Tafsir of Al-Hijr 15:30

So the angels prostrated—that is, after He created him, fashioned him, and breathed into him of His spirit, the angels prostrated to him—all of them, in such a way that not a single one of them was excluded.

Altogether (ajma‘un): In such a way that no one among them lagged behind another in doing so; rather, they performed the action collectively at a single moment. This is in accordance with the view held by al-Farra’ and al-Mubarrad, who argued that the word ajma‘in indicates concurrence at the time of the action. The Basrans, however, stated that it functions like kull (all) to signify absolute generality.

Hence, they prohibited the use of both as coordinated terms, asserting that one cannot say, "The people came, kulluhum (all of them) and ajma‘un (altogether)." They refuted this with the Almighty’s saying, narrating from Iblis: "I will surely mislead them, ajma‘in (all together)," because it is evident that there is no concurrence in that [future] action. Al-Kashf refuted this by noting that the derivation of the word from al-jam’ (gathering/collecting) necessitates it, as it refers to the most perfect state. Therefore, when comprehensiveness is understood from another term—namely kull—it must necessarily imply occurrence at one time; otherwise, it would be redundant. The refutation based on the verse arises from a failure to perceive the point of the evidence; from this, the flaw in the opposing view becomes clear, for if the case were such, it would be an adverbial state (hal) rather than a corroborative (ta’kid). The truth of the matter lies with al-Farra’ and al-Mubarrad, and that is what accords with the eloquence of the Revelation. The Basrans claimed that it was corroborated twice merely for the sake of hyperbole in generalization and to prevent any exclusion.

Many have claimed that ajma‘ cannot be used as a corroborative without kull preceding it as a prerequisite. However, the chosen view—in agreement with Abu Hayyan—is its permissibility due to its frequent occurrence in eloquent speech. There are several verses in the Quran to that effect, as well as in the Sahih [Hadith collections], such as: "Then he took it from him, ajma‘," and "Pray, sit down, ajma‘un." Perhaps the origin of this claim is the necessity of placing kull first when they are combined, but this is refuted by the fact that nafs (self) must precede ‘ayn (eye/self) when they are combined, despite the permissibility of using ‘ayn as a corroborative in isolation. What they mentioned regarding the necessity of placing kull first is merely based on what you have learned to be the truth, for the sake of observing simplicity and composition.

Furthermore, discussion has previously passed regarding the investigation of whether this prostration of theirs was a consequence of the conditional command that was narrated—as this noble verse necessitates—or the categorical command, as some other verses demand. So, keep that in mind.