“Bow and prostrate” (al-Ḥajj 22:77) and likewise, “Believe.”
Just as these commands address every person who lived in the Prophet’s time, so too do they address all who come after him until the Day of Resurrection; for they are the very words of Allah, and the Messenger is only their conveyer.
This is the view held by the overwhelming majority of Muslims—although some scholars of legal theory argued that the pronoun concerns only those present when the Prophet ﷺ actually delivered the revelation, with later generations included by virtue of one of four means: (1) the self-evident universality of the ruling, as when the Prophet ﷺ addressed a single member of the ummah; (2) the Sunnah; (3) consensus; or (4) analogy.
Accordingly, everyone who indulges in such enjoyment and plunges into such discourse is spoken to by His words, “So you enjoyed your allotted share,” and “you plunged just as they plunged” (al-Tawba 9:69)—and this is the sounder of the two opinions.
(1) The imperative irkaʿu (bow) is found in three verses: “Wa-irkaʿu maʿa al-rākiʿīn” (al-Baqarah 2:43); “Yā ayyuhā alladhīna āmanū irkaʿū wa-sjudū waʿbudū rabbakum” (al-Hajj 22:77); and “Wa-idhā qīla lahum irkaʿū lā yarkaʿūn” (al-Mursalat 77:48). The paired command irkaʿū wa-sjudū (bow and prostrate) occurs only in al-Hajj 22:77, whereas the single imperative sjudū (prostrate) appears eight times in the Quran.
(2) The imperative āminū (believe) occurs eighteen times in the Quran.
(3) In manuscripts A, B, and T the phrase ilā yawm al-qiyāma (until the Day of Resurrection) is missing, evidently a scribal omission.
(4) The printed edition reads: muballigh ʿan Allāh (a conveyer on behalf of God).
(5) The printed edition reads: iʿtamada anna ḍamīr al-khiṭāb (he assumed that the addressee pronoun …).
(6) Manuscript B has: ʿinda (at).
(7) The reference is to the view that the verbs fa-istamtaʿtum and wakhudtum describe an ongoing, continuous state addressed to everyone from the Prophet’s time, peace and blessings be upon him, until the Day of Resurrection—an interpretation the author judges the soundest of the three. The second view takes them as reporting a past occurrence, merely censuring anyone who repeats it in the future without directly addressing them. The third view, held by some usūlī scholars, is somewhat closer but appears in the text only as a passing objection; consider this carefully.