2/197 — Three prohibitions and one provision
"The pilgrimage is in known months. Whoever undertakes the pilgrimage in them: no coarse speech, no transgression, no wrangling in the pilgrimage."
| Word | Root | What it cuts off |
|---|---|---|
| رَفَث | ر-ف-ث | Speech and conduct of a sexual kind — looking to the body |
| فُسُوق | ف-س-ق | Going outside the bound — looking to the ruling |
| جِدَال | ج-د-ل | Contention, a quarrel of words — looking to other people |
The concrete sense of the root ف-س-ق, as the lexicographers record it, is a date's coming out of its skin: overflowing one's own vessel. The word had occurred earlier in this commentary (2/26).
The root ج-د-ل means to twist a rope tight; jadīl — a firmly plaited rope. It is used in wrestling for throwing one's opponent to the ground. Jidāl, then, is each side trying to twist the other. The prohibition of wrangling is not the prohibition of speaking but of speaking with the intention of winning — this is recorded as a reading; the root of the word is open in this direction.
The command is first concrete: take your food with you when you set out. According to what is transmitted, some would set out without provisions and say "we are trusting in God", and then become a burden on people all along the road. The verse does away with this.
And the second half of the sentence carries the same word to another plane: the real provision is taqwā. The concrete command is not cancelled — a layer is added on top of it. A working often seen in the sūra: the ruling stays in this world, the ground is attached upward.