Several considerations favor including it among the words one is commanded to say:
First, it is directly connected and coordinated with them, without anything intervening. This entails that the command to say applies to both statements. That is the default understanding unless something precludes it. Thus, if you say, “Say: ‘Praise be to Allah, and glory be to Allah,’” the glorification is included among the words to be said.
Second, if it is coordinated with the words to be said, one declarative statement is being joined to another, which is the default construction. If, however, it is separate from them, a declarative sentence is being joined to an imperative sentence; joining a declaration to a command is not stylistically felicitous.
Third, the wording, “Say, ‘Praise be to Allah, and peace be upon His servants whom He has chosen,’” clearly suggests that the one pronouncing peace is the one saying, “Praise be to Allah.” Hence the third-person pronoun is used, rather than saying, “Peace be upon My servants.”
Several considerations support the interpretation that the salutation of peace comes from Allah, Most High:
First, this accords with comparable passages in the Quran in which Allah Himself pronounces peace upon His chosen servants, as in His words:
37: 79 “Peace be upon Noah among all peoples.”
And His words:
37: 108 “Peace be upon Abraham.”
And His words:
37: 120 “Peace be upon Moses and Aaron.”
And His words:
37: 130 “Peace be upon Ilyāsīn.”
Second, His servants whom He has chosen are the messengers. Allah, Glorified is He, couples His declaration of His own freedom from imperfection with His salutation of peace upon them, and likewise couples His praise of Himself with His salutation of peace upon them.
As for the first pairing, He, Most High, says:
37: 180, 181 “Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of Might, far above what they ascribe to Him. And peace be upon the messengers.”
Here He declares Himself free of whatever is unbefitting His majesty, then pronounces peace upon His messengers. Coupling His salutation of peace upon them with His declaration of His own freedom from imperfection contains a profound secret among the secrets of the Quran, encompassing a refutation of every proponent of falsehood and every religious innovator. For He declared Himself utterly free of all imperfection, just as He declared Himself free of what the misguided among His creation say about Him, then pronounced peace upon