Zephaniah 3:9

His saying at the beginning of the glad tiding: “I will turn to the peoples a pure lip” is a glad tiding of what will happen in the future the turning of people from worshipping other than Allāh to worshipping Allāh alone. This is represented by the “pure lip”, and contains a glad tiding of the Qur’ān, upon which peoples unite, and they read it with one tongue, regardless of if they speak in different languages.

His saying: “pure” clarifies the attribute of the Qur’ān: it is pure from evil and calls to goodness. It commands people to speak good words that come from a person’s lips, and that speech should be pure from lying and deceit. Allāh the Almighty said: “And speak to people good [words] and establish prayer” [Al-Baqarah (The Cow), 2:83]; and His saying: “O you who have believed, fear Allāh and be with those who are true.” [At-Tawbah (The Repentance), 9:119]; and His saying: “O you who have believed, let not a people ridicule [another] people; perhaps they may be better than them; nor let women ridicule [other] women; perhaps they may be better than them. And do not insult one another and do not call each other by [offensive] nicknames. Wretched is the name of disobedience after [one’s] faith. And whoever does not repent – then it is those who are the wrongdoers.” [Al-Ḥujurāt (The Rooms), 49:11].

This phrase contains a glad tiding of the Prophet Muḥammad, because he is the prophet through whose hands this glad tiding would be fulfilled. There is no book in the world that unites people except the Qur’ān, which Allāh the Exalted and Almighty revealed to His Prophet Muḥammad.

In addition, his saying: “that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one shoulder” is a clear glad tiding of the Prophet Muḥammad. For, in it is a description of unified worship performed by his followers, the Muslims, which is prayer. They align in rows, shoulders touching, and they “all call upon” Allāh. This is not known among the followers of previous prophets and messengers.

The Prophet Muḥammad instructed the necessity of aligning closely in rows during the worship of prayer, and that shoulders should be in one straight line, in his saying: “Straighten your rows, for the straightening of the rows is part of perfecting the prayer.” [Al-Bukhari and Muslim].

He also said: “Stand in straight rows and do not differ among yourselves, or else your hearts will differ due to disaccord” [Muslim], and “O slaves of Allāh, Straighten your rows (during Salat) or Allāh would create dissension amongst you” [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]. Meaning, if you do not straighten your rows, the punishment may be the altering of your viewpoints until that leads to the differing of hearts.

Thus, the Prophet Muḥammad emphasizes the importance of standing closely in rows to prevent Satan from intervening, and warns against differing which could lead to the disunity of hearts. This perfectly corresponds to what was previously mentioned in the glad tiding found in (3:9) in the Book of Zephaniah. 63