al-Aʿrāf 7:204-206

Wa idhā quriʾa'l-qurʾānu fa'stamiʿū lahū wa anṣitū laʿallakum turḥamūn · Wa'dhkur rabbaka fī nafsika taḍarruʿan wa khīfatan wa dūna'l-jahri mina'l-qawli bi'l-ghuduwwi wa'l-āṣāli wa lā takun mina'l-ghāfilīn · Inna'lladhīna ʿinda rabbika lā yastakbirūna ʿan ʿibādatihī wa yusabbiḥūnahū wa lahū yasjudūn

"When the Qurʾān is recited, give ear to it and be silent, that you may be shown mercy. · Remember your Lord within yourself, in humility and in fear, and without loudness of speech, in the morning and in the evening; and do not be of the heedless. · Those who are with your Lord are not too proud to serve Him; they glorify Him, and to Him alone they prostrate themselves."

The root س-م-ع: to hear. Form VIII (istamaʿa) — to give ear, to listen attentively. That is, the command is not "hear" but "give ear".

The root ن-ص-ت: to fall silent, to stop one's voice and listen. Inṣāt — to leave off speaking and settle to listening.

And the difference between the two commands must be recorded, and this is a point of word order:

Together the two describe a state. And the particle must be recorded: istamiʿū lahū — made transitive with the lām: the place to which the attention is directed is stated.

And per the method I draw a limit: I build no legal ruling from this verse. Which cases the verse covers (within the prayer, outside it, in which circumstances) has been debated among the schools of law, and no side is taken in that debate (Method).

This verse connects directly with the fifty-fifth verse of the sūra, and that link was recorded at verse 55. Here it closes:

And two differences must be recorded:

One — at 55 khufya (secrecy), at 205 khīfa (fear). The two words resemble one another but their roots are different: خ-ف-ي (to conceal) and خ-و-ف (to fear). This is a difference that can be verified from the text.

Two — at 205 a note about the voice is added: dūna'l-jahri mina'l-qawl — "without loudness of speech".

The places in the Qurʾān where the voice is tied to a measure were treated in the index, and I rely on two of them:

And al-Aʿrāf 7/205 is the fourth of this chain. What the four verses share and how they differ can be tabulated:

All four look the same way, and none of them commands silence. I record this as an observation, and its ground is the words of the four verses.

And the qualification fī nafsika must be recorded: "within yourself". The command determines both a place (within) and a level of voice (dūna'l-jahr).

بِٱلْغُدُوِّ وَٱلْءَاصَالِ — the root غ-د-و: the early time of morning. The root أ-ص-ل: the end of the day, the time from mid-afternoon to evening; the plural of aṣīl.

And these two times are given not as a further ruling of the sūra but as an expression of continuity: the two ends of the day.

And the end of the command must be recorded: wa lā takun mina'l-ghāfilīn.

The root غ-ف-ل had occurred three times in the sūra (136, 172, 179) and the fourth is here. And the fourth comes as a prohibition.

Four occurrences, four different moods. This is a weave that can be verified within the sūra, and I record it as an observation.

Inna'lladhīna ʿinda rabbika lā yastakbirūna ʿan ʿibādatihī wa yusabbiḥūnahū wa lahū yasjudūn

This verse is one of the verses of prostration in the Qurʾān. The number of the verses of prostration and which verses fall within them differ among the schools of law; no side is taken in that debate in this commentary and no legal ruling is issued (Method). What is recorded is that this verse is transmitted as one of the verses of prostration, and that note is not disputed.

And the verse's place within the sūra must be recorded, and this is the sūra's most striking closing.

The sūra had opened, in the eleventh verse, with a command to prostrate (usjudū li-Ādama fa-sajadū illā Iblīs) and there there was a making of oneself great (fa-mā yakūnu laka an tatakabbara fīhā — 13).

The two hundred and sixth verse brings back the same two words:

The same two roots (س-ج-د and ك-ب-ر), at the beginning and at the end of the sūra; at the beginning in the negative, at the end in the affirmative.

I record this as my own reading and it is not binding; its ground is the roots shared by the two verses: the sūra opens with the telling of a refusal to prostrate and closes with the telling of those who prostrate. And in between, for two hundred verses, the same matter is worked: the knowledge given, and the response given to it.

And the qualification ʿinda rabbika must be recorded: who is meant is not named. In the classical commentaries it is explained as the angels; I convey this explanation as transmitted and do not name what the text does not name (Method).

And three verbs are counted, and their order is worth recording:

And in the third verb there is a fronting: wa lahū yasjudūn — the object has been brought forward. In Arabic this states ḥaṣr (restriction): to Him alone.

The last word of the sūra is a verb, and that verb is prostration.