Al-Mu'minun · Makki · ayah 9 of 118

Al-Mu'minun 23:9

وَٱلَّذِينَ هُمْ عَلَىٰ صَلَوَٰتِهِمْ يُحَافِظُونَ

“And they who carefully maintain their prayers -”

Saheeh International

Essence

The list that began with the heart inside one prayer ends with the care of every prayer, each in its time, kept up again and again.

A reflection

One prayer at the start, many at the end

The list of the successful opened with prayer (23:2) and now closes with it. One classical commentator asks whether this is repetition, and answers that it is not. The two mentions describe different things.

At the start, the word was singular, ṣalātihim, their prayer. The point there was khushūʿ in prayer as such, whichever prayer it is. Here the word is plural, ṣalawātihim, their prayers. The point now is guarding each one of them: the five, and every other prayer a believer keeps. The first ayah looks inside a single prayer. This one looks across the whole day.

Another commentator notices a second detail. Every other quality in this list ends in a noun: khāshiʿūn, muʿriḍūn, fāʿilūn, ḥāfiẓūn, rāʿūn. This one alone ends in a verb, yuḥāfiẓūn, they keep guarding. His explanation is that prayer is renewed and repeated. It is not a state reached once but an act that keeps coming round.

Picture a lighthouse that must be lit again every single evening. Yesterday's light does nothing for tonight's ships. The keeper's faithfulness is not proved once; it is proved at each dusk.

The full entry has 2 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.