Ar-Room (The Romans)

31. “Turn you to Him, and fear Him, and perform the prayer and be not of the idolaters,”

By supplication, turning to Him, being in awe of Him, and by establishing prayer we must make the natural and innate tendency to religion active.

In the previous verse, the Prophet (S) was addressed saying:

“So set your face…”,

while in this verse all people are commanded to turn to Allah, and it implicitly says that their attention to the pure and natural religion is in the case that they turn to Allah. It says:

“Turn you to Him…”

The Qur’anic word /munibin/ is derived from /’inabah/ which originally means: ‘return to the monotheistic nature’, indicating that whenever there may appear a factor that may deviate and dissuade man, from the point of belief and action, and from the principle of Monotheism, he must return to Him.

It does not matter that this event repeats again and again so that, at last the foundations of nature become so strong, and the barriers become so weak and ineffective that he stands constantly in the front point of Monotheism and becomes a complete example of the verse which says:

“So set your face to the religion being upright…”1

It is noteworthy that the Qur’anic phrase /’aqim wajhika/ (set your face) is in the singular form while the Arabic term /mubinin/ (turn you) is mentioned in the plural form. This shows that, though the first command is singular and its addressee is the Prophet (S), the real addressees, in fact, are all believers and all Muslims.

Next to the command of ‘turn’, the Qur’an orders to piety, which is consistent of all Divine orders and prohibitions.

It says:

“…and fear Him…”

This Qur’anic sentence means that we must fear to oppose His command.

Then, among all His commands, the holy verse emphasizes on the subject of prayer and says:

“…and perform the prayer…”

Its reason is that prayer, with all its dimensions, is the most important program of struggling against polytheism and the most effective means for strengthening the foundations of Monotheism and Faith in Allah.

That is why, among all prohibitions, the verse emphasizes on ‘polytheism’, and says:

“…and be not of the idolaters,”

It says so because polytheism is one of the greatest sins and Allah may forgive any sin but He never forgives polytheism, as the Qur’an says:

“Verily Allah does not forgive that any thing should be associated with Him, and forgives what is besides that to whom He pleases…”2

It is clear that the four commands mentioned in this verse all are as emphasis on the subject of Monotheism and its practical issues, irrespective of repentance; returning to Him, piety, establishing prayer, and avoiding polytheism.