الأعلى · الآية 15

Commentary

This phrase joins fully with the first verse. There, "Sanctify the name of your Nurturer, the Most-High": a command to sanctify, and the one commanded is the one the kāf of address speaks to. Here, dhakara isma rabbihi: a quality realised in the one who prospers, and the doer is that prospering one himself. The Surah, in its building, turns twice around the Name: a sanctifying at the beginning, a remembering at the end.

And the remembering here is an act with no detail of manner. It is not said dhakara bi-lisānihi, nor dhakara bi-qalbihi. He remembered the Name, and that is enough. And the name, in its root s-m-w, is a banner that points to the one named. And the remembering, in its root dh-k-r, is the bringing back to presence of what had been absent. The one who prospers brings the raised banner back to presence in his mouth, or in his heart, or in both. The Book does not restrict the manner.

The root ṣ-l-w turns, in Arabic, on turning toward, on following, and on drawing near with regard. From it comes ṣalā al-farasu, the horse followed another in the race without falling behind, and al-muṣallī, in a race, is the second, the one who comes just after the first. And ṣalāt, in Qurʾānic usage, is an act in the body that renders what is in the heart of listening and of lowering.

And the fāʾ of fa-ṣallā is an ordering with no delay. It is as though the remembering in the heart could not settle in the heart alone, and broke out of necessity into the body. And the body, as it bends, renders the remembering in a figure that whoever looks can see. And whoever has remembered in his heart and whose prayer has not come down onto his body, his remembering is incomplete. The fāʾ uncovers that lack.

Verses fourteen and fifteen have laid out three acts that the one who prospers does of himself: tazakkā, dhakara, ṣallā. The first on tafaʿʿala, inward, sought by the doer. The second on faʿala, bare presence. The third on faʿʿala, repeated through the body. And the three are joined in a single ring: a purifying in the self, which calls for a remembering in the heart, which calls for a prayer in the body.

And in turning to this sequence, the reader understands that falāḥ is not in one detached act. A purifying with no remembering is a flattening. And a remembering with no prayer is speech that slips away. And a prayer with neither purifying nor remembering is an empty figure. The three are joined in one figure, and it is by it that the door of falāḥ opens.

The wāw resumes the description of the one who prospers with two further acts: "And remembered the name of his Nurturer, then prayed." Dhakara isma rabbihi touches directly what the Surah opened with, "Sanctify the name of your Nurturer, the Most-High." The sanctifying, in the first verse, is a command; the remembering, here, is a quality realised in the one who prospers. Dhakara, from dh-k-r, is the bringing back to presence of what had gone absent from the heart; the name, from s-m-w, is a raised sign that points to the Most-High; and rabbihi, from r-b-b, is drawn near the one who prospers by the pronoun attached to it. Then the fāʾ, with no delay: fa-ṣallā, from ṣ-l-w. The remembering and the prayer are the first and the second half of one sentence: no remembering in the heart without an act that renders it, and no prayer in the body without a remembering before it. And the fāʾs of the Surah follow one another: fa-sawwā, fa-hadā, fa-jaʿala, fa-ṣallā. The arc closes on what it opened with: the raised name calls for the bent body.

Two Readings

The two readings do not conflict. The first narrows prayer to its ritual sense; the second restores the image of close-following the root carries. This book chooses the additional listening.