Continuation of the exegesis of the saying of Allah the Exalted: “And establish prayer, give zakah, and bow down with those who bow down”
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The Shaykh : I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Shaytan. Allah Blessed and Exalted is He said: [Al-Baqarah 2:43] The address here is to the Children of Israel, from the beginning of His saying: [Al-Baqarah 2:40] The Children of Israel are the Jews and the Christians, because Israel is the son of Isaac, the son of Ibrahim, so his descendants are the Jews and the Christians. Allah Mighty and Majestic says: “Establish it” means perform it uprightly. And just as Allah commanded the Children of Israel, He commanded this Ummah. The prayer here includes both the obligatory and the voluntary. “Give zakah.” As the grammarians among you know, the verb “ata” (give) takes two objects, just as “ata” (give) takes two objects. The first object here is zakah, and the second object is omitted, with the implied meaning being “its people” or “those who are entitled to it.” Zakah is an act of worship, or it is the wealth paid in obedience to the command of Allah to its rightful recipients from specific, known types of wealth, namely: gold, silver, livestock, and what comes out of the earth. There is a long and extensive disagreement among the scholars of the Muslims regarding trade goods, but the correct view is that zakah is obligatory on them. The giving of wealth is called zakah because it purifies the soul and cleanses it. Allah the Exalted said: [At-Tawbah 9:103].
[Al-Baqarah 2:43] Meaning, pray with those who are praying. We say this because one does not worship Allah with bowing alone. If a person wanted to worship Allah with bowing alone, we would say this is a religious innovation. So the meaning is to pray with those who are praying. Know that describing worship by one of its parts indicates that this part is one of its pillars and its structure, and it cannot be valid without it. Describing the whole by a part is well known in the Arabic language in the Noble Qur'an. And the meaning? A slave. The meaning is a complete slave. But as you see, the body cannot remain without the neck. So is it correct to say “freeing a finger”? No, because a finger may be lost while the body remains. Here we say: [Al-Baqarah 2:43] Meaning, pray with those who are praying. And it is not possible to describe prayer by bowing unless bowing is an inseparable part of it and is essential to it.
