“My servant has praised Me.” And when he says, “The Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful,” He says, “My servant has extolled Me.” (1) Thus, He distinguished commendation as the repeated mention of an attribute—that is, an attribute of perfection.

His statement, “abundantly,” is a circumstantial qualifier of “praise”; that is, all praise is due to Allah while being abundant—in other words, abundant praise. It may also be taken as an adjective qualifying an omitted verbal noun, the implied meaning being: “abundant praise.”

And glory be to Allah, morning and evening …

His statement, “and glory be to Allah”: subḥān means tasbīḥ—declaring Allah to be free of all imperfection—and is a noun of action. There is a rule concerning the noun of action: it is “that which indicates the meaning of a verbal noun without having its letters.”

Thus, subḥān is derived from sabbaḥa, whose verbal noun is tasbīḥ. Therefore, subḥān has the meaning of tasbīḥ, but does not contain the letters of the verbal noun, so it is a noun of action. Similarly, kalām (speech) is a noun of action, while its verbal noun is taklīm; and salām (greeting) is a noun of action, while its verbal noun is taslīm.

His statement, “in the morning,” means: in the morning. His statement, “in the evening,” means: in the evening.

Allah, exalted is He, says:

“So glory be to Allah when you enter the evening and when you enter the morning.” [al-Rum]

Declaring Allah free of all imperfection entails three matters:

First: declaring Him free of every defect.

Second: declaring Him free of every deficiency in His attributes of perfection.

Third: declaring Him free of resembling created beings.