Al-An'am (The Cattle): (162 - 163) Say: Indeed, my prayer...

Know that just as the Almighty God defined the straight path for him (the Prophet), He also defined how he should perform and fulfill it.

His statement:

"Say: Indeed, my prayer, and my rites, and my life, and my death, are for Allah, Lord of the worlds."

This indicates that he performs them with sincerity (Ikhlāṣ). He emphasized this with His saying: "He has no partner." This shows that it is not sufficient for acts of worship to be performed in any manner; rather, they must be performed with complete sincerity. This is one of the strongest proofs that sincerity is a condition for the validity of the prayer.

As for His saying: "and my rites (wansukī)":

1. It is said that Nusk refers to the sacrifice itself. The meaning is: whoever does such-and-such is obligated to offer a sacrifice (nusk), meaning a blood offering. Prayer and sacrifice are joined, as in His saying: "So pray to your Lord and sacrifice [to Him]" (Al-Kawthar: 2).
2. Tha'lab narrated from Ibn al-A'rabi that he said: Al-Nusk refers to silver ingots, each ingot being a nusaykah.
3. It is also said that the worshipper (nāsik) is called nāsik because he purifies his soul from the filth of sins, refining it like a silver ingot purified from dross. Under this interpretation, Nusk means everything by which one draws near to Allah Almighty. However, in common usage, it predominantly refers to slaughtering.

His saying: "and my life (wa maḥyāy) and my death (wa mamātī)" means my life and my death are for Allah.

Know that the Almighty said: "Indeed, my prayer, and my rites, and my life, and my death, are for Allah, Lord of the worlds." He affirmed that all of these things belong to Allah. Life and death are not "for Allah" in the sense that they are performed for the obedience of Allah—which is impossible—but rather, their being "for Allah" means they occur through Allah's creation. Similarly, the being of prayer and rites "for Allah" can be interpreted as them occurring through Allah's creation. This is one of the clearest proofs that the acts of obedience of a servant are created by Allah Almighty.

Nāfi' recited: "maḥyāy" with a quiescent Yā' (maḥyāy) and with a raised Yā' in mamātī. The quiescence of the Yā' in maḥyāy is unusual and not commonly used, as it involves joining two quiescent letters that do not meet in this manner in prose or poetry. Some say it is a dialect of certain people.

The essence of the discourse is that Allah commanded His Messenger to clarify that his prayer, all his acts of worship, his life, and his death all occur through Allah's creation, decree, predestination, and judgment. Then, He affirmed that He has no partner in creation. The meaning is: "And with this I have been commanded," meaning, I have been commanded with this Monotheism (Tawḥīd).

Then He says: "And I am the first of the Muslims (those who submit)." This means those who submit to Allah's decree and destiny. Since it is known that he is not the first of all Muslims, the intended meaning must be that he is the first among the Muslims of his time.