Sūrah al-Ḥajj

Overview

Sūrah al-Ḥajj is a Makkan-Madinan sūrah with 78 āyāt. The sūrah is named after the Islamic pilgrimage due to it extensively discussing this pillar and its related rites. It begins with an awe-striking threat of the Last Day: “Mankind, be mindful of your Lord; indeed, the quake of the Hour is a tremendous thing!” (22:1). From the severity of that day, people will appear drunk with fear—such is the doom that will overtake the wicked. Allah discusses many types of rejectors. They speak about the Almighty without knowledge, following any and every demonic inclination. As an interjection thereto, and to humble the arrogant, Allah reminds us of our origin, and describes in incredible detail how we came into this world and how we will eventually leave it in a compendious and moving āyah. The lambasting of the rejectors then continues, with those ‘who worship Allah on edge’ being exposed. He will judge among His slaves—believers and disbelievers alike. Everything in creation falls prostrate before Him (22:2-18).

The ends of the righteous and the criminal is vividly expounded upon thereafter. Following this, the discourse transitions to the Ancient House, the Kaʿbah, and the primordiality of worship thereat—circumambulating, standing, bowing, and prostrating. Ibrāhīm is its patron and caretaker. He called out to the people and they came ‘on foot, riding, and from every distant pass.’ The rites of slaughter are discussed thereafter, with an emphasis on gratitude and feeding the poor. Whoever venerates these rites, it is a sign of their veneration of the one unto whom they are owed (22: 19-37).

Allah gives permission to the believers to fight back for the first time in Sūrah al-Ḥajj. They were patient in Makkah for more than a decade. After Hijrah, and under the autonomy of their own state, they were finally permitted to take up arms. Allah declares that His help and support are given to those who are devoted to Him, and that the tyrants’ days are always numbered. He illustrates this via the examples of past nations, and that the horrors of the Last Day await the arrogant deniers. He is in control of all creation (22:38-72). The sūrah concludes with a striking parable of Allah’s sovereignty, and a celebration of Islam as the fulfilment of the covenant of Ibrāhīm.

Context

Sūrah al-Ḥajj is quite unique in terms of its context of revelation. Scholars of qur’anic exegesis and history have created many taxonomies for revelation in terms of concurrent circumstances. The best known of these categories is Makkan and Madinan Qur’an: that revealed before or after the Hijrah respectively. Other classifications include:

• Safarī and ḥaḍarī: whether the Prophet ﷺ was a traveller or a resident during revelation.
• Laylī and nahārī: whether the passage in question was revealed during the day or the night.
• Ḥarbī and silmī: whether it was revealed during a time of war or peace.
• Muḥkam and mutashābih: whether it includes clear-cut or rhetorically ambiguous connotations.
• Nāsikh and mansūkh: whether it is abrogating or abrogated.

Wondrously, Sūrah al-Ḥajj gathers all these categories within it.

Themes

• Submission to Allah completely, associating no partners with Him.
• The honour of Islam and its rites—a pure, primordial, Abrahamic way of life.
• Being Allah’s true representatives on earth, making His word highest.

Unique Features

• Sūrah al-Ḥajj is the only sūrah named after one of the five pillars of Islam.
• It is the only sūrah that contains two sajdahs of tilāwah. (22:18, 77)
• Along with Sūrah al-Nīsāʾ, it is the only other sūrah which begins with the exhortation: “O mankind!”
• Sūrah al-Ḥajj makes mention of various types of qulūb, or hearts:
• The mukhbit: a humble, submissive heart, in awe of its Lord. (22:34, 54)
• The ʿāqil: a wise, wakeful, and cognisant heart that knows its Lord. (22:46)
• The aʿmā: a heart that cannot see, blinded by the veil of the dunyā. (22:46)
• The qāsī: a harsh heart, coarse in its vacuity of divine remembrance. (22:53)
• The marīḍ: a diseased heart, ailed by spiritual maladies. (22:53)
• Sūrah al-Ḥajj has the sixth and seventh sajdahs in the Qur’an (22:18, 77), the only sūrah to have two.

Lessons

• Atheism is a delusion. Every single person has a principal value to which they submit: their god. The challenge is for one to make their god, God. “These are two adversaries who disputed over their Lord” (22:19). They dispute over the worshiped, not worship in principle. Everyone worships something, consciously or unconsciously, willingly or unwillingly. Muslims consciously and willingly submit to the Lord of the Worlds.
• Worship may only be considered transactional in an after-worldly sense: we are given our life as a loan, we dedicate it to its owner and creator, and He recompenses us an eternal reward of His bountiful mercy. However, we categorically do not worship Allah for worldly gain. Whoever does so has no true faith, and stands on very shaky grounds: “Among mankind are those who worship Allah on edge: if good befalls him, he is reassured by it; but if a trial befalls him, he turns about-face, losing the worldly life and the hereafter. That—truly that—is the clear loss.” (22:11)
• The otherwise neutral or mundane is sacralised via orientation to the Divine: “Neither its (the slaughtered animal) flesh nor its blood will reach Allah, but piety from you reaches Him.” (22:37)
• Do not take the sacred lightly. The symbols, rites, and rituals of religious observance are matters to be respected: “Whoever venerates the inviolables of Allah, then it is good for him with his Lord” (22:30); “Whoever magnifies the offerings consecrated to Allah, it is surely from devotion of the hearts” (22:32).

Virtues and Valuable Information

• ʿUqbah ibn ʿĀmir asked the Prophet ﷺ: “Has Sūrah al-Ḥajj been favoured by having two sajdahs?” He ﷺ replied: “Yes.” ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb is reported to have led the prayer with this sūrah and performed two recitational prostrations during.
• Ibn ʿAbbās is reported to have said: “When Ibrāhīm finished rebuilding the House, it was said to him, ‘Call out to the people for Hajj’ (22:27). He said, ‘Lord, what will my voice reach?’ Allah said, ‘Call, and conveyance is on Me.’ He called out, ‘Mankind, pilgrimage to the Ancient House has been prescribed upon you, so come to the Hajj!’ His call was heard by all between the heavens and earth.’”