Al-Nazi'at: (18) "Say: 'Would you [be willing] to...'"

"Say" — after you have come to him — "Would you [be willing] to purify yourself?" That is: Do you have an inclination toward purifying yourself? "Would you" (hal laka) is in the position of a predicate for an elided subject, and "to purify yourself" (ila an tazakka) is connected to that elided subject. An example of this is the poet’s saying: "Do you have any inclination (ila) toward it? For I am / Insightful into what baffled the skilled physician, Hudhaym."

It is sometimes said: "Do you have an inclination (hal laka fi) toward such-and-such," and one brings 'in' (fi) while eliding the subject, "desire" (raghba), and similar words that are governed by it. Some have estimated the elided word here to be "desire" (raghba), because it is also governed by 'in' (fi). Abu al-Baqa’ stated: Since the meaning is "I invite you," the preposition 'to' (ila) was used. Perhaps he considered the prepositional phrase to be connected to the meaning of the speech or to an elided word indicated by it.

"Purify yourself" (tazakka) involves the elision of one of the two ta's; that is, "to cleanse yourself" (tatathahhar) from the filth of disbelief and tyranny. The two Harami reciters [of Mecca and Medina] and Abu 'Amr—with a difference of opinion regarding him—read it as tazzakka with a doubled za', and its origin, as we have indicated, is tatazakka, where the second ta' was assimilated into the za'.