative expression, and their glorification is by the manifestation of wisdom in it. Therefore, it calls to glorification.

The interpreters said: His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "Whoever is in the heavens and the earth" is general for everything, for those who have reason and all inanimate objects. However, when that was gathered, he expressed it with "whoever" in preference to the ruling of those who reason. And "lined up" means arranged in the air. Al-A'raj read: "and the birds" with the 'ra' in the accusative case. Al-Hasan read: "and the birds are lined up" in the nominative case.

And His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "Each one has known its prayer and its glorification," Al-Hasan said: The meaning is: Each one has known the prayer of itself and the glorification of itself, so it perseveres in them and performs them. Mujahid said: The prayer is for the joyful, and the glorification is for what is other than them. And a group said: The meaning is: Each one has known the prayer of Allah and the glorification of Allah that He commanded and guided to. This is the addition of creation to the Creator. Al-Zajjaj and others said: The meaning is: Each one has known Allah's prayer and glorification, so the pronouns refer to all. And a group read: "His prayer and His glorification" in the nominative case and the verb is constructed for the object whose doer has not been named, as mentioned by Abu Hatim. The majority read: "They do" with the 'ya', meaning the exaggeration in describing Allah's power and His knowledge of His creation. And 'Isa and Al-Husn read: "You do" with the 'ta' from above, which contains the mentioned meaning and an increase of warning and fear from Allah, exalted and majestic is He, and a notification thereafter of the fact that the dominion belongs to Him absolutely, and a reminder of the matter of the final return to Him and the gathering strengthens the matter of fear from Allah, blessed and exalted is He. And in the Mushaf of Ubayy ibn Ka'b, may Allah be pleased with him, and Ibn Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with him: "And Allah is All-Seeing of what you do."