Al-Baqarah 2:160–201

Except those that repent, turning back from such [deeds], and make amends, in their actions, and show clearly, what they were concealing — them I shall turn [relenting], accepting their repentance; I am the Relenting, the Merciful, to believers.

But those who disbelieve, and die disbelieving (wa-hum kuffār, ‘they being disbelievers’, is a circumstantial qualifier) — upon them shall be the curse of God and the angels, and of people altogether, that is, they deserve such [a curse] in this life and in the next; ‘people’ here is said to be either [people] in general, or believers.

Abiding therein, that is, [in] the curse and the Fire, [the latter] indicated by the following words: the chastisement shall not be lightened for them, [not even for] a blink of an eye, no respite shall be given them, in which to have time to repent or to excuse themselves.

When they asked him [Muhammad (s)] to describe his Lord, the following was revealed: Your God, the One deserving of your worship, is One God, without any equal in either essence or attribute; there is no god except Him, He is the Compassionate, the Merciful.

They then asked for a sign to prove this, and the following was revealed: Surely in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the marvels contained in them, and the alternation of the night and day, passing and returning, increasing and diminishing, and the ships that run in the sea, and do not become cracked and sink, with what profits men, of trade and merchandise, and the water, the rain, God sends down from the heaven with which He revives the earth, with vegetation, after it is dead, after it has dried out, and He scatters abroad in it all manner of crawling thing, by dividing them and spreading them throughout on account of the vegetation, for they thrive on the fertile pastures it produces; and the disposition of the winds, changing it from south to north, from cold to warm, and the clouds compelled, subjugated by God’s command, moving to wherever God wishes, between heaven and the earth, without being attached [to either of the two] — surely there are signs, indicating His Oneness, exalted be He, for a people who comprehend, [a people] who contemplate.

Yet there be people who take to themselves compeers, idols, besides God, that is, other than God, loving them, by magnifying them and being subservient to them, as God is loved, that is, as their love of Him; but those who believe love God more ardently, than those who love their compeers, because the former never reject God, whereas the latter when faced with hardship soon abandon those [compeers] for God; If he, [if you] O Muhammad (s), were to see those who did evil, by taking to themselves compeers, when (idh here denotes idhā) they see (read either as active [yarawna, ‘they see’] or passive [yurawna, ‘they are made to see’]) the chastisement, you would see a grave sight, that, this is because, the might, the power and the vanquishing, altogether (a circumstantial qualifier) belongs to God, and that God is terrible in chastisement (according to one reading, the person listening [to the verse] governs the verb yarā, ‘he sees’, and constitutes the subject [of the clause]; according to another [reading], it is the ‘evildoers’ [who constitute the subject of the clause and govern the verb yarā]; and so it [yarā] has the sense of ya‘lam, ‘he knows’; the particle an, ‘that’, and what comes after it have taken the place of the objects in both cases; the response to the [initial conditional] law, ‘if’, has been omitted). The general meaning [of the verse] then is: ‘If they were aware in this world of the severity of God’s chastisement and of the fact that power is God’s alone, the moment they come to see it with their own eyes, on the Day of Resurrection, they would not take to themselves compeers’.

When (idh here substitutes for the previous idh) those who were followed, that is, the leaders, disown their followers, that is to say, [when] they have denied misleading them [the latter], and they have seen the chastisement, and the cords, the bonds of affection and kinship that were between them on earth, are cut away before them, from them (taqatta‘at, ‘cut away’, is a supplement to tabarra’a, ‘disown’).

And those who followed say, ‘O, if only we might return again, to the world, and disown them, the ones who had been followed, as they have disowned us!’, on this day (the particle law, ‘if only’, is an optative, and its response is natabarra’a, ‘we disown’). So, just as He showed them the severity of His chastisement and their disowning of one another, so too, God shall show them their, evil, works, as, anguish (hasarāt is a circumstantial qualifier), regrets, for them! Never shall they exit from the Fire, once they have entered it.

The following was revealed when some said that it was unlawful to take a camel that has been let loose (sawā’ib): O people, eat of what is in the earth, lawful (halālan is a circumstantial qualifier) and wholesome (tayyiban is an adjective for emphasis), that is to say, what is delicious; and follow not the steps, the ways, of Satan, meaning, what he embellishes [of temptations]; he is a manifest foe to you, whose enmity is clear;

he only commands you to evil, sin, and indecency, what is abhorred by the Law, and that you should speak against God what you do not know, such as forbidding what He has not forbidden and otherwise.

And when it is said to them, the disbelievers, ‘Follow what God has revealed’, pertaining to affirmation of God’s Oneness and the good things that He has made lawful, they say, ‘No; but we follow what we found our fathers doing’, in the way of idol-worship, deeming unlawful the camel let loose, and [practising] the slitting of the camel’s ear (sc. bahīra). God says: What? (the hamza [of a-wa-law] is for repudiation), do they follow them, Even if their fathers do not understand anything, concerning religion, and they were not guided?, to the truth.

The likeness, the attribute, of those who disbelieve, and the one who calls them to guidance, is as the likeness of one who shouts to that which hears nothing, save a call and a cry, only a sound, not understanding its meaning: when they listen to an admonition they are like cattle that hear the cry of their shepherd but do not understand what he is saying; they are deaf, dumb, blind — they do not comprehend, any admonition.

O you who believe, eat of the good things, that are lawful, wherewith We have provided you, and give thanks to God, for what He has made lawful for you, if it be Him that you worship.

He has only forbidden you: carrion, that is, the consumption of it, since this is the subject of the general address here, and similarly [the consumption of] what follows, [all of] which is what has not been slaughtered in accordance with [prescriptions of] the Law; to this the Sunna adds [as also constituting carrion] what has been severed from a living creature. A special status is, however, accorded fish and locusts; blood, poured forth, as in [sūrat] al-An‘ām [see Q. 6:145], the flesh of swine, the meat is singled out for mention because that [part] is what people mostly seek, every other [part] being implied thereby; what has been hallowed to other than God, that is to say, what has been slaughtered in other than His Name (al-ihlāl is the raising of one’s voice, which they used to do when sacrificing for their gods). Yet whoever is constrained, forced by dire need to eat of the above-mentioned, not desiring, to rebel against Muslims, nor transgressing, committing aggression against them by waylaying them, no sin shall be on him, for eating it. God is Forgiving, to His friends, Merciful, to those who are obedient to Him, for He has granted them wide berth in this matter. The aggressor and the transgressor are excluded from this [dispensation], and to these two [categories] one should also add every person that sets out on a journey in disobedience, such as the fugitive or the excise collector, for whom it would be unlawful to eat any of the mentioned, unless they repent [of their disobedience]; this is the opinion of al-Shāfi‘ī.

Those who conceal what God has revealed of the Scripture, comprising all the descriptions of Muhammad (s), meaning the Jews, and sell it for a little price, in this world, taking this [little price] in its place from the debased ones among them, for fear of losing out if they were to manifest it [sc. the truth of Muhammad (s)] — they shall consume nothing in their bellies but the Fire, because that is their journey’s end; God shall not speak to them on the Day of Resurrection, out of anger with them, neither purify them, from the filth of sin; and theirs is a painful chastisement, that is, the Fire.

Those are they that have bought error at the price of guidance, taking the former in place of the latter in this world, and chastisement at the price of pardon, [the pardon] that would have been prepared for them in the Hereafter, had they not concealed this matter; what makes them so patient for the Fire?, that is, how great is the extent of their patience? This [statement] is intended to provoke amazement in the believers at the way in which they [the disbelievers] commit sins that necessitate their punishment in the Fire with complete indifference. In reality they would have no patience whatever [to endure the Fire].

That, which has been mentioned of their eating of the Fire and what follows it, is because God has revealed the Book with the truth, but they are at variance regarding it, believing in parts of it while disbelieving in others, and concealing them; and those that are at variance regarding the Book, concerning this matter, namely, the Jews — although it is said that these are the idolaters some of whom said, with regard to the Qur’ān, that it was poetry, others, that it was sorcery, and others still, that it was divination — are in schism, disagreement, far removed, from the truth.

It is not piety, that you turn your faces, in prayer, to the East and to the West. This was revealed in response to the claim made by the Jews and the Christians to this effect. True piety, that is, the pious person (al-birr, is also read al-barr, in the sense of al-bārr [‘the dutiful person’]) is [that of] the one who believes in God and the Last Day and the angels and the Book, that is, the scriptures, and the prophets, and who gives of his substance, however, despite [it being], cherished, by him, to kinsmen and orphans and the needy and the traveller and beggars, and for, the setting free of, slaves, both the captive and the one to be manumitted by contract; and who observes prayer and pays the alms, that are obligatory, and what was [given] before [alms were made obligatory], in the way of charity; and those who fulfil their covenant when they have engaged in a covenant, with God or with others, those who endure with fortitude (al-sābirīna is the accusative of laudation) misfortune (al-ba’sā’ is abject poverty), hardship, illness, and peril, at the height of a battle in the way of God; these, described in the way mentioned, are the ones who are truthful, in their faith and in their claims to piety, and these are the ones who are fearful, of God.

O you who believe, prescribed, made obligatory, for you is retaliation, on equal terms, regarding the slain, both in the attributes [of the one slain] and in the action involved; a free man, is killed, for a free man, and not for a slave; and a slave for a slave, and a female for a female. The Sunna makes it clear that a male may be killed [in retaliation] for a female, and that religious affiliation should be taken into account also, so that a Muslim cannot be killed in return for an disbeliever, even if the former be a slave and the latter a free man. But if anything, of the blood, is pardoned any one, of those who have slain, in relation to his brother, the one slain, so that the retaliation is waived (the use of the indefinite shay’un, ‘anything’, here implies the waiving of retaliation through a partial pardon by the inheritors [of the slain]; the mention of akhīh [‘his brother’] is intended as a conciliatory entreaty to pardon and a declaration that killing should not sever the bonds of religious brotherhood; the particle man, ‘any one’, is the subject of a conditional or a relative clause, of which the predicate is [the following, fa’ittibā‘un]) let the pursuing, that is, the action of the one who has pardoned in pursuing the killer, be honourable, demanding the blood money without force. The fact that the ‘pursuing’ results from the ‘pardoning’ implies that one of the two [actions] is a duty, which is one of al-Shāfi‘ī’s two opinions here. The other [opinion] is that retaliation is the duty, whereas the blood money is merely compensation [for non-retaliation], so that if one were to pardon but not name his blood money, then nothing [happens]; and this [latter] is the preferred [opinion]. And let the payment, of the blood money by the slayer, to him, the pardoner, that is, the one inheriting [from the slain], be with kindliness, without procrastination or fraud; that, stipulation mentioned here about the possibility of retaliation and the forgoing of this in return for blood money, is an alleviation, a facilitation, given, to you, by your Lord, and a mercy, for you, for He has given you latitude in this matter and has not categorically demanded that one [of the said options] be followed through, in the way that He made it obligatory for Jews to retaliate and for Christians to [pardon and] accept blood money; and for him who commits aggression, by being unjust towards the killer and slaying him, after that, that is, [after] pardoning — his is a painful chastisement, of the Fire in the Hereafter, or of being killed in this world.

In retaliation there is life for you, that is great longevity, O people of pith, possessors of intellect, because if the would-be killer knew that he would be killed [in retaliation], he would refrain [from such action] and would have thereby given life to himself and to the one whom he had intended to kill; and so it [retaliation] was stipulated by the Law, so that you might fear killing, fearing retaliation.

Prescribed, made obligatory, for you, when any of you is approached by death, that is, [by] its causes, and leaves behind some good, material possessions, is to make testament (al-wasiyyatu is in the nominative because of kutiba, and is semantically connected to the particle idhā, ‘when’, if the latter is adverbial; but if this latter is conditional, then it [al-wasiyyatu] indicates the response; the response to the [conditional] particle in, ‘if’, is, in other words, [implied to be] fa’l-yūsi, ‘let him make testament’); in favour of his parents and kinsmen honourably, that is justly, not giving more than the allotted share of a third, nor preferring the richer person — an obligation (haqqan here emphasises the import of what has preceded) on those that fear, God (this verse has been abrogated by the ‘inheritance’ verse [āyat al-mīrāth, see Q. 4:11] and by the hadīth: ‘Do not make testament for one [already] inheriting’, as reported by al-Tirmidhī).

Then if anyone, whether a witness or a trustee, changes it, that is, the testament, after hearing it, and knowing it, the sin, resulting from the changed testament, shall rest upon those who change it (here the explicit subject stands in place of the implicit one); surely God is Hearing, of the testator’s words, Knowing, of the deeds of the trustee, requiting [each] accordingly.

But if any one fears injustice, an error, in straying from what is right, or sin, because he has purposely increased the share of a third or specified a rich individual, from one making testament (read mūsī or muwassī), and so makes things right between them, the testator and the trustee, by commanding that justice be done, then no sin shall be upon him, with regard to this matter; surely God is Forgiving, Merciful.

O you who believe, prescribed for you, obligatory [for you], is the Fast, just as it was prescribed for those, communities, that were before you so that you might guard yourselves, against acts of disobedience, for, it [the fast] curbs the desires that prompt these [acts].

For days (ayyāman, ‘days’, is in the accusative as the object of al-siyām, ‘the fast’, or of an implied yasūmū, ‘he fasts’) numbered, few or specific in number, that is, those of Ramadān, as will be mentioned below; God has specified a small number as a way of facilitating matters for those under the obligation; and if any of you, during the month, be sick, or be on a journey, in which prayers are shortened, or if one is strained by the fast in both cases and breaks it, then a number of other days, equal to the ones during which he broke his fast — let him fast them instead; and for those who are, not, able to do it, [to fast] on account of old age or chronic illness, a redemption: which is, the feeding of a poor man, with about the same amount one consumes in a given day, that is, one mudd measure of the principal food of that town each day (a variant reading has [genitive] fidyatin as an explicative clause. It is also said that the [lā] negation of the verb [yutīqūnahu] is not actually implied, because at the very beginning of Islam, they could choose between fasting or offering the redemption; but later on this was abrogated by fixing the Fast [as an obligation], where God says, So let those of you, who are present at the month, fast it [Q. 2:185]: Ibn ‘Abbās said [by way of qualification] ‘Except for the pregnant one and the one breastfeeding, if they break their fast out of concern for the child; in the case of these two, the verse remains valid and has not been abrogated’). For him who volunteers good, by offering more than the minimum amount mentioned for the redemption; that, volunteering, is good for him; but that you should fast (wa-an tasūmū is the subject) is better for you (khayrun lakum is its predicate), than breaking the fast and paying the redemption, if you but knew, that this is better for you, then do it.

These days of, the month of Ramadān, wherein the Qur’ān was revealed, from the Preserved Tablet to the earthly heaven on the Night of Ordainment [laylat al-qadr] from Him, a guidance (hudan, ‘a guidance’, is a circumstantial qualifier), guiding away from error, for the people, and as clear proofs, lucid verses, of the Guidance, the rulings that guide to truth, and, of, the Criterion, that discriminates between truth and falsehood; So let those of you, who are present at the month, fast it and if any of you be sick, or if he be on a journey, then a number of other days (this [concession] has already been mentioned, but it is repeated here to avoid the mistaken impression that it has been abrogated by the comprehensive implication of man shahida, ‘who are present’). God desires ease for you, and desires not hardship for you, and for this reason He has permitted you the breaking of the fast during illness or travel, [this ease being] the very reason He has commanded you to fast; He supplements [the previous statement with]: and that you fulfil (read tukmilū or tukammilū) the number, of the fasting days of Ramadān, and magnify God, when you have completed them, for having guided you, for having directed you to the principal rites of His religion, and that you might be thankful, to God for this.

A group of followers of the Prophet (s) asked him, ‘Is our Lord nearby so that we should talk to Him secretly, or is He far away, so that we should call out to him?’, and the following was revealed: And when My servants question you concerning Me — I am near, to them in My knowledge, and he informed them of this; I answer the call of the caller, by granting him his request, when he calls to Me; so let them respond to Me, My call to them to be obedient, and let them believe, [let them] persevere in faith, in Me that they might go aright, [that] they [might] become guided.

Permitted to you, upon the night of the Fast, is to go in to your wives, in sexual intercourse: this was revealed as an abrogation of its unlawfulness during the earliest phase of Islam, as well as [an abrogation of] the unlawfulness of eating and drinking after the night prayer; they are a vestment for you, and you are a vestment for them (a metaphor for their embraces or their need for one another); God knows that you have been betraying yourselves, by having sexual intercourse on the eve of the fast: this happened with ‘Umar [b. al-Khattāb] and others, and they apologised to the Prophet (s), and so He has turned to you [relenting], before you even turned in repentance, and He has pardoned you. So now, when it is permitted to you, lie with them, in sexual intercourse, and seek what God has prescribed for you, of sexual intercourse or what it produces of offspring; and eat and drink, [at any time] during the night, until the white thread is distinct, to you, from the black thread at daybreak, that is, the true [moment of daybreak], which explains the white thread, while the explanation of the black thread, namely, the night, has been left out. The whiteness and the darkness of the dawn [twilight] are likened to two black and white threads in the way they stretch out; then complete the fast, from daybreak, to the night, that is, until it arrives, after the setting of the sun; and do not lie with them, your women, while you cleave to the mosques in devotion [to God], while you are residing [therein] with the intention of [performing] i‘tikāf (‘spiritual retreat’). This was a prohibition pertaining to one who used to leave [the mosque], whilst in a state of i‘tikāf, have sexual intercourse with his wife, and then return. Those, rulings mentioned, are God’s bounds, delimited by God for His servants so that they do not overstep them; do not approach them (lā taqrabūhā, is more intense than lā ta‘taddūhā, ‘Do not overstep’, used in verses elsewhere). So, just as He makes clear to you what has been mentioned, God makes clear His signs to people so that they might fear [disobeying] His prohibitions.

Consume not your goods between you, that is to say, do not let one consume the goods of the other, in deception, that which is illicit according to the Law, such as theft and extortion; and, do not, proffer them, the regulation of these [goods] or any bribes, to the judges, that you may consume, as a result of any arbitration, a portion of other people’s goods, embroiled, in sin while you are aware, that you are in error.

They will ask you, O Muhammad (s), about the new moons (ahilla, plural of hilāl): ‘Why do they seem very thin, and then wax until they are full of light, and then wane again as at the first, and are not always the same, in the way that the sun is?’ Say, to them: ‘They are appointed times (mawāqīt is the plural of mīqāt) for the people, for them to know the times for sowing the land, for business, for their women’s waiting periods, their fast and their breaking it, and the Pilgrimage’ (wa’l-hajji and the Pilgrimage’, is a supplement to li’l-nāsi, ‘for the people’), that is to say, [appointed times] by which its season is known, for if they [the new moons] always looked the same, none of these things could be known. It is not piety to come to the houses from their backs, in [your] state of pilgrimage inviolability (ihrām), when you would bore holes in them to enter them and then exit, disregarding their doors; they used to do this and claim that it was out of piety; but piety is to fear, God by not contravening His commands; so come to the houses by their doors, when in a state of pilgrimage inviolability, and fear God, that you may prosper, [that you may] triumph.

After the Prophet (s) was prevented from [visiting] the House in the year of the battle of Hudaybiyya, he made a pact with the disbelievers that he would be allowed to return the following year, at which time they would vacate Mecca for three days. Having prepared to depart for the Visitation [‘umra], [he and] the believers were concerned that Quraysh would not keep to the agreement and instigate fighting. The Muslims were averse to becoming engaged in fighting while in a state of pilgrimage inviolability in the Sacred Enclosure [al-haram] and during the sacred months, and so the following was revealed: And fight in the way of God, to elevate His religion, with those who fight against you, the disbelievers, but aggress not, against them by initiating the fighting; God loves not the aggressors, the ones that overstep the bounds which God has set for them: this stipulation was abrogated by the verse of barā’a, ‘immunity’ [Q. 9:1], or by His saying [below]:

And slay them wherever you come upon them, and expel them from where they expelled you, that is, from Mecca, and this was done after the Conquest of Mecca; sedition, their idolatry, is more grievous, more serious, than slaying, them in the Sacred Enclosure or while in a state of pilgrimage inviolability, the thing that you greatly feared. But fight them not by the Sacred Mosque, that is, in the Sacred Enclosure, until they should fight you there; then if they fight you, there, slay them, there (a variant reading drops the alif in the three verbs [sc. wa-lā taqtilūhum, hattā yaqtulūkum, fa-in qatalūkum, so that the sense is ‘slaying’ in all three, and not just ‘fighting’]) — such, killing and expulsion, is the requital of disbelievers.

But if they desist, from unbelief and become Muslims, surely God is Forgiving, Merciful, to them.

Fight them till there is no sedition, no idolatry, and the religion, all worship, is for God, alone and none are worshipped apart from Him; then if they desist, from idolatry, do not aggress against them. This is indicated by the following words, there shall be no enmity, no aggression through slaying or otherwise, save against evildoers. Those that desist, however, are not evildoers and should not be shown any enmity.

The sacred month, in return, for the sacred month, therefore, just as they fight you during it, kill them during it: a response to the Muslims’ consideration of the momentous nature of this matter; holy things (hurumāt, plural of hurma, is what must be treated as sacrosanct) demand retaliation, in kind if these [holy things] are violated; whoever commits aggression against you, through fighting in the Sacred Enclosure, or during a state of ritual purity or in the sacred months, then commit aggression against him in the manner that he committed against you, the [Muslim] response is also referred to as ‘aggression’, because that is what it resembles formally; and fear God, when avenging yourselves and [by] renouncing aggression, and know that God is with the God-fearing, helping and assisting [them].

And spend in the way of God, in obedience to Him, in holy struggle and the like; and cast not your own hands, yourselves (the bā’ of bi-aydīkum ‘with your hands’ is extra) into destruction, by withholding funds needed for the struggle or abandoning it altogether, because this will give your enemy the advantage over you; but be virtuous, by spending etc.; God loves the virtuous, that is, He rewards them.

Fulfil the Pilgrimage and the Visitation to God, by completing them according to their due; but if you are prevented, from fulfilling them by an enemy, then [give] such offering as may be feasible, for you — a sheep — and do not shave your heads, that is, do not release yourselves from the state of pilgrimage inviolability, until the offering, mentioned, reaches its place, its place of sacrifice, that is, within the enclosure, according to al-Shāfi‘ī; the sacrifice is then made with the intention of releasing oneself from the state of pilgrimage inviolability, and is divided among the needy, after which the head is shaved and the release is effected. If any of you is sick, or has an ailment of the head, such as lice or severe pains, and has thus shaved his head while in a state of pilgrimage inviolability, then, incumbent upon him is, a redemption by fast, for three days, or a voluntary almsgiving, consisting of three cubic measures of the principal food of the town for six needy persons, or a ritual sacrifice, that is, the slaughter of a sheep (aw, ‘or’, denotes freedom of choice). To this [last] has been added the [case of the] one who shaves his head without excuse because the requirement of redemption is most obvious in his case; but also [it is required in the case of] one that enjoys, without shaving, such things as scents, attire, or oils, be it with an excuse or without. When you are secure, knowing that the enemy has gone or is not present, then whoever enjoys the Visitation, having completed it and observed its ritual prohibitions, until the Pilgrimage, until he enters its ritual inviolability in the relevant months; let his offering be such as is feasible, for him, such as a sheep that he sacrifices after entering into the state of pilgrimage inviolability, ideally, on the Day of Sacrifice; or if he finds none, because there are none available, or because he does not have sufficient funds, then, incumbent upon him is, a fast of three days in the Pilgrimage, that is to say, in a state of pilgrimage inviolability. In such a case, he should enter into the state of pilgrimage inviolability before the seventh of Dhū’l-Hijja, but ideally before the sixth, because one is discouraged from fasting on the Day of ‘Arafa. Moreover, he should not fast during these the days of tashrīq, according to the sounder of two opinions attributed to al-Shāfi‘ī. And of seven when you return, to your domicile, [be it] Mecca or any other; or when you have completed the rites of the Pilgrimage’ (there is a shift from the third [to the second] person); that is a full ten (this sentence reaffirms what has just been said); that, mentioned stipulation regarding the incumbency of the offering or the fast upon the person that has enjoyed [the Visitation], is for him whose family are not present at the Sacred Mosque, so that they are not within 50 miles of the Sacred Enclosure, according to al-Shāfi‘ī. If they are [present however], then no blood [sacrifice] or fast is obligatory in his case, even if he has enjoyed [the Visitation]. The mention of ‘family’ is intended as a notification of the proviso in the case of being ‘domiciled’ [in the vicinity of the Sacred Mosque]. If one were to take up [temporary] residence, but not be domiciled, before the months of the Pilgrimage and enjoy the Visitation, then that [fast or sacrifice] will be incumbent upon him; this is one of two opinions of al-Shāfi‘ī, the other being that it is not [incumbent]. The term ahl, ‘family’, is said to denote ‘oneself’. In the Sunna, in addition to the one that enjoys the Visitation, as mentioned, there is also the one that enters into the state of pilgrimage inviolability for both the Visitation and the Pilgrimage together [sc. qārin, ‘one who combines’] or in the case where the Pilgrimage encroaches upon [a Visitation], but before circumambulation [has been performed]. And fear God, in what He commands you and prohibits you; and know that God is severe in retribution, against whoever opposes Him.

The Pilgrimage, the time for it, is in months well-known: Shawwāl, Dhū’l-Qa’da and ten nights, some say all, of Dhū’l Hijja; whoever undertakes, upon himself, the duty of Pilgrimage during them, by entering into the state of pilgrimage inviolability, then no lewdness, [no] sexual intercourse for them, nor wickedness, [nor] acts of disobedience, or disputing, [or] quarrelling, in the Pilgrimage (a variant reading [for fa-lā rafathun wa-lā fusūqun wa-lā jidāla] has the accusative for all three nouns [sc. fa-lā rafatha wa-lā fusūqa wa-lā jidāla]; prohibition is meant in all three cases). Whatever good you do, by way of voluntary almsgiving, God knows it, and will reward you for it. And take provision, to suffice you your journey: this was revealed regarding the people of Yemen, who use to make the Pilgrimage and not take any provisions with them, thus, becoming a burden for others. But the best provision is piety [taqwā, ‘piety’, literally ‘guarding’] with which you are able to guard against asking others [for things]; and fear you Me, O people of pith!, [O] possessors of intellect.

You would not be at fault if you should seek bounty, sustenance, from your Lord, by engaging in commerce at the Pilgrimage: this was revealed in response to their aversion to such an idea; but when you press on, push on, from ‘Arafāt, having stood [in prayer] upon it, then remember God, after the overnight stay at Muzdalifa, by repeating the talbiya [sc. labbayka Llāhummā labbayk, ‘at thy service, O God, at thy service’], the tahlīl [lā ilāha illā Llāh, ‘no god but God’] and making supplications, at the Sacred Waymark, a mountain at the end of Muzdalifa, called Quzah. In one hadīth, the Prophet (s) stood there remembering God and supplicating until his face began to glow brightly, according to Muslim; and remember Him as He has guided you, to the principal rites of His religion and the rituals of His Pilgrimage (the kāf of ka-mā, ‘as’, is the particle denoting the reason), though previously, before His guidance, you were astray.

Then (thumma denotes the sequence intended) press on, O Quraysh, from where the people press on, that is, from ‘Arafa, by standing there together with them (for, they used to stand at Muzdalifa, disdaining to stand with other people); and seek God’s forgiveness, for your sins; God is Forgiving, Merciful, to the believers.

And when you have performed, and completed, your holy rites, that is, the devotions pertaining to your pilgrimage, having cast [stones] at the Jamrat al-‘Aqaba, performed the circumambulation and stopped at Minā, remember God, by extolling Him and repeating the takbīr [saying Allāhu akbar, ‘God is Great’], as you remember your fathers, as you used to remember them and boast about them at the end of your pilgrimage, or yet more intensely, than your remembrance of them (ashadda is in the accusative because it is a circumstantial qualifier referring to dhikr ‘remembrance’, which itself is in the accusative as the object of udhkurū, ‘remember’, because had it come after it, it would have functioned as an adjectival phrase). There are some people who say, ‘Our Lord, give to us, our lot, in this world’, and they are given it; such people will have no part, no lot, in the Hereafter.

And there are others who say, ‘Our Lord, give to us in this world good, a grace, and good, Paradise, in the Hereafter, and guard us against the chastisement of the Fire’, by not making us enter it. This [former statement] depicts the manner of the idolaters, while [the latter] the way of the believers, and is intended to encourage [people] to petition for good in both abodes, for which one is promised a reward, as He says: