The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page 120
CH. 2 AL-BAQARAH PT. 1 وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلوةَ وَأتُوا الزَّكُوةَ وَارْكَعُوا And observe Prayer and. 44 مَعَ الرَّاكِعِينَ b pay the Zakāh, and bow down with those who bow. 50 "See 2:4. 2:84, 111, 178; 4:163; 5:56; 9:11; 21:74; 23:5. quoting verses from their Scriptures and putting wrong interpretations on them; and (2) to suppress or hide the truth i. e. suppress such prophecies in their Scriptures as refer to the Promised Prophet. 50. Important Words: 35; (Zakāh)is derived from 6; i. e. he or it grew or increased or became good or purified, etc. So literally 35; signifies: (1) increase or augmentation; (2) purification (Lane). Technically, it signifies the obligatory alms prescribed by Islam. (See note on 9:60). ; is so called because it results in the purification of the property from which it is given and also in its increase through God's blessing (Mufradāt). God alone, the Creator of the world, will have a good argument in his favour and will obtain salvation. Commentary: In this verse the Jews are called upon to undergo a complete transformation and identify themselves with Islam not only in belief but also in practice. Only a perfect conversion can save them. The expression, bow down with those who bow, does not mean that the Jews should bow down as in daily Prayers; for that would be redundant, as the performance of the prescribed daily Prayers has already been mentioned in the words. The expression therefore means that they should completely submit to God, (bow down) is derived from v severing all such connections as may which means, he bowed down. lead them astray from Him. means, he leaned towards God and ركع المصلى. found peace of mind in Him means, the worshipper performed the Ein his Prayer, i. e. assumed the bowing posture. 5 means, one who bows down before God or leans The question here arises, why does not God say "bow down with the believers or the Muslims" which would have been a much simpler construction than bow down with those who bow. The answer is that towards Him (Lisān & Aqrab). The this construction has been adopted to Arabs used the word for one who worshipped God alone to the exclusion of idols (Asās). A well- known pre-Islamic poet Nābighah says: سيبلغ عذرا اونجا حامن امرء الى ربه رب البرية راكع viz. He who is i. e. who turns to 120 convince the Jews that this commandment of God is not an arbitrary one but is meant for their own good, because by obeying it they would be identifying themselves with a righteous people. The word being an attributive word also