al-Māʾida 5:6

Yā ayyuha'lladhīna āmanū idhā qumtum ila'ṣ-ṣalāti fa'ghsilū wujūhakum wa aydiyakum ila'l-marāfiqi wa'msaḥū bi-ruʾūsikum wa arjulakum ila'l-kaʿbayn · Wa in kuntum junuban fa'ṭṭahharū · Wa in kuntum marḍā aw ʿalā safarin aw jāʾa aḥadun minkum mina'l-ghāʾiṭi aw lāmastumu'n-nisāʾa fa-lam tajidū māʾan fa-tayammamū ṣaʿīdan ṭayyiban fa'msaḥū bi-wujūhikum wa aydīkum minh · Mā yurīdu'llāhu li-yajʿala ʿalaykum min ḥarajin wa lākin yurīdu li-yuṭahhirakum wa li-yutimma niʿmatahū ʿalaykum laʿallakum tashkurūn

"O you who believe! When you rise for prayer, wash your faces and your hands up to the elbows; wipe your heads, and your feet up to the ankles. If you are in a state of major impurity, purify yourselves thoroughly. If you are ill or on a journey, or one of you has come from relieving himself, or you have touched women, and you find no water, then turn to clean ground; wipe your faces and your hands with it. God does not want to put hardship upon you; He wants to purify you and to complete His favour upon you — that you may be thankful."

This verse is the principal source of the rulings on ablution, on washing after major impurity and on ablution with earth, and it is one of the verses that has generated the most detail among the schools of law. Per the method (Method) this section does not enter into legal detail or into the debate among the schools. The linguistic side of the words will be given, and the sentence of reasoning at the end of the verse will be brought forward — because that is the subject of this section.

غَسْل — root غ-س-ل: to cleanse by making water run over something. مَسْح — root م-س-ح: to pass the hand over something, to stroke. The difference between the two verbs is whether or not water is made to flow, and the verse uses the two verbs separately.

مَرَافِق — the plural of mirfaq; root ر-ف-ق: softness, ease, companionship. Rifq — gentleness; rafīq — a travelling companion; mirfaq — both the elbow and "what provides ease" (it occurs in the Qurʾān in this sense too, as mirfaqan, al-Kahf 18/16).

That the elbow is named from this root is striking: the elbow is the place where the arm bends easily. The word comes from the function of the limb.

كَعْبَيْن — the dual of kaʿb; root ك-ع-ب: to rise, to jut out. Kaʿb — a protruding bone, the ankle; and the Kaʿba is from the same root: a rising, jutting structure. The Turkish "kâbe" and "küp" (from mukaʿʿab — cube-shaped) are from this root.

That is, both limits are marked by a protrusion: the elbow and the ankle bone. The limits are not abstract but points that can be felt with the hand.

جُنُب — root ج-ن-ب: the side, the flank; and to keep away (ijtināb — to avoid; jānib — a side). Junub — on the word's own logic, "one who keeps away, who stays at the edge". The word conveys not an uncleanness but a distance.

غَائِط — root غ-و-ط: a hollow, a low place. The word is a euphemism for relieving oneself: people would go to hollows and low ground for this. That the Qurʾān names here not the act but the place shows the measure of decency in its language — a feature recorded in many places in this commentary, al-Nūr among them.

لَٰمَسْتُمُ — root ل-م-س, Form III (mufāʿala). The pattern conveys reciprocity. The sense of the verb here is a classical disagreement and has legal consequences; it is not settled in this section. It is also transmitted that the word is read lamastum (Form I); I name no authority.

تَيَمَّمُوا۟ — root أ-م-م: to turn towards, to intend. The same root occurred at 5/2 in the word āmmīna'l-bayt. Tayammum is Form V: to turn to a thing, to make for it. That is, the word itself does not mean "to purify oneself with earth"; it means "to turn towards". The name of the practice was given from the side of intention.

صَعِيد — root ص-ع-د: to rise, to go up. Ṣaʿīd — the face of the ground, its uppermost layer. The word means not "soil" but "the surface of the earth". Ṣuʿūd (ascent) and misʿad (lift) are from the same root.

It is well known that the word وَأَرْجُلَكُمْ is read both in the accusative (arjulakum) and in the genitive (arjulikum), and per the method (Method) it must be recorded, because it changes the sense:

I name no authority. And the legal debate arising from this difference is not entered into: how the two readings bear on practice is a subject debated in detail among the schools of law and is not settled in this section. What is recorded here is only the linguistic fact: both readings are transmitted by mass transmission, and they give two different case structures.

At the end of a long and detailed verse of ruling, the reason the ruling was laid down is written out. This is characteristic of this sūra, and of the Qurʾān's language of ruling generally.

The root ح-ر-ج was treated in detail at al-Fatḥ 48/17 and taken up again at al-Ḥajj 22/78. The summary recorded there:

The concrete sense of the root: narrowness, constriction. حَرَجَة — a thicket in which the trees are so pressed together that it cannot be passed through. That is, in the root there is an image of impassability.

I rely on that treatment and do not repeat it here.

What belongs here is the placing of three verses side by side, and this is a line that can be followed through the collection:

The structure of all three verses is the same: the ruling is given, then the will behind the ruling is stated.

It was recorded in the section on al-Baqara: "That the ground is given along with the ruling is characteristic of this section. And the point is not merely stated but applied: the dispensation for the sick and the traveller stands inside the same verse." The same holds here: in saying "I do not want hardship for you", the verse has shown the case in which the hardship is lifted inside the same verse — the sick, the traveller, the one who finds no water.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the shared pattern of the three verses: the lifting of ḥaraj is laid down not as an exception but as a principle belonging to the design of the ruling itself. The dispensation is not a door outside the ruling; it is part of the ruling.

وَلَٰكِن يُرِيدُ لِيُطَهِّرَكُمْ — and the positive set against the negative.

The root ط-ه-ر was treated at al-Muddaththir 74/4 (wa thiyābaka fa-ṭahhir), at al-Aḥzāb 33/33 (wa yuṭahhirakum taṭhīrā) and in ʿAbasa: to be cleansed, to be pure — both materially and inwardly. I rely on that treatment.

The structure of the sentence sets up a balance:

نِعْمَتَهُۥ عَلَيْكُمْ — and this same construction occurred three verses earlier, at 5/3: wa atmamtu ʿalaykum niʿmatī. The same root (ت-م-م), the same preposition (ʿalaykum), the same object (niʿma).

I record this as a repetition within the sūra: at 5/3 the completing of the favour was tied to the whole of the religion; at 5/6 it is tied to a ruling about purity. The small thing is named with the same word as the great one.

لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ — and the purpose is tied to thankfulness. It was recorded at al-Baqara 2/172: the regulation of eating and drinking was laid down as an occasion for what is given to be seen. The same link is made here for a ruling about purity.