No warfare during the Pilgrimage Months, Warning against the hypocrites, Further instructions regarding Hajj, Invitation to complete submission to God (i.e. Islam).

Al-Baqarah Verses 197 - 210

الْحَجُّ أَشْهُرٌ مَعْلُومَاتٌ فَمَنْ فَرَضَ فِيهِنَّ الْحَجَّ فَلَا رَفَثَ وَلَا فُسُوقَ وَلَا جِدَالَ فِي الْحَجِّ وَمَا تَفْعَلُوا مِنْ خَيْرٍ يَعْلَمْهُ اللَّهُ وَتَزَوَّدُوا فَإِنَّ خَيْرَ الزَّادِ التَّقْوَىٰ وَاتَّقُونِ يَا أُولِي الْأَلْبَابِ

“Hajj is in the months well-known, whosoever then undertaketh the pilgrimage therein, then let there be no intercourse, nor bad language, nor quarrelling during the pilgrimage; and whatever of good ye do, God knoweth it; so make provision (for your journey) and verily the best provision is piety; and fear Me O ye people of understanding” (2:197).

لَيْسَ عَلَيْكُمْ جُنَاحٌ أَنْ تَبْتَغُوا فَضْلًا مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ فَإِذَا أَفَضْتُمْ مِنْ عَرَفَاتٍ فَاذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ عِنْدَ الْمَشْعَرِ الْحَرَامِ وَاذْكُرُوهُ كَمَا هَدَاكُمْ وَإِنْ كُنْتُمْ مِنْ قَبْلِهِ لَمِنَ الضَّالِّينَ

“It shall be no guilt on your part if ye seek bounty from your Lord (in trade during pilgrimage); then when ye march from Arafat remember God near the Holy Monument, and remember Him as He hath guided you, although ye were surely before this, of those who had gone astray” (2:198).

ثُمَّ أَفِيضُوا مِنْ حَيْثُ أَفَاضَ النَّاسُ وَاسْتَغْفِرُوا اللَّهَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ

“Then march ye on from whence the other people march on and seek pardon of God; verily God is Forgiving, Merciful” (2:199).

فَإِذَا قَضَيْتُمْ مَنَاسِكَكُمْ فَاذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ كَذِكْرِكُمْ آبَاءَكُمْ أَوْ أَشَدَّ ذِكْرًا فَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَقُولُ رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا وَمَا لَهُ فِي الْآخِرَةِ مِنْ خَلَاقٍ

“And when ye have performed your rites, remember God as ye remember your fathers, rather with a more intense remembrance; for of men there are those who say, ‘Our Lord! give us in this world’ and for him there shall be no portion in the Hereafter” (2:200).

وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَقُولُ رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الْآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ

“And among them there are some who say Our Lord! give us good in this world and good in the hereafter and save us from the torment of the (Hell) Fire” (2:201).

أُولَٰئِكَ لَهُمْ نَصِيبٌ مِمَّا كَسَبُوا وَاللَّهُ سَرِيعُ الْحِسَابِ

“These shall have a portion of what they have earned; verily, God is quick in reckoning” (2:202).

وَاذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ فِي أَيَّامٍ مَعْدُودَاتٍ فَمَنْ تَعَجَّلَ فِي يَوْمَيْنِ فَلَا إِثْمَ عَلَيْهِ وَمَنْ تَأَخَّرَ فَلَا إِثْمَ عَلَيْهِ لِمَنِ اتَّقَىٰ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّكُمْ إِلَيْهِ تُحْشَرُونَ

“And remember ye God on the numbered days; and whosoever hasteneth off in two days it will be no sin on him, and whoso tarrieth (there), on him (also) there will be no sin and this is for him who guardeth (against evil) so take ye shelter in God and know ye (that) unto Him ye shall (all) be gathered” (2:203).

وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يُعْجِبُكَ قَوْلُهُ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَيُشْهِدُ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ مَا فِي قَلْبِهِ وَهُوَ أَلَدُّ الْخِصَامِ

“And among men there are those whose talk concerning the life here marveleth thee and he taketh God to witness as to what is in his heart, yet he is the most violent of adversaries” (2:204).

وَإِذَا تَوَلَّىٰ سَعَىٰ فِي الْأَرْضِ لِيُفْسِدَ فِيهَا وَيُهْلِكَ الْحَرْثَ وَالنَّسْلَ وَاللَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ الْفَسَادَ

“And when he turneth his back (unto thee) he striveth on earth (runs hither and thither) that he may cause mischief therein and destroy the tilth and stock; but God loveth not mischief” (2:205).

وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُ اتَّقِ اللَّهَ أَخَذَتْهُ الْعِزَّةُ بِالْإِثْمِ فَحَسْبُهُ جَهَنَّمُ وَلَبِئْسَ الْمِهَادُ

“And when it is said unto him, fear God, pride driveth him on to sin; so enough for him is Hell; and it is an evil abode indeed” (2:206).

وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَشْرِي نَفْسَهُ ابْتِغَاءَ مَرْضَاتِ اللَّهِ وَاللَّهُ رَءُوفٌ بِالْعِبَادِ

“And among men there is one who selleth his self (soul) seeking the pleasure of God; and verily, God is affectionate unto His (faithful) servants” (2:207).

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا ادْخُلُوا فِي السِّلْمِ كَافَّةً وَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا خُطُوَاتِ الشَّيْطَانِ إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ مُبِينٌ

“O’ ye who believe! enter ye all into submission (to God) wholly and follow not the footsteps of Satan; for, verily, he is to you an Open Enemy” (2:208).

فَإِنْ زَلَلْتُمْ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَتْكُمُ الْبَيِّنَاتُ فَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمٌ

“But if ye slip after that which hath come unto you of the clear signs then know ye that God is Mighty, Wise” (2:209).

هَلْ يَنْظُرُونَ إِلَّا أَنْ يَأْتِيَهُمُ اللَّهُ فِي ظُلَلٍ مِنَ الْغَمَامِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةُ وَقُضِيَ الْأَمْرُ وَإِلَى اللَّهِ تُرْجَعُ الْأُمُورُ

“Await they aught but that (the wrath of) God come unto them under canopies of bright cloud and the angels (of wrath) (come upon them) and the (whole) matter is decreed away; and to God all matters shall return” (2:210).

Commentary

Verse 197

‘Ash-haro Ma’lumat’ - The well-known months i.e. ‘Shawwal,’ ‘Dhu ‘l-Hijja’ In these months one may start the pilgrimage but the principal of which is fixed in the month of ‘Dhu ‘l-Hijja.’ During these days of solemn resignation to God, all unbecoming acts inconsistent with perfect devotion must be stopped, including even those acts which in other days may be lawful. The aim being spiritual progress through a whole-time devotion to God in godliness, the pilgrim has to fully restrain all his passions of selfishness about his self, controlling himself even from uttering any word of annoyance to anybody or hurting anything.

‘Rafas’ means obscene or foul speech or vain words or even the lawful sexual intercourse and all that appertains thereto.

‘Jidal’ i.e. contending in an altercation disputing or litigating.

‘Tazawwadu’ meaning make provision for the journey to Mecca for Hajj. Some people used to go on journey to Mecca on pilgrimage without sufficient provisions for their sustenance on the pretence that they trust in God’s help. As such people become a burden to their fellow travellers and the other people on their way. Islam enjoins upon the pilgrim to first make the necessary provisions for the whole journey and then start on it. Making provision, here, may also mean making provision for the life journey with piety and righteousness for the life hereafter.

Thus, provision also means the provision every man and woman has to make for his or her life after death.

‘Taqwa’ means guarding one’s self against every evil i.e. Guarding one’s self against evil is the best provision for a human soul for this as well as the next life.

Verse 198

‘Fadi’ meaning favour or bounty i.e. your sustenance and needs of life through trade.

‘Mash’aral Haram’ the holy sign or monument i.e. the place known as ‘Muzdalifa’ where the pilgrims halt for the night on the return from Arafat on the evening of 9th Dhu ‘l-Hijja.

Verse 199

‘Afizu’ (advance) proceed on the journey with the multitude.

The Quraish and the Kanana by virtue of their tribal strength, imagined themselves superior to the people of the other tribes and hence stayed to avoid joining the other pilgrims in proceeding to the plain of ‘Arafat.’ As Islam does not recognise any such distinctions and had already levelled every such difference and distinction, the pilgrims are enjoined to consider themselves at a part of the assembly with the others.

Verse 200

Remembrance of the ancestors refers to the old custom of the days of ignorance, the people praising or boasting of the greatness of their fathers or ancestors. The pilgrims are bidden to remember God and glorify Him who would make them much greater than their forefathers.

Verse 201

Those who pray either for the present life only or only for the hereafter show that they feel themselves secure in the life for which they do not pray for, without the help of God. Hence the prayer of a true or a sincere believer must be for both the life here and also for the life hereafter.

The prayer for both the lives, enjoined upon the Muslims by the Holy Qur’an indicates that Islam wants a human soul to adopt the middle course between materialism and asceticism or the one-sided spiritualism discarding the material life altogether.

Verse 202

Prayer on the part of the doer of the best deeds, is essential for the acceptance of the deeds. Thus, praying also is a duty along with the other good deeds one does.

This verse indicates that the account of each human individual of his personal goodness as well as his badness, is always then and there effected, both on the debit as well as on the credit side. Our accounts go in advance of ourselves.

Verse 203

Referring to the three days following the day of sacrifice in Mina. They are called the days of ‘Tashriq.’

Verses 204 - 206

Many conjectures have been made as to the particular person meant in this verse and the name of ‘Akhnas bin Shuraiq’ is suggested. But the other reliable authors think that no particular person is meant. The words evidently refer to the mischief mongers in general, who assured the Holy Prophet of their sympathy, but they were only waiting for the opportunity to inflict some loss or other, on the Muslims.

Verse 207

The Sunni commentators1 and all the Shi’a commentators are unanimous, saying that this verse was revealed in the praise of Ali when he readily slept in the bed of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, when the latter in response to the will of the Lord, had to suddenly migrate from Mecca to Madina. It happened thus:

The infidels of Mecca at last had decided to join together and kill the Holy Prophet in his bed. Representatives from each tribe had been chosen for the murder of the Holy Prophet, so that every tribe might have a share in the act and the charge of the crime be not upon any single tribe but be divided, in which case no single tribe need fear the retaliation from the tribe of the Bani-Hashim to which the Holy Prophet belonged.

It was night when this gang of the chosen murderers had surrounded the house of the Holy Prophet Muhammad and God commanded the Holy Prophet to leave Ali in his bed and to immediately leave Mecca for Madina. The Holy Prophet could not leave the house leaving his bed vacant for the enemies were watching from outside every now and then, peeping into the house, and if they find the bed vacant, they would naturally come to know of the escape of their object and would immediately start the chase. Since one must necessarily lie down in the bed covering himself with the same mantle-cloth which the Holy Prophet used, under the circumstances lying in the bed of the Holy Prophet, was nothing but courting death. It can be easily imagined that it was a known fact that the bed-room had been surrounded by the blood­thirsty enemy bent upon killing the occupant of the bed, who on earth would never agree to lie in it covering himself with the same cloth which the object of the enemy used to cover himself with. The one who would agree to offer himself instead of the Holy Prophet who was wanted by the enemy, must essentially have:

1. The safety of the Holy Prophet preferred to his own safety.

2. Implicit faith in the duty of man to earn the pleasure of God and His Holy Prophet at any cost even at the cost of his own life.

3. The courage of surrendering himself willingly with the utmost peace of mind, to sleep under the swords, ready to fall upon him.

4. The confidence and faith in God’s protection.

5. The external as well as the internal resemblance to resemble the Holy Prophet to the watching eyes, when under the mantle.

The Holy Prophet called Ali and intimated to him the Lord’s plan of his migration and asked him to lie down in his bed, covering himself with the mantle cloth as he (the Holy Prophet) himself did. Ali immediately agreed and asked to be assured if he (the Holy Prophet) would be safe without Ali to serve him in the great venture, to which the Holy Prophet said that it was God’s plan. Ali immediately laid himself in the Holy Prophet’s bed and covered himself with the mantle, as the Holy Prophet used to do when in the bed. The bed room had been encircled with the enemy, but the Holy Prophet opened the door and passed through the crowd of the enemy, but none saw him. The Holy Prophet passed unnoticed.

When the enemy rushed into the room to kill the occupant of the bed, removed the mantle cloth from the one fast asleep in the bed, they were surprised to find Ali there instead of the Holy Prophet. When asked as to where the Holy Prophet had gone, Ali with the perfect peace of mind and the natural courage, without, in the least being moved by the enemy’s crowd standing around him, answered saying: ‘Had ye appointed me to watch the movements of the Holy Prophet that you asked me to tell you the whereabout of him?

After leaving his residence the Holy Prophet proceeded out of the township to take his way to Madina, when he found Abu Bakr, (later the 2nd Khalif) who according to the orders issued by the Holy Prophet to all his followers, had not to have left his residence. However, the Holy Prophet took Abu Bakr with him and look refuge into a cave in a mountain. By that time the chasing enemy approached near the cave. At the command of God, a spider had woven a web at the mouth of the entrance to the cave and a wild pigeon had laid eggs in a bush at the mouth of the cave to indicate to the enemy that for a long time none had crossed the entrance. When the enemy approached the mouth of the cave and their voices were heard into the cave, Abu Bakr got frightened and began to cry aloud saying that they were lost. The Holy Prophet had to console him saying

لَا تَحْزَنْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَنَا

‘La Tahzan inna Allaha ma’ana.’

“Fear not thou, God is with us” (9:40).

Any intelligent reader of this note would naturally compare and contrast the faith in God, the Love of the Holy Prophet and the Matchless Courage of the One lying in the bed of the Holy Prophet, with the faith and courage of the companion of the Holy Prophet into the cave.

Even the infidels of Mecca had trusted many valuables of their own, to the care of the Holy Prophet who in spite of their bloodthirsty antagonism, was called the Al-Ameen the Trustworthy.

On the morning, following the migration of the Holy Prophet to Madina, Ali announced in the whole of the township of Mecca that whosoever had entrusted anything to the care of the Holy Prophet, go over to him (i.e. Ali) and receive their deposits. Thus, Ali discharging the trust entrusted to him by the Holy Prophet, left for Madina.

This verse was revealed in the presence of Ali who had sold his soul to earn the pleasure of God.

But what a pity that such unsurpassed merits of Ali, the praise of which even Providence sang, were of no avail to the masses of the Muslims in guiding them to the right man for them to follow after the departure of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, and the ignorant world preferred to Ali, those who had not the courage or the faith to stand by the Holy Prophet in the trying times of the battles fought for the faith and fled for their own lives leaving the Holy Prophet amidst his bloodthirsty enemies.

Verse 208

The address in this verse is to the faithful i.e. the Muslims and it cannot he to any who had not yet then embraced the faith to be addressed as the faithful. Hence the word ‘the faithful’ used here can reasonably mean only those who had given only a verbal declaration of their acceptance of the bare outlines of the religion called Islam. ‘Silm’ means here the inner circle of Islam called ‘Iman.’ To illustrate this meaning, a reference to the verse may be made which clearly differentiates Islam with Iman i.e. surrender or submission with perfect belief or the fullest conviction Hence at Ayashi reports from the 5th Holy Imam Muhammad al-Baqir the address in this verse is to the Muslims and not to the non-Muslims and ‘silm’ means not the bare outer limits of Islam but the inner probe of the faith.

The verse refers to the need of the Muslims becoming perfect believers. It is related from the Holy Imam Muhammad al-Baqir that this verse enjoins the faithful i.e. the Muslims to believe in the institution of Imamah or the divine guidance instituted immediately succeeding ‘Risalah’ (i.e. the prophethood) which concludes or ends with the Holy Prophet Muhammad and particularly the Imamah or the divine guidance through Ali, for it opens the highway to the correct guidance of the faithful to the destiny of man desired by his Creator.

Without following Ali, the Muslims, after the departure of the Holy Prophet Muhammad had fallen easy victims to the whims and fancies of unqualified leadership. The truth in the divine guidance given in this verse is proved from the fate of those who failed to act up to the direction of this verse. How many sects and sub-sects and how many schools and Schisms, the poor ignorant Muslims had to be divided into. The safest course is following the Holt Prophet and after him the Holy Ahl Al-Bayt i.e. the Holy Imams of his house.

Verse 209

This verse indicates that the Holy Prophet through this revelation was informed of what will happen to those who joined the ranks of Islam for some interest of their own or the other. It is clearly stated in this verse that those who backslide after adopting the faith, may not foolishly imagine that their going astray is going to affect in the least, the cause of God or would cause any inconvenience to the cause of those who believe in God. Those who go astray, need not be arrogant as to imagine that they will defeat God’s power or Wisdom, the loss will be of those who go astray and not in the least of anybody else.

Verse 210

The coming of God stands for the execution of His will to punish the disbelievers. The beauty of the Holy Qur’an is that its one verse is illustrated or explained by the other. This meaning is brought out clearly in 16:33-34. The same phrase is used in the first part of the verse. Again in 59:2 it is used referring to the arrogance of the Jews who were ultimately banished for their persistent mischief-mongering and their continued molesting the peaceful life of the people in Madina.

• 1. Viz. Tha’labi, Ghazali, and the author of Ahyaul-uloom.