وَمَا مِنَّآ إِلَّا لَهُۥ مَقَامٌ مَّعْلُومٌ · وَإِنَّا لَنَحْنُ ٱلصَّآفُّونَ · وَإِنَّا لَنَحْنُ ٱلْمُسَبِّحُونَ
"'There is not one of us but has a known station. We, we indeed are the ones who stand in ranks. We, we indeed are the ones who glorify.'"
And this is the most important question of word order in the sūra — because its answer bears on the oath in the first verse.
The three verses are built in the first person plural (minnā, innā, naḥnu), and who is speaking is not said. There is no verb such as qālū ("they said") at the head of the verse.
| View | Who speaks | Ground | Its weak side |
|---|---|---|---|
| The angels | The angels counted female in the hundred and fiftieth verse speak for themselves | The most widespread view. The context is the angels (150, 158); standing in ranks and glorifying are attributed to angels in the Qurʾān | The verb of speaking (qālū) is not mentioned; the reader must supply it |
| The Prophet and the believers | The company that forms ranks and glorifies in prayer | Ṣaff and tasbīḥ are the work of believers as well | The context speaks of angels |
| The prophets | The messengers named in the sequence | The sūra recounted them for seventy-four verses | The sequence had ended at 148 |
The overwhelming majority of the classical commentaries transmit the first view, and its ground is the context. I impose no preference, but I record that the context runs in the direction of the angels: in the hundred and fiftieth verse the angels were named, in the hundred and fifty-eighth it was said that a kinship was set up with al-jinna, in the hundred and sixtieth the exception came. These three verses stand inside that chain.
A point of word order and an ellipsis: a verb yaqūlūn or qālū is supplied at the head of the sentence. Most of the grammarians accept this. And the effect the ellipsis produces is worth noting — as my own reading: because the verb is not stated, the voice comes in suddenly. The text makes someone speak without saying who is speaking — and this is the same method as in the first three verses of the sūra: there too the name of what was sworn by was not given.
A point of word order: the sentence is built with the mā … illā mould — negation + exception, that is, the strongest form of affirmation. And there is an ellipsis between: wa mā minnā [aḥadun] illā lahu maqāmun maʿlūm — "there is not one of us but has a known station".
Maqām — root ق-و-م: to stand, to be upright. A noun of place: the place where one stands, a station.
Maʿlūm was analysed in the section on the forty-first verse (rizqun maʿlūm), and the table of the two occurrences was given there.
The same attribute, the one of what is given and the other of where one stands. This is a fact that can be verified from the text.
I record this as my own reading: what the sentence says is an acceptance of a limit. The speaking party claims no superiority for itself; it says that a place has been assigned to it. And this is the exact opposite of the claim in the hundred and fifty-second verse (walada'llāh): a kinship is a claim of nearness; "a known station" is an acceptance of a position.
When the two sentences are set side by side the result is this: the nearness attributed to them is refused by themselves. The sūra refutes the claim from the mouth of the party claimed — the same work done in the hundred and fifty-eighth verse by saying "the jinn know".
| Verse | Expression | Pattern |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | wa'ṣ-ṣāffāti ṣaffā | A feminine plural active participle — what is sworn by |
| 165 | wa innā la-naḥnu'ṣ-ṣāffūn | A masculine plural active participle — the speaker |
The same root (ص-ف-ف), the same pattern (an active participle, definite), at the two ends of the sūra. This is a fact that can be verified from the text.
The same threefold structure was present in the sixtieth and hundred and sixth verses (inna hādhā la-huwa…). Here it is used for the third time, and this time the subject is the first person plural.
The sentence is therefore not "we form ranks" but "the ones who form ranks are we". There is ḥaṣr (restriction).
It was recorded there: the Qurʾān uses the word ṣāffāt plainly of birds (al-Nūr 24/41; al-Mulk 67/19), and this is an intra-Qurʾānic indication against the angel reading. But the indication within the sūra pulls the other way: in the hundred and sixty-fifth verse a company uses the same root of itself.
These two indications conflict, and no preference was imposed in this commentary. Here I add only this note:
The hundred and sixty-fifth verse is the one ground from within the sūra for the angel reading of the first verse. And the force of that ground depends on two things: (a) that those speaking in the hundred and sixty-fourth verse really are angels, and (b) that a link has been set up between the two verses. Neither is stated openly in the text.
I record this as my own reading, and it is not binding: the sharing of the root between the two verses is a fact and is hard to explain as coincidence — because the sūra's name too is from this root. But this does not show that the first verse means only the angels; at most it shows that at its own end the sūra leaves a voice supporting that reading. The table of disagreement recorded in the section on the first verse keeps its validity.
Musabbiḥ was analysed in the section on the hundred and forty-third verse, and the table of the four occurrences in the sūra was given there.
And the link here must be recorded: mina'l-musabbiḥīn (143 — Jonah) and la-naḥnu'l-musabbiḥūn (166). The same mould, the one the group a single person belongs to, the other a group speaking collectively.
I record this as my own reading: in the hundred and forty-third verse a prophet in the belly of a fish is delivered by this act; in the hundred and sixty-sixth a company announces the same act as its own work. The sūra names with the same word the act that saves and the act of the order of the heavens.
And the order of the two verses is worth noting too: first ṣāffūn (standing in ranks — order), then musabbiḥūn (glorification — speech). The order of the three oaths in the first verses was the same: first ṣaff, then zajr, then tilāwa (speech). The three verses, that is, repeat the order of the sūra's opening: stance → voice. This is an observation.