TO GLORIFY with PRAISE
The Quran does not contain a simple imperative form such as "Praise" (Ihmad) alone. The act of praising is almost always requested in conjunction with another form of worship or remembrance. The most common form is its combination with glorification (tasbih): "...wa sabbiḥ bi-ḥamdi rabbike..." (Praise your Lord with praise). This expression is repeated in many verses in this form.
So exalt(glorify) with praise of your Lord and be of those who prostrate [to Him].
In the Quran, praise is more of a statement of fact than a command. The phrase "Alhamdulillah Rabbil-alamin" at the beginning of Surah Al-Fatiha is not a command, but a declaration that "Praise (in all aspects) belongs to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds." Even if the universe were to cease to exist, and even if people were to remain silent, praise would still belong to Allah.
Praise is a heartfelt stance and a verbal affirmation. However, glorification (Tasbih) is an active act of remembrance and action. Therefore, the command to "do" offered to the servant's will is usually given through "Tasbih," which involves movement, and praise is added as the "how" of this (do with praise).
However, in Islamic thought, knowing Allah is a two-stage process:
Glorification (Tasbih) is stating what Allah is not. "He does not sleep, He does not err, He has no partner, He is not deficient." This is like wiping away the dust from a mirror. When you wipe away the dust, the mirror becomes "perfect," but it still "shows" nothing.
Praise (Isbat) is stating what Allah is. "He is the Giver of bounties, the Knower, the Sustainer, the Provider of sustenance." This is like light falling on the mirror.
In short;
Perfection (Praise): It is the absence of any imperfection. For example, a computer program that never makes a mistake is perfect, but we don't call it "excellent/praiseworthy" (Hamd), because it is only performing its function. A stone also does not commit sins; it is also perfect, but it is not praised.
Perfection/Fulleness (Hamd): It encompasses not only the absence of imperfection but also active goodness, beauty, and benevolence.
Consider an artist. The artist's hand not trembling, not using the wrong paint, is praise (perfection). However, creating a magnificent landscape with that brush, adding soul to that painting, is praise (perfection/praise).
Using both together is not a meaningless repetition, but a completion. If we only praised, we would only define God as "an abstract and distant power, free from imperfections." If we only praised, we would risk acknowledging His greatness while simultaneously considering Him with some imperfections (as is the case with humans).
In Arabic, this combination serves the following purposes:
Tasbih (glorification): "O Allah, there is no imperfection in You." (Attributes of Majesty)
Hamd (praise): "Moreover, all beauty and goodness are from You." (Attributes of Beauty)
Tasbih requires an agent (subject). For someone to say, "You are not deficient," and thus exalt Him, is for the servant to cleanse the erroneous conceptions of God in their own mind. In other words, Allah does not need our glorification; we need to glorify Him in order to correctly position Him. Hamd, on the other hand, is to contemplate and express His beauty with this cleansed mind.
This understanding transforms belief from mere "acceptance" into conscious admiration. It views Allah not merely as a cold, absolute power that "does not err, is all-powerful," but... It also allows us to recognize God as a Lord who is ever gracious, beloved, and worthy of praise (Mahmud).
By purifying the mind of all false patterns, human shortcomings, and doubts through glorification (Tasbih), and filling that void with His infinite beauty and goodness through praise (Hamd), it is presented as the completion of a complete mental and spiritual purification process.
1. When the victory of Allah has come and the conquest,
2. And you see that the people enter Allah's religion (Islam) in crowds,
3. Then exalt(glorify) with praise of your Lord and ask forgiveness of Him. Indeed, He is ever Accepting of repentance.
The subtlety here is:
Give praise: Know that Allah is the true owner of victory and success (remove your ego from the equation).
Glorify God: Know that God does not need your help, that He is the possessor of absolute power, and that He is without deficiency in this process.
The way this is formulated in the Quran is based on a very strong logic, both linguistically and anthropologically. The aim of "transforming prayer phrases and mentality" lies at the very heart of Islam's struggle for tawhid (the oneness of God).
Restoration of the Conception of "God"
In the ancient world (Zeus, Jupiter, or the idols of the pre-Islamic era, semi-deified humans), gods were generally beings that humans "feared," "bargained with," or "shared emotions similar to their own."
The old habits of people were: "The thunder rumbled, Zeus is angry; I must say something to appease him."
With the New Command (Praise and Glorification): This fear is transformed from a fear into a reflection of God's order (glorification) and grace (praise). Those old, fear-based reflexes that have become ingrained in human speech are transformed into a "remembrance" based on wisdom and awareness. In other words, it's not the habit of the tongue that changes, but the direction of the tongue.
Cleansing the "Polytheism" in Language
Languages have been shaped by paganistic and mythological expressions for centuries. When a person is surprised, when they are afraid...
Or, when happy, they automatically use expressions from their cultural codes. The Quran's insistent emphasis on praise and glorification is like a mental format:
Through glorification, it is instilled in the mind that Allah will never "make mistakes, tire, or show human weaknesses" like mythological gods.
Through praise, it is affirmed that the source of goodness and beauty is not accidental natural events or imaginary heroes, but a single creator.
Psychological Need for Security
Human psychology seeks a "refuge" in times of uncertainty or extreme emotions (such as great shock or deep sadness). Vague expressions from antiquity, such as "May the heavens protect us," are a reflection of this need for refuge in language.
Islam does not reject this need; however, it clarifies it. Expressions like "Subhanallah" (in astonishment) and "Alhamdulillah" (in happiness) pull a person away from the emotional turmoil of the moment and connect them to a fixed center (God). This is about constructing a new "linguistic identity" with a clear meaning and purpose, replacing the old prayer patterns in the collective memory.
Historical Continuity and Transformation
The Quran, instead of completely eradicating existing social reflexes, reforms them. People in the past also looked at the sky and felt a sense of grandeur. The Quran takes this feeling and defines a new and correct address for the existing emotion by saying, "Yes, this grandeur is true, but this grandeur belongs not to Zeus, but to Allah, whom even the thunder glorifies."
At the time of the Quran's revelation, there were numerous prayer patterns and religious discourses among the Arabs, both oral and epigraphic. Instead of eradicating these existing "linguistic habits," the Quran restructured them by filtering them through the lens of monotheism. There are very concrete examples of this in written literature and inscriptions:
For instance, during the pre-Islamic era, each tribe had its own special "talbiyah" (Here I am, O Allah) phrases recited while circumambulating the Kaaba. However, they also included their idols in these phrases.
The pre-Islamic Talbiyah: "Labbaik Allahumma labbaik... You have no partner, but You have one partner, and that is You; You are sovereign over him and what he possesses." (Here, the idols are meant).
The Quranic Transformation: Islam adopted this phrase but removed the "but" part, replacing it with the expression, "Praise, blessings, and dominion are Yours; You have no partner." In other words, it "formatted" that famous rhyme used by the people with the concept of monotheism.
Pre-Islamic Safavid and Nabataean inscriptions (in present-day Jordan, Syria, and northern Saudi Arabia) contain phrases such as "Bismikellahümme" (In Your name, O Allah): This expression was known even before the Quran. In fact, the dialogue between the Prophet Muhammad and the polytheists who wanted to use this expression during the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah is famous. The Quran adopted this and transformed it into the broader and more comprehensive form "Bismillahirrahmânirrahîm" (In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful).
Inscriptions often contain short, practical, and direct requests, such as "Ruda (a name of a god), send us rain" or "May the heavens protect us," referring to natural phenomena. The Quran took this reflex of "requesting from nature" and revolutionized the mindset by defining thunder, lightning, and wind as "servants" (beings that glorify Allah) under Allah's command.
In pre-Islamic poetry (among the Mu'allaqa poets), there was a very strong discourse that "Time" (Dahr) was the destroyer, the killer, and the one who brought misfortune. When something bad happened to them, the poets would curse time.
Old Habit: "Time has destroyed us, fate has played a trick on us."
New Construction: The Quran, by saying "Do not curse time, for God is the creator of time," has brought these expressions, which reeked of "randomness" and "fatalism," back to the line of "Praise and Praise."
Again, in the pre-Islamic period, there are numerous "praising" poems written about rain, camels, and abundance. However, this praise (a discourse similar to "Hamd") directly attributed the blessing to "nature" or "luck."
For example, the concepts used by Nabigha al-Zubyani in his poems when praising kings or nature were actually worldly copies of "Hamd." They used to praise kings with divine attributes.
The transformation occurred as follows: The Quran took this absolute praise (Hamd) directed at kings or nature and removed the linguistic colonialism by saying, "Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds" (Al-Fatiha: 2). In other words, it shifted the reflex of "praise" from worldly authority to divine authority.
When the pre-Islamic Arabs walked in the desert or entered a valley, they would seek refuge in the "lord of the jinn" (Seyyid al-Wadi) of that valley.
Their old saying was: "I seek refuge in the lord (jinn) of this valley from the evil of the fools here." (This is frequently found in written literature and narrations).
The Quranic transformation, however, criticized this situation in the Surah Al-Jinn, shifting the human reflex of fear from the "jinn" to the majesty of Allah (Tasbih). The angels' fearful glorification (Ra'd 13) actually tells humanity: "Do not fear the jinn or the forces of nature; the one to be feared (aweeded) is Allah, before whom even the angels tremble."
The name "Rahman" (the Most Merciful) was already known in South Arabian inscriptions and among Christian/Jewish Arab communities. However, they generally associated this name with their tribal gods or intermediary idols. With the arrival of the Quran, this word transformed into a technical term encompassing "exclusion of everything else" (tanzih/tasbih) and "the oneness of all praise" (hamd).
Consequently, the Quran did not eradicate the millennia-old "need to pray" from society; rather, it purged the erroneous linguistic counterparts of that need—such as "Zeus," "Uzza," "Time," or "Destiny"—and replaced them with "Alhamdulillah" (praise) and "Tasbih" (glorification) and the "Absolute One." This is, from a sociological perspective, an operation to transform the language and, consequently, the way of thinking of society from its very foundations.