تَأَخَّرَ

See 2:153.

Commentary:

The glorification of God, or the celebration of His praises enjoined in the preceding verses is to be particularly observed in the appointed number of days to be spent in Mina after the Hajj is over. These are the 11th, the 12th and the 13th day of Dhul-Hijjah during which the pilgrims are required, so far as possible, to stay at Mina and pass their time in God’s glorification. In these days they are also required, as a symbol of the driving out of Satan, to cast pebbles daily at the three pillars so long as they stay there. These are called ایام التشریق i.e. the days of beauty and brightness.

The clause, whoso hastens to leave in two days, refers to the stay in Mina. If a pilgrim leaves Mina two days earlier or stays behind for two days more, no sin shall attach to him, provided everything he does is done with good intention, acting righteously and God-fearingly.

The verse ends with the clause, and fear Allah and know that you shall be brought together before Him, to bring home to the reader or the pilgrim that the underlying object of the Pilgrimage is تقوی, the very word with which the Quran began its commandments about Hajj in 2:197, thus emphasizing that mere outward observance of certain rites is nothing unless they are accompanied by تقوی or the spirit of righteousness which must underlie all actions of man.

The clause, واعلموا انکم الیه تحشرون translated above as, know that you shall all be brought together before Him, is also intended to hint that the gathering in Hajj is not meant for the performance of certain rites and ceremonies but, as it were, for meeting God. In this case, the clause would be rendered as, "know that (in Hajj) you are brought together (i.e. the purpose of your gathering is) to meet God" and you must, therefore, behave accordingly. The gathering in Hajj is truly like the حشر (gathering) on the great Day of Judgement.

Now that the description of Hajj as given in these verses has come to an end, it would be appropriate to give here a brief but collective note on the wisdom and the significance of this act of worship and devotion. The Pilgrimage is indeed a great spiritual ordinance. According to the Quran, the Ka‘bah is the first house of worship that was built for mankind (3:97). It dates not from Abraham, who simply rebuilt it, but from Adam. The Quran speaks of it as "the Ancient House" (22:30, 34). A Jewish tradition also says that Abraham built "the altar which Adam had built, which had been destroyed by the waters of the Deluge, which Noah had again builded, and which had, been destroyed in the age of divisions" (The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan ben Uzziel translated by J. W. Ethebridge, London, 1862, p. 226). The Ka‘bah is the only altar that answers this description; there is no other place so ancient. It was the purpose of God that men from all quarters should assemble at this central house and thus be reminded of their common humanity and common relation with the Lord of the worlds. Differences which divided one nation from another were to be forgotten and all drawn closer to one another in one common bond. The Hajj provides pilgrims of different lands and diverse nationalities with an excellent opportunity to cultivate acquaintance with one another and discuss matters of common interest. This purpose has been made all the more accessible by ordering pilgrims to pass the days of Hajj, and the days following, not within the four walls of Mecca but out in the open desert at Mina, Muzdalifah and ‘Arafat and back again in Mina.

The different objects and places which play an important part in Pilgrimage are spoken of in the Quran as شعائرالله(2:159; 5:3; 22:33) or the Signs of God, which shows that they are meant by God to serve as symbols to impress upon the minds of pilgrims their inward significance.

The Ka‘bah or the Baitullah (the House of God), the very first house of worship round which thousands of devout pilgrims perform the circuit and towards which they all turn while offering their Prayers wherever they be, recalls to their mind the Unity and Majesty of God upon Whom depends all creation. It also reminds one of the unity of mankind.

The act of running between the Safa and the Marwah calls to the minds of pilgrims the pathetic story of Hagar and Ishmael, reminding them how God provides for his helpless servants even in the solitude of a great wilderness.

Mina is a name derived from the word ’umniyyah which means "an object" or "a desire". This reminds the pilgrim of the fact that he goes there with the "object" or the "desire" of meeting God. From Mina the pilgrim proceeds to Muzdalifah which means "nearness" and reminds him that the object with which he had set out has drawn "near". The other name of Muzdalifah is Mash‘arul-Haram, meaning the sacred symbol. This also hints that the final stage is near. From Muzdalifah, the pilgrim proceeds to ‘Arafat, the root-meaning of which is "to recognize". This reminds him that he has now reached the stage of "recognition" where he has "recognized" or known the One Lord and has met Him.

Again, the place chosen for this great concourse of the Faithful is a barren waste, devoid of all vegetation, as the Quran itself states (14:38). The only things that are met with there are sand, pebbles, rocks and rugged hillocks. Such a place has been chosen to bring home to us the fact that it possesses absolutely no attraction for which one might visit it. If there is anything for which one should go there, it is God and God alone. This is why in the present verse the Quran says, "know that you are being gathered here (not for any worldly object but) to meet Him".

Ihram reminds one of the Day of Resurrection. Like the shroud of a dead body, the pilgrim is covered only with two unsewn sheets, one for the upper part of the body and the other for the lower; and he also has to remain bareheaded. This condition is to remind him that he has here, as it were, risen from the dead. The pilgrims gathered together at ‘Arafat truly present the spectacle of the Day of Resurrection—men suddenly risen from the dead in their white shrouds and assembled in the presence of their Lord.

The casting of pebbles at the three pillars at Mina—known as Dunya, Wusta and ‘Aqabah, is also an interesting representation. It reminds the pilgrim of the three stages through which man has to pass and which have been referred to in the Quran as the three stages of human life, viz. (1) the present world, or Dunya as it is called, which is symbolized by the first pillar, significantly called Jamratud-Dunya, i.e. the pillar situated near; (2) the grave or the middle stage lying between this world and the next, the pillar corresponding to which is called Jamratul-Wusta, i.e. the middle pillar; and (3) the next world (known also as عقبی ‘Uqba) which is symbolized by the third pillar, which is accordingly called Jamratul-‘Aqabah, i.e. the pillar of the distant hillock that comes after the others. The casting of pebbles at these pillars is also symbolic of Satan being pelted. Evil thoughts should be driven out of one’s mind just as God has driven away Satan from His presence.

The animals sacrificed are reminders of the great sacrifice of his son Ishmael offered by Abraham, and teach, in symbolic language, that man should ever be willing not only to sacrifice himself but also his wealth and property and even children in the way of God out of love for Him.

Pilgrims perform seven circuits round the Ka‘bah, run seven times between the Safa and the Marwah and cast seven pebbles at the pillars at Mina. The number seven being regarded by the Arabs as a symbol of perfection (Aqrab), the pilgrim is thereby reminded that in Pilgrimage, as in all other things, he should not be satisfied with half measures. He should always aim at perfection and get it. It is significant that the stages of spiritual progress which lead man to perfection and which have been detailed in 23:2-12 are also seven.

In short, the various rites of the Hajj and the objects that play a part therein are all emblematic and are replete with great and momentous lessons, but only for those who care to meditate.

Important Words:

لیغفر (that He may cover up). They say غفر المتاع i.e. he put the goods into the bag and covered and protected them. غفرانand مغفرة both infinitive nouns mean, protection and preservation. مغفر means, helmet and غفارة means, cloth worn beneath the veil to keep it clean (Lane, Mufradat & Aqrab). See also 2:59; 14:42 & 40:56.

ذنبک (thy shortcomings).ذنبه means, he followed his trail, not quitting his track. ذنب therefore, signifies such natural failings or frailties as adhere to human nature. أذنب means, he committed a sin, a crime, a misdemeanour, fault, etc. According to Imam Raghib ذنب means, such errors and mistakes as bring about a harmful result. It differs from اثم in being either intentional or committed through inadvertence while اثم is peculiarly intentional (Lane). See also 3:17.

Commentary:

The verse has been deliberately misrepresented, or, through lack of knowledge of Arabic idiom and phrase, misinterpreted, by Christian missionaries as signifying that the Holy Prophet was guilty of some moral lapses. But it bears no such construction. It is an article of faith with Muslims, as enjoined by the Quran that God’s Prophets are born sinless and they remain sinless throughout their lives. They are incapable of saying or doing anything contrary to Divine commandments (21:28). As they are commissioned by God to purge men of sins, they cannot themselves commit sins. And of Divine Messengers the Holy Prophet was the noblest and the purest. The Quran abounds in verses which speak in glowing terms of the purity and spotlessness of his life. Here are a few of them:

(a) Say, if you love Allah, follow me; then will Allah love you (3:32). (b) Verily, Allah has conferred a favour on the believers by raising among them a Messenger from among themselves, who recites to them His signs, and purifies them and teaches them the Book and wisdom (3:165). (c) Say, my Prayer and my sacrifice and my life and my death are all for Allah, the Lord of all the worlds (6:163). (d) Those who follow the Messenger, the Prophet, the Immaculate (sinless) One…(7:158). (e) O ye who believe! respond to Allah, and the Messenger when he (the Messenger) calls you that he may give you life (8:25). (f) Verily, you have in the Prophet of Allah an excellent model (33:22). (g) Verily, those who swear allegiance to thee, indeed, swear allegiance to Allah (48:11). (h) Your Companion has neither erred, nor has he gone astray, nor does he speak out of his own desire (53:3-4). (i) And thou dost surely possess very high moral excellences (68:5). (j) A noble Messenger, possessor of power, established in the presence of the Lord of the Throne, one who should be obeyed and who is faithful to his trust (81:20-22).

A man of such high moral stature, as the Holy Prophet, who raised a whole people sunk into the lowest depths of moral turpitude to the highest pinnacles of spiritual eminence, could not possibly be guilty of such moral lapses as his detractors seek to impute to him.

A quite simple and harmless word— ذنب —is taken advantage of to malign him. The word, among other things, signifies such frailties as adhere to human nature, and errors as are calculated to bring about harmful results. In this sense of the word the verse signifies that God would protect the Holy Prophet from the harmful results that would follow in the wake of the promised victory referred to in the preceding verse, inasmuch as, large masses of people would enter the fold of Islam, and naturally their moral and spiritual training and upbringing would not be of the desired standard. That is why wherever in the Quran success and victories are promised to the Holy Prophet, he is enjoined to seek protection of God from his ذنب i.e. human weakness which might stand in the way of the realization of his great mission which is the spread and expansion of Islam and the creation of a disciplined community of high morals. The fact that of the four words جناح and جرم and اثم and ذنب, which possess almost similar connotations, the first three have not been used in the Quran with regard to Prophets of God, shows that ذنب does not possess the sinister meaning which the other three words possess. Besides, according to the Quranic idiom, the expression ذنبک, if at all ذنبbe taken to signify a sin or crime, would mean "the sins attributed to thee or alleged to have been committed by thee or the sins committed against thee." Elsewhere in the Quran (5:30) a similar expression اثمی (my sin) means, the sin committed against me. Thus the verse under comment means that as a result of the great victory, i.e. the Treaty of Hudaibiyyah, all the sins and crimes and faults which his enemies imputed to the Holy Prophet, viz. that he was a cheat, an impostor or forger of lies against God and man, etc., would prove to be false, inasmuch as all sorts of people by coming into contact with Muslims would find out the truth about him. Moreover, the context also supports this meaning because grant of a clear victory and the completion of Divine favour upon the Holy Prophet, referred to in this and the preceding verse do not seem to possess any relevance to the forgiveness of sins, if ذنب be taken to mean a sin. And theexpression لک may also mean "for thy sake".

The words "past and present" signify that the charges that have been levelled against the Holy Prophet in the past by the Quraish and those that will be levelled against him in future by his enemies, will all be dispelled and he will stand completely vindicated. The words seem to embody a great prophecy that in some future time the Holy Prophet will be misrepresented and misunderstood but that all misunderstandings will eventually be dissipated and Islam will shine forth in full glory, and its superiority will be established over all rival Faiths.