ٱلَّذِينَ هُمْ فِى صَلَاتِهِمْ خَٰشِعُونَ
The list consists of six items (2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9), and all six are built on the same word order. This is a fact that can be counted from the text:
| Verse | Connective | Pronoun | The fronted element | Predicate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | alladhīna | hum | fī ṣalātihim | khāshiʿūn |
| 3 | wa'lladhīna | hum | ʿani'l-laghwi | muʿriḍūn |
| 4 | wa'lladhīna | hum | li'l-zakāti | fāʿilūn |
| 5 | wa'lladhīna | hum | li-furūjihim | ḥāfiẓūn |
| 8 | wa'lladhīna | hum | li-amānātihim wa ʿahdihim | rāʿūn |
| 9 | wa'lladhīna | hum | ʿalā ṣalawātihim | yuḥāfiẓūn |
In all six of the six items the complement — the prepositional phrase — has been brought before its predicate. In Arabic fronting (taqdīm) reports specification and emphasis; the lexicographers record this consistently.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is this sixfold regularity: the sentences do not say "they are humble", "they turn away"; they say "in their prayer — they are humble", "from idle speech — they turn away". In each item, that is, the field is fixed first and the disposition within that field second. The list thereby becomes readable as a list not of dispositions but of fields.
And there is a second regularity: five of the six items are nouns (active participles), and only the last is a verb — yuḥāfiẓūn. This difference will be treated separately at the ninth verse.
The concrete sense of the root is given by the lexicographers as follows: to sink low, to subside, the lowering of the voice, the dropping of the eye. From the same root:
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| خَشَعَ | He sank low, he submitted, he lowered his voice |
| خَاشِعَة | Dried, subsided ground (Fuṣṣilat 41/39 — tarā'l-arḍa khāshiʿatan) |
| خُشُوع | The lowering of voice and gaze; the outward showing of an inward bowing |
The use of the root for ground was treated at Fuṣṣilat 41/39 (ground subsided before the rain, then swelling afterwards), and khāshiʿa occurred in al-Nāziʿāt (79/9 — abṣārun yawmaʾidhin khāshiʿa).
Two sides of the root must be recorded, and this is the lexicographers' common description: khushūʿ is something that takes place both inside and outside. The lowering of the voice and the dropping of the gaze are the visible side; the bowing of the heart is the side that is not visible. The word answers to both at once.
One. The particle is fī — "inside". Khushūʿ is sought not beside the prayer but inside it. The adverbial phrase frames the prayer as a vessel.
Two. Ṣalāt is singular. In the ninth verse the same word will come in the plural (ṣalawātihim). This difference is too regular to be counted accidental, and it will be tabulated at the ninth verse.
I give this as my own reading, and its ground is the contrast of singular and plural: the second verse looks inside one prayer — the prayer being performed. The ninth verse will look at the whole of the prayers.