When a Qur’anic construction appears unusual by a familiar rule, the interpreter should not dismiss it as defective. Context, established readings, Arabic evidence, and meaning must be examined. Constructions involving commendation, specification, or rhetorical shift may explain forms that appear exceptional.
The case of al-muqīmīna al-ṣalāh shows that syntactic variation calls for linguistic reasoning. Several scholarly analyses may remain discussable, but the wording of revelation is not altered, and the verse’s emphasis on worship remains clear.
The purpose of grammatical inquiry is not ingenuity for its own sake. It is to reach an interpretation justified by the usage and signals in the text.