يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ٱرْكَعُوا۟ وَٱسْجُدُوا۟ وَٱعْبُدُوا۟ رَبَّكُمْ وَٱفْعَلُوا۟ ٱلْخَيْرَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ
Four times through the sūra yā ayyuha'n-nās has occurred (1, 5, 49, 73). Here, in the last verse but one, the address changes: yā ayyuha'lladhīna āmanū.
This is the clearest structural movement in the sūra, and I record it as my own reading, its ground being the distribution of the addresses:
The sūra opened by calling to the whole species and repeated that address four times. The verses between told how that wide set is divided: the disputer, the one who stands at the edge, the one who turns his face away; and two adversaries (19), six groups (17).
And the last two verses call to one side of that division. From the general to the particular, from the crowd to an addressee.
| Order | Command | What |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Irkaʿū | Bow — bend |
| 2 | Wa'sjudū | Prostrate — fall down |
| 3 | Wa'ʿbudū rabbakum | Serve your Lord — general |
| 4 | Wa'fʿalu'l-khayra | Do good — outward-facing |
The logic of the order must be recorded, and I give this as an observation about word order: the list opens with two concrete bodily movements, then rises to a general concept (ʿibāda), then descends to the outer world (khayr).
And that bowing and prostration are enumerated separately is striking: both are parts of the prayer, and the verse could have named the prayer. The prayer is not named; the two postures are commanded separately.
This links with the twenty-sixth verse of the sūra: there the purifying of the House was asked for the sake of ar-rukkaʿi's-sujūd. The same two words in two places in the sūra: one says for whom the place was made ready, the other says what the addressee is to do.
And it links with the eighteenth verse too: there was a list of a world prostrating, and man passed with a qualification. Here that qualification is closed: the command is given directly.
تُفْلِحُونَ — root ف-ل-ح: to cleave, to split. Fallāḥ — the ploughman, the one who splits the soil. The lexicographers explain falāḥ as "reaching what one wants", and the concrete sense of the root carries this: to reach the crop by splitting the soil.
The picture in the root agrees with the order of the commands, and I give this as my own reading: the list begins with two movements of bending — towards the ground. And the closing word too has to do with the ground: to split.