وَأَقِيمُوا۟ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَءَاتُوا۟ ٱلزَّكَوٰةَ وَأَطِيعُوا۟ ٱلرَّسُولَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُرْحَمُونَ · لَا تَحْسَبَنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ مُعْجِزِينَ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَمَأْوَىٰهُمُ ٱلنَّارُ وَلَبِئْسَ ٱلْمَصِيرُ
Wa aqīmu'l-ṣalāta wa ātu'l-zakāta wa aṭīʿu'l-rasūla laʿallakum turḥamūn · Lā taḥsabanna'lladhīna kafarū muʿjizīna fi'l-arḍ, wa maʾwāhumu'l-nār, wa la-biʾsa'l-maṣīr
"Keep up the prayer, give the alms, and obey the Messenger, that you may be shown mercy. Do not think that those who disbelieve can thwart Him in the earth. Their refuge is the Fire; and an evil journey's end it is!"
The fifty-sixth verse gives three concrete commands after the promise of the fifty-fifth: prayer, alms, obedience.
And this threesome occurred in the thirty-seventh verse as well: lā tulhīhim tijāratun wa lā bayʿun ʿan dhikri'llāhi wa iqāmi'l-ṣalāti wa ītāʾi'l-zakāh.
| Verse | Context |
|---|---|
| 37 | The attribute of the people in the houses where the lamp is |
| 56 | The command given after the promise |
The same threesome, once as a description and once as a command. I record this as an observation about the word order.
And the verse-ending is worth noting: laʿallakum turḥamūn — "that you may be shown mercy". The same verse-ending occurred at al-Ḥujurāt, 49/10.
The root ح-س-ب occurs for the fourth time in the sūra, and the table given at the thirty-ninth verse is completed here. All four occurrences take as their subject a wrong appraisal.
مُعْجِز — root ع-ج-ز: to be powerless, to be unable. ʿAjz — powerlessness; muʿjiz — one who renders another powerless.
And the form of the word is worth noting: muʿjizīn does not mean "those who escape" — it means "those who render powerless". What is supposed, that is, is not an escape but a comparison of powers.
And the placing of the word here is a contradiction in terms: maʾwā is a word for a refuge; and in the verse the refuge is said to be the Fire.