Allah and the believers ṣallū upon the Prophet
يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى ٱلنَّبِىِّ يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ صَلُّوا۟ عَلَيْهِ
yuṣallūna ʿalā l-nabiyy … ṣallū ʿalayhi — they ṣallū upon the Prophet … ṣallū upon him
In (33:56) the verb ṣallā (form II) is used of two different parties in one verse: Allah and His angels are described as doing it upon the Prophet, and the believers are commanded to do the same upon him, so the action runs from both parties toward one recipient.
The single verse (33:56) contains two clauses built on the same root. The first is a declarative statement: 'Indeed, Allah and His angels yuṣallūna upon the Prophet' — a form II imperfect, third masculine plural, whose subject is the compound 'Allah and His angels'. The second is an imperative addressed to a second-person plural audience, 'O you who have believed': 'ṣallū upon him and grant [him] full salām'. The two clauses are grammatically distinct in person and mood — third-person indicative versus second-person imperative — but they share the same verb root, the same preposition ʿalā, and the same recipient, the Prophet, referred to by title in the first clause and by pronoun (-hi in ʿalayhi) in the second. The structure is thus a mirror in which the action named of Allah and the angels is then commanded of the believers toward the same figure. The verse adds a second, non-mirrored command, 'grant [him] full salām', which applies only to the addressed believers and has no counterpart in the declarative clause. The verse itself does not define what the action of ṣallā upon someone consists of; it presents the verb as something both the divine/angelic party and the believers do, with the believers' act framed as a command following the statement of the divine and angelic act.
Where it occurs
- 33:56 States that Allah and His angels yuṣallūna upon the Prophet, then commands the believers to ṣallū upon him and grant him full salām, using the same root twice across the two clauses.
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