Al Rūm

فَسُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ حِينَ تُمْسُونَ وَحِينَ تُصْبِحُونَ

وَلَهُ الْحَمْدُ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ وَعَشِيّاً وَحِينَ تُظْهِرُونَ

17. “So glory be to Allah, when you enter the evening and when you enter the morning.”
18. “And to Him belongs praise in the heavens and the earth, and at nightfall and when you are at midday.”

Some commentators believe that these verses point to the times of the five daily prayers done in the morning, noon, and evening. The Qur’anic sentence ‘So glory be to Allah’ and the sentence: ‘To Him belongs praise’ may be a command for glorification and praising, which has been said in the form of declarative sentences. Next to a great deal of detailed discussions about Origin and Resurrection and pointing to some rewards of the believers and retributions of the disbelievers mentioned in the former verses, in these verses which are under discussion, the Qur’an refers to the glorification and praise of Allah (s.w.t.), and also removal and sanctification of His Pure Essence from any partners, defect and blemish, where it says:

Thus, in these two verses there have been stated about the glorification of Allah done in four times: at the beginning of night

in the morning at the dawn:

by the night:

and at the decline of noon:

But praise of Allah has been generalized from the point of place and it has encompassed the expanse of the heaven and the earth. The announcement of these four different times cited in the abovementioned verses may be an allusion of the constance and permanence of glorification; as we may say: ‘Take care of so and so every morning and evening’ (which means always and at any time). It is also necessary to be mentioned here that the Qur’anic sentences: ‘glory be to Allah’ and ‘to Him belongs praise’ can be a statement of glorification and praise from the side of Allah, as in Surah Al-Mu’minun, No. 23, verse 14 He says:

And this glorification and praise may be in the sense of command, which means: do glorify and praise Him. This meaning seems nearer to the fact that the above verses are as a command to all servants so that they glorify and praise Allah every morning and evening as well as every noon and night by prayer and other than that in order to wipe out the effects of polytheism and sin from their hearts and souls. The Prophet (S) in a tradition said:

“Whoever recites these two holy verses and the verse after them in the morning whatever (of virtues) is lost from him on that day will be recompensed, and whoever recites them at the beginning of night whatever is lost from him at night will be recompensed.” ³