Commentary
With the praise of your Lord in the state, meaning: while you are praising your Lord for having guided you to glorification and assisted you in it. The intended meaning of glorification is prayer. Or, literally, he placed the action before the times first, and the times after the action, as if he said: Pray to Allah before the rising of the sun, meaning the dawn, and before its setting, meaning the noon and afternoon prayers, because they occur in the latter half of the day between the sun's zenith and its setting. And he intentionally mentioned the night hours and the edges of the day, specifically for them with your prayers. This is because the best remembrance is that which is done at night, due to the gathering of the heart, the stillness of the person, and the solitude with the Lord. And Allah, the Exalted, said: 'Indeed, the rising at night is more intense for the soul and more suitable for speech.' And He said: 'Is one who is devoutly obedient during the night prostrating and standing?' This is because the night is a time of tranquility and rest. If it is devoted to worship, it is more difficult for the soul and more exhausting for the body, thus it is more aligned with the meaning of obligation and better in the sight of Allah. The glorification during the night hours includes the prayer of 'Isha, and at the edges of the day includes the prayers of Maghrib and Fajr repeatedly, intending specificity, just as it was specified in His saying: 'Maintain the prayers and the middle prayer' according to some interpreters. If you say: What is the reason for His saying 'and the edges of the day' in the plural, when there are only two edges as He said: 'Establish prayer at the two edges of the day'? I say: The reason is to avoid confusion, and the dual form provides additional clarification. An example of the occurrence of two commands in the two verses is their occurrence in the saying: 'Their backs are like the backs of two shields.' And 'the important one' means the vast land. And 'the projectile' - with the vowel - is that which throws its traveler so that no one remains in it. And it was said: the distant one. And 'the barren' - with the vowel - is the desolate land with no water or vegetation. And 'the shield' is an animal with a prominent back. The dual form 'their backs' is based on the original, and the plural is used later to avoid confusion, and because it may be disliked to have two dual forms together, especially when the dual forms are consecutive as here. The grammarians said: Every dual form in meaning that is added to its content prefers in its wording the plural due to the multiplicity of its meaning and the dislike of having two dual forms in wording. It is permissible for it to come in the original form as here. It is also permissible for it to be singular, as in the saying: 'A dove of the valley's two sides, sing to me.' And the answer is: the cut. And the description is: the attribute, and it is narrated: 'with one description, not with two descriptions.' And the description is: the form, intention, direction, and path, and it is meant that they were described, or their form was mentioned to him once. He says: 'Lord of two desolate places with no companion in them, having two elevated backs, like the backs of two shields, I traversed them with a single description, not by describing them to me twice or thrice like others.' And it is possible that the meaning by mentioning one description of its attributes is not by mentioning two descriptions, so the description means the attribute that exists in the thing. And in the speech, there is an indication of his bravery and skill.
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