فَإِنِ اسْتَكْبَرُوا فَالَّذِينَ عِندَ رَبِّكَ يُسَبِّحُونَ لَهُ بِاللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ وَهُمْ لَا يَسْأَمُونَ ۩ (38)
(41:38) But if they wax proud *45 (and persist in their attitude, it does not matter, for) the angels near-stationed to your Lord glorify Him night and day, and never grow weary. *46
*45) "If they show arrogance": If they think it is beneath them to listen to you and persist still in the ignorance in which they are involved.
*46) It means this: "The system of this whole universe, whose agents these' angels are, is running on the basis of Allah's Oneness and His servitude. The angels who are its agents are testifying every moment that their Lord is pure and exalted far above that another should be His associate in His Divinity and worship. Now, if a few foolish persons do not believe even after admonition, and turn away from the way that is being followed by the whole universe and persist in following the way of shirk only, Iet them remain involved in their folly." The consensus is that it is obligatory to perform sajdah (prostration) here, but the jurists differ as to which of the two preceding verses requires the performance of sajdah. Hadrat 'Ali and Hadrat 'Abdullah bin Mas'ud performed the sajdah at the end of v. 37, while Hadrat Ibn 'Abbas, Ibn 'Umar, Said bin Musayyab, Masruq, Qatadah, Hasan Basri, Abu 'Abdur Rahman as-Sulami, Ibn Sirin, Ibrahim Nakha'i and several other prominent jurists have expressed the opinion that it should be performed at the end of v. 38. The same also is the opinion of Imam Abu Hanifah, and the Shafe'ites also have held the same view as preferable.