Sūrah 73 · Āyāt 1–10

Verses 1–10 — "O you who are wrapped up": the night-vigil and the making of a prophet

The passage opens not with "O Messenger" or "O Prophet" but with the intimate address "O you who are wrapped up (al-muzzammil)." The Enlightening Commentary draws out the significance: naming the Prophet by his posture — wrapped in his mantle — at the very moment he is summoned signals that he must "rise up, grow spiritually, and prepare for embarking upon a great mission, rather than lead the life of a recluse." Both Tafsīr al-Qummī and al‑Baḥrānī's al‑Burhān preserve the same occasion in identical words (from ʿAlī b. Ibrāhīm): "he was the Prophet, who used to wrap himself in his garment and sleep, so God said: O you who are wrapped up, stand the night except a little."

The command to "stand the night, except a little — half of it, or a little less, or add to it" is read by the Enlightening Commentary as a graded choice of how much of the night to keep in vigil. al‑Qummī glosses the elastic phrasing literally — "reduce from the little, or add to it" — while al‑Burhān, citing al‑Ṭūsī's Tahdhīb, supplies the underlying rule: "God commanded him to pray every night, except that a night might come in which he prays nothing."

On "recite the Qurʾān with measured recitation (tartīl)" the two Arabic sources speak with one voice, both quoting ʿAlī b. Ibrāhīm: "make it distinct (bayyinhu tibyānan); do not scatter it like sand, nor rattle it off like poetry; rather strike the hardened hearts with it." The Enlightening Commentary widens tartīl to "articulate, eloquent and meditative recitation, reflecting upon the meanings," adding al‑Ṣādiq's counsel to pause at verses of Hell and Paradise to seek refuge and to ask for grace.

For the "weighty word (qawlan thaqīlan)" of v.5, the Enlightening Commentary surveys several readings — the weight of the Qurʾān's content, of its obligations, of deeds in the Balance — and also records Aṭyab al‑Bayān's view that it is the proclamation of ʿAlī's walāya. al‑Qummī ties v.5 to v.6: the "night‑rising (nāshiʾat al‑layl)" that is "firmer in tread and more upright in speech," which he renders tersely as aṣdaq al‑qawl ("the most truthful speech"), explaining "more upright in speech" as "a man's rising from his bed desiring God, desiring none but Him."

The commands of vv.8–9 — remember the Name, devote yourself (tabattul), take the Lord of the east and west as Trustee — attract the densest narration. On tabattul al‑Burhān gathers a body of traditions on raising the hands in prayer, distinguishing raghba, rahba, tabattul, taḍarruʿ and ibtihāl by the posture of the hands; it cites al‑Ṭabarsī that tabattul here is "raising the hands in the prayer," and (via Abū al‑Jārūd) al‑Qummī's gloss "be sincerely devoted to Him (akhliṣ ilayhi ikhlāṣan)." al‑Qummī's own text reads tabattul as "raising the hands and moving the two forefingers." The Enlightening Commentary takes it morally — severing the heart from all besides God while remaining within society — and quotes the Prophet: "there is neither monasticism nor [monkish] withdrawal in Islam."

Verse 10 pivots from worship to forbearance — "be patient over what they say, and forsake them with a graceful forsaking." al‑Burhān glosses "what they say" as "what they say about you." The Enlightening Commentary insists this "graceful avoidance (hijr jamīl)" is "keeping away out of empathy," an educational method that does not cancel jihād, and relays al‑Ṭabarsī's Majmaʿ al‑Bayān that the callers to God must bear hardship with toleration so that hearts will more readily welcome their words.

(For this passage al‑Ṭabarsī's Majmaʿ al‑Bayān*, al‑Ṭūsī's* al‑Tibyān and al‑Ṭabāṭabāʾī's al‑Mīzān could not be retrieved and are recorded as silent; the Ṭabarsī views above survive only as quotations inside the present sources.)