Maryam 19:51-58 — Prophets and the prostration

Wa'dhkur fi'l-kitābi Mūsā … wa nādaynāhu min jānibi'ṭ-Ṭūri'l-aymani wa qarrabnāhu najiyyā

"Mention Moses in the Book too… We called to him from the right side of the Mount, and We brought him near, to speak with him in secret."

نَجِيًّا — root ن-ج-و: to whisper together, to speak in secret. The root was treated in detail in al-Mujādala (najwā). I do not repeat it here.

And the link within the sūra must be recorded: in the third verse Zechariah's prayer was hidden (khafiyy). Here the speaking is hidden. The sūra keeps both directions in the same field: a hidden call and a hidden answer.

Ishmael's attribute is worth recording: kāna yaʾmuru ahlahu — "he would enjoin upon his family".

I record this as an observation: the attribute is given as a responsibility directed not at a wide community but at his own household. And in Luqmān 31/17 the same pair (prayer, and enjoining what is good) occurred in a father-son conversation.

وَرَفَعْنَٰهُ مَكَانًا عَلِيًّا (57) — of Idrīs. What the construction says has been debated in the classical commentaries; I confine myself to transmitting the explanations and issue no definite ruling.

This is the verse of prostration in the sūra.

Two states are named together: sujjadan wa bukiyyā — prostrating and weeping.

And in al-Furqān 25/73 the same verb (kharra) occurred with a qualification: lam yakhirrū ʿalayhā ṣumman wa ʿumyānā — "they do not fall down over them deaf and blind".

The same verb: one says how it should not be, the other how it is. This is an overlap between sūras that can be verified.