the plural of this plural is mu'aqqibat, as in the expressions abnawat Sa'd (“the sons of Sa'd”) and rijalat Bakr (“the men of Bakr”). (1)
Abu al-Hasan al-Sarakhsī informed us; Zahir ibn Ahmad informed us; Abu Ishaq al-Hashimi informed us; Abu Mus'ab informed us, from Malik, from Abu al-Zinad, from al-A'raj, from Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Angels of the night and angels of the day take turns among you. They meet at the Fajr prayer and the Asr prayer. Then those who spent the night among you ascend, and their Lord asks them—though He knows best about them—‘In what state did you leave My servants?’ They reply, ‘We left them while they were praying, and we came to them while they were praying.’” (2)
Allah the Exalted says: “Before him and behind him,” meaning: in front of this one who conceals himself by night and moves about openly by day, and behind him, that is, behind his back. “They guard him by Allah’s command,” meaning, by Allah’s command: they protect him by Allah’s permission so long as the decreed event has not come; but when it comes, they leave him alone. It was also said that “they guard him by Allah’s command” means: they guard him against that from which Allah commanded that he be protected.
Mujahid said: “There is no servant except that an angel has been assigned to him, protecting him in his sleep and wakefulness from jinn, human beings, and harmful creatures. Whenever any of these comes to him intending harm, the angel says, ‘Get back!’—except for something which Allah permits, and so it strikes him.”
Ka'b al-Ahbar said: “Were it not that Allah has assigned angels to you who defend you while you eat, drink, and expose your private parts, the jinn would snatch you away.” Ikrimah said: “The verse concerns rulers and their guards, who protect them from before them and from behind them.” (3)
(1) Manuscript B reads: “anthawat.” Shaykh Mahmud Shakir emended it in al-Tabari to “sadat Sa'd” (the nobles of Sa'd). The forms are sayyid, sadah, and sadat.
(2) Recorded by al-Bukhari in Mawaqit al-Salah, chapter “The Merit of the Asr Prayer,” 2:33, and in Bad' al-Khalq; by Muslim in al-Masajid, chapter “The Merit of the Fajr and Asr Prayers and Maintaining Them,” no. 632, 1:439; and by the compiler of Sharh al-Sunnah, 2:226. Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar states in Fath al-Bari, 2:34: “Al-Qurtubi said: The waw in yata'aqabuna (‘they take turns’) is the marker of a masculine plural subject, according to the dialect of Balharith, whose speakers say akaluni al-baraghith (‘the fleas ate me’). An example is the poet's verse: ‘In Hawran, his relatives press sesame oil.’ This is a widespread dialect. Al-Akhfash interpreted Allah's saying, ‘Those who did wrong concealed their private counsel,’ according to it. He said: Some grammarians have strained themselves in interpreting it and treating it as an apposition, but this is unnecessary contrivance, for that dialect is well known and has a clear basis in analogy.”
(3) Al-Tabari preferred it because the statement, “For him are successive attendants,” is closer to “and whoever hides by night” than to “the Knower of the unseen.” Owing to this proximity, it is more appropriate for it to refer back to the former, especially since Allah's saying, “When Allah intends evil for a people, none can repel it,” indicates that they are the ones intended. This is because He, exalted is His praise, mentioned people who are disobedient to Him and given to suspicion: they conceal themselves by night and appear openly by day, imagining that guards can protect them and defenses can prevent His obedient servants from stopping them from committing acts of disobedience to Allah. He then informed that, when Allah intends evil for them, their guards will not benefit them, nor will their protection ward it off from them. Ibn Atiyyah, however, preferred the first interpretation and said that, under either interpretation, the pronouns do not refer to specific individuals among humankind. See: Tafsir al-Tabari, 16:374; Ibn Atiyyah, al-Muharrar al-Wajiz, 8:137.