—for Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, had said: “Your Lord knows that you stand (in prayer) nearly two-thirds of the night, or half of it, or a third of it, and so does a group of those with you. Allah determines the measures of night and day … so recite whatever is easy for you of the Quran” (al-Muzzammil 73:20). That is to say: offer whatever portion of the night prayer you can manage. Allah, Exalted is He, has granted the Muslims ease, allowing them to perform only as much of the night prayer as they are able; they are not obliged to pray the eleven rakʿahs that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to pray, as you know.

Such is the meaning of the verse. In Arabic rhetoric this belongs to the stylistic device of mentioning a part while intending the whole. Thus His command “recite” in fact means “perform the prayer”: the prayer is the whole, and the recitation is a component part singled out to underscore its importance within that whole. The same usage occurs in His other statement, “Establish the prayer from the decline of the sun until the darkness of night, and the Dawn Recital; indeed, the Dawn Recital …” (al-Isrāʾ 17:78). “The Dawn Recital” here denotes the dawn prayer; again the part is stated while the whole is intended. This is a well-known mode of expression in the Arabic language.