Make Your Houses Places of Prayer

Mūsā received waḥy from Allah. Allah was telling him: mark the houses of Banū Isrāʾīl. Mark them either with a certain code or sign, or have a certain flag on them — or it could mean that we need a map of where the houses of Banū Isrāʾīl are. Whatever it means, the understanding we take from this ayah is that Mūsā and Banū Isrāʾīl knew each other's houses — whether with a certain mark, or a flag, or they knew the directions; somehow they knew. Allah (swt) is telling Mūsā: tell your people to mark the houses in one way or another. The tafsīr gives different meanings to that, but Allah (swt) says:

And We inspired Mūsā and his brother, saying: take dwellings for your people in Egypt. This is one order. The second order that Mūsā received in this revelation is: wajʿalū buyūtakum qiblatan wa aqīmū al-ṣalāh — make your houses, turn your houses, into masājid, and establish ṣalāh. Turn your houses into masājid.

What is a masjid? The word masjid comes from sujūd: a masjid is a place where you make a lot of sujūd. That is why our places of worship are called masājid — because we make a lot of sujūd in them. So this means that Allah (swt) is telling Banū Isrāʾīl to make their houses centres of worship, centres of sujūd to Allah (swt) — wa aqīmū al-ṣalāh — and establish prayer. Why? Because difficult moments are lying ahead.

When the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was facing difficulty, what would he do? He would pray. Whenever the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was in a difficult situation, he would immediately rush into ṣalāh. So Allah (swt) is telling Banū Isrāʾīl: you need to prepare yourselves; you need to make a lot of sujūd; you need to turn your houses into places of ʿibādah; and you need to establish ṣalāh. And then, at the end: wa bashshiri al-muʾminīn — and give the believers the glad tidings. The victory is soon. Give them the glad tidings.