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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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Continuation of the interpretation of the previous verse

Machine translationRead the Arabic original
I seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the accursed,
O you who have believed, when you rise to [perform] prayer, wash your faces and your forearms to the elbows and wipe over your heads and wash your feet to the ankles. And if you are in a state of janabah, then purify yourselves. But if you are ill or on a journey or one of you comes from the place of relieving himself or you have contacted women and do not find water, then seek clean earth and wipe over your faces and hands with it. Allah does not intend to make difficulty for you, but He intends to purify you and complete His favor upon you that you may be grateful. يا أيها الذين آمنوا إذا قمتم إلى الصلاة فاغسلوا وجوهكم وأيديكم إلى المرافق وامسحوا برؤوسكم وأرجلكم إلى الكعبين وإن كنتم جنبا فاطهروا وإن كنتم مرضى أو على سفر أو جاء أحد منكم من الغائط أو لامستم النساء فلم تجدوا ماء فتيمموا صعيدا طيبا فامسحوا بوجوهكم وأيديكم منه ما يريد الله أن يجعل عليكم من حرج ولكن يريد أن ليطهركم وليتم نعمته عليكم لعلكم تشكرون
[Al-Ma'idah 5:6]
.
I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Shaytan. We have reached the saying of Allah the Exalted:
and find no water, then seek clean earth فلم تجدوا ماء فتيمموا
[An-Nisa 4:43]
. Allah the Exalted said:
and find no water فلم تجدوا ماء
[An-Nisa 4:43]
, meaning what water do you purify yourselves with, whether for minor or major ritual purity.
So seek out a clean earth فتيمموا صعيدا
means seek out, for tayammum in the language means to seek out. From this comes the saying of the poet:
I sought her out from Adhrat, and her people are in Yathrib, the nearest of her homes to a high view
So the meaning of "I sought her out" is I sought her out, from Adhrat, which is a town in the Levant, and her people are in Yathrib, meaning in al-Madinah, the nearest of her homes to a high view. And His saying:
a surface صعيدا
, the surface, is whatever rises on the face of the earth, whether sand, mountain, valleys, or otherwise.
pure طيبا
means pure, for the goodness of every thing is according to its kind. So the good of animals is what is lawful to eat, and the good of deeds is what is pleasing to Allah Mighty and Majestic. So in every place, "good" is interpreted by what suits it. So His saying here:
pure طيبا
means pure.
and wipe over your faces and hands with it فامسحوا بوجوهكم وأيديكم منه
[Al-Ma'idah 5:6]
And wiping is passing the hand over the face, and wiping with the hand is passing one hand over the other. And His saying:
from it منه
, it is said that "min" (from) is for partiality, and on this, it is necessary that some of this earth remains on the hand. And it is said that "min" is for beginning, meaning a wiping that begins from this surface. And His saying:
Allah does not intend to make difficulty for you ما يريد الله ليجعل عليكم من حرج
[Al-Ma'idah 5:6]
, "ma" is a negation, and
intends يريد
here is a legal will, meaning what Allah Mighty and Majestic loves. And His saying:
to make difficulty for you ليجعل عليكم من حرج
[Al-Ma'idah 5:6]
, the "lam" here is superfluous, for the estimation is: Allah does not intend to make upon you any hardship. And we can say that the "lam" here is on its original basis, not superfluous, and we estimate the speech as: Allah does not intend for it to be made upon you, meaning Allah does not intend for that. And His saying:
to make upon you ليجعل عليكم
means to become upon you any hardship. And "min" in His saying:
of hardship من حرج
is superfluous grammatically, but it has meaning, and it is the affirmation of the negation and its generality. And "haraj" (hardship) is tightness, meaning that Allah the Exalted did not intend to make upon us, meaning by what He obligated upon us of wudu, ghusl, and tayammum, anything that tightens upon us. But—and this is a correction—He intends to purify you. And we say in
but He intends to purify you ولكن يريد ليطهركم
as we said in
Allah does not intend to make يريد الله ليجعل عليكم
[Al-Ma'idah 5:6]
. And His saying:
to purify you ليطهركم
means a physical, apparent purity and a spiritual purity. As for wudu and ghusl with water, the purity in them is physical and spiritual. As for the physical, it is apparent because the person washes these limbs or washes the whole body and cleans it. And as for the spiritual, it is because in wudu is the expiation of sins and the erasure of faults. And as for tayammum, it is a spiritual purity, and that is because in it is the perfection of worship of Allah Mighty and Majestic, where the person performs tayammum with this surface and wipes with it his face and his hands. And His saying:
and to complete His favor وليتم نعمته
means and He also intends to complete His favor upon you, meaning by what He legislated for you of acts of worship. For if Allah had not legislated for us these acts of worship, our doing of them would have been an innovation that distances us from Allah Mighty and Majestic. But He legislated them to be worship for Him, by which we draw near to Allah and humble ourselves before Allah Mighty and Majestic.
perhaps you لعلكم
"La'all" (perhaps) here is for what? For causation, not for hope, for hope is the seeking of what is difficult, and Allah Mighty and Majestic, that does not befit His right, for everything is easy for Him. So it is here for causation, and it is often in the Qur'an in this way.
so that you may be grateful لعلكم تشكرون
means that you give thanks to Allah Mighty and Majestic for His favors. And gratitude is in the heart, and it is on the tongue, and it is in the limbs.
Source alathar.net

The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.

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