لِّيَشْهَدُوا۟ مَنَٰفِعَ لَهُمْ وَيَذْكُرُوا۟ ٱسْمَ ٱللَّهِ فِىٓ أَيَّامٍ مَّعْلُومَٰتٍ عَلَىٰ مَا رَزَقَهُم مِّنۢ بَهِيمَةِ ٱلْأَنْعَٰمِ فَكُلُوا۟ مِنْهَا وَأَطْعِمُوا۟ ٱلْبَآئِسَ ٱلْفَقِيرَ · ثُمَّ لْيَقْضُوا۟ تَفَثَهُمْ وَلْيُوفُوا۟ نُذُورَهُمْ وَلْيَطَّوَّفُوا۟ بِٱلْبَيْتِ ٱلْعَتِيقِ
Li-yashhadū manāfiʿa lahum wa yadhkuru'sma'llāhi fī ayyāmin maʿlūmātin ʿalā mā razaqahum min bahīmati'l-anʿām · Fa-kulū minhā wa aṭʿimu'l-bāʾisa'l-faqīr · Thumma'l-yaqḍū tafathahum wa'l-yūfū nudhūrahum wa'l-yaṭṭawwafū bi'l-bayti'l-ʿatīq
"That they may witness benefits for themselves and on appointed days may make mention of the name of God over the beasts of the herds He has provided them. Eat of them, and feed the destitute poor as well. Then let them be rid of their unkemptness, fulfil their vows, and circle the Ancient House."
مَنَافِع — the plural of the root nafʿ: benefits. And the word comes indefinite and plural: which benefits is not said.
I record this as an observation about word order: the verse does not define the benefit. No note is entered as to whether it is worldly or of the hereafter. The classical commentaries dwell on this indefiniteness, and explanations are transmitted in both directions:
| View | Scope |
|---|---|
| A | Worldly benefits — trade, acquaintance, meeting |
| B | Benefits of the hereafter — forgiveness, reward |
| C | Both — the leaving of the word indefinite requires this |
I do not impose a preference. But this record follows from the text: the word is indefinite and plural; the verse has set no limit.
And it is necessary to rely on al-Baqara 2/198: there the verse laysa ʿalaykum junāḥun an tabtaghū faḍlan min rabbikum was treated, and it was recorded that trade during the season of the ḥajj was explicitly declared not to spoil the rite. The word manāfiʿ in al-Ḥajj 22/28 is the positive statement of that permission in al-Baqara.
I give this as my own reading, and its ground is the shared subject of the two verses: al-Baqara was lifting a prohibition by saying "there is no sin"; al-Ḥajj says the same thing by placing it in the list of grounds. One is a defence, the other a description.
Which days this expression covers has been debated in the sources of law, and its relation to al-ḥajju ashhurun maʿlūmāt at al-Baqara 2/197 is also a matter of debate. No legal ruling is issued in this commentary; I confine myself to recording the existence of the disagreement, and no record here is binding.
The order is worth recording, and I give it as an observation: first kulū (eat), then aṭʿimū (feed). The one who slaughters is not excluded from what he has slaughtered. The rite does not deprive its performer of the produce of his own hand.
| Word | Root | What it conveys |
|---|---|---|
| ٱلْبَائِس | ب-أ-س | One in hardship — baʾs: severity, difficulty. Treated at al-Baqara 2/214 as al-baʾsāʾ |
| ٱلْفَقِير | ف-ق-ر | Poor — the root carries faqār (the spine); the lexicographers explain faqīr as "one whose back is broken" |
The two words say two separate things: one gives the state (being in hardship), the other the means (having no property). And the verse joins the two.
| Explanation | Meaning |
|---|---|
| A | Dirt, grime, unkemptness — what gathers over a long journey and during the state of iḥrām |
| B | The acts performed on leaving iḥrām — shaving, cutting the nails, washing |
| C | That the word was rarely used in pre-Islamic Arabic and that its sense could not be firmly established |
The third record is important, and I give it as a report: it occurs in the sources that some lexicographers could not establish the meaning of this word with certainty. I impose no preference in this commentary.
What is certain is that the verb is qaḍā: l-yaqḍū — "let them finish, let them complete". What is at issue, then, is the bringing of a condition to an end.
وَلْيُوفُوا۟ نُذُورَهُمْ — "let them fulfil their vows in full". The root و-ف-ي: completeness, leaving nothing wanting. The same root does the same work as the idea of itmām treated at al-Baqara 2/196 in the context of wa atimmu'l-ḥajja wa'l-ʿumrata lillāh: that a thing begun should not be left half done.
| Meaning | Example |
|---|---|
| Old, ancient | ʿAtīq — worn with age, with time passed over it |
| Freed, set at liberty | Iʿtāq — the manumission of a slave; ʿatīq — one set free |
| Precious, choice | ʿAtīq — of superior kind (of a horse, of wine) |
| View | Reading |
|---|---|
| A | Old — the first place on earth set apart for worship |
| B | Freed — never having passed into the ownership of any tyrant, belonging to no one |
| C | Precious — honoured, choice |
But the second sense makes a link with the twenty-fifth verse, and I give this as my own reading: verse 25 had said jaʿalnāhu li'n-nās — "for the people". If ʿatīq means "the property of no one", then the two verses say the same thing in two separate words: the place is nobody's possession.
This is not a firm finding — the sense of the adjective is disputed in any case. But that the two verses stand side by side is a datum that supports the reading.
The construct ٱلْبَيْتِ ٱلْعَتِيق occurs twice in this sūra: 29 and 33. The verses that lie between the two occurrences form the core of the sūra's section on the ḥajj.