Sūrah Al-Ḥajj The Pilgrimage: Tafsīr al-Qurṭubī Qurʾānic Rulings and Law

Surah Overview

DetailInformationClassificationSignificance

SurahالحجMadanī 78 versesḤajj rites, first permission for defensive jihād, animal sacrifice rulings (hadī and uḍḥiyah), calling all people to Ḥajj, and religious freedom protection

Key Fiqh IssueIs the uḍḥiyah (sacrifice on Eid al-Aḍḥā) obligatory (farḍ or wājib) or a confirmed sunnah (sunnah muʾakkadah)?Uḍḥiyah obligationAl-Qurṭubī: Ḥanafī holds it is wājib (obligatory for those with means); Mālikī, Shāfiʿī, Ḥanbalī: sunnah muʾakkadah confirmed sunnah, not obligatory. Al-Qurṭubī documents both positions without definitively resolving

School ComparisonHadī animal (sacrifice during Ḥajj): Ḥanafī: must be camel, cattle, or sheep; Mālikī, Shāfiʿī, Ḥanbalī: same; minimum age for hadī Mālikī: 5 years for camel, 2 for cow, 1 for sheep; Ḥanafī: same; minor differences on exact minimum ageHadī animal specificationsAl-Qurṭubī documents the animal-type and age requirements across schools with close agreement

Uṣūl Principle"Darʾ al-mafsadah muqaddam ʿalā jalb al-maṣlaḥah" preventing harm takes priority over securing benefit applied to the first permission for jihād: fighting is permitted to prevent a greater harm (expulsion from one's home, religious persecution)Harm prevention priorityAl-Qurṭubī reads 22:39 as establishing that the primary legal justification for jihād is harm prevention, not offensive conquest

Key Themes from Al-Qurṭubī

Al-Qurṭubī opens Al-Ḥajj with 22:27 "And call the people to the Ḥajj they will come to you on foot and on every lean camel, coming from every distant mountain pass" and extracts the fiqh that Ibrāhīm's call to Ḥajj was the original institution of the pilgrimage, with the Prophet's mission restoring it. He then analyses 22:29 "fulfil their vows and circumambulate the Ancient House" extracting the obligatory sequence of Ḥajj rites: the circumambulation (ṭawāf) is commanded in the Quran, making it farḍ; its specific conditions (seven rounds, starting at the Black Stone, etc.) are established by sunnah.

On the sacrifice verse (22:36 "the sacrificial camels We have made for you among the rites of Allah"), al-Qurṭubī extracts the complete hadī ruling: the animal is slaughtered standing (bound); "when they fall on their sides" means after slaughtering; the meat is to be eaten and given to the poor. He maps the four-school positions on the distribution: Ḥanafī: give most to the poor; Mālikī: owner may eat all but it is recommended to give to the poor; Shāfiʿī: eat one-third, give one-third as gifts, and one-third as ṣadaqah to the poor; Ḥanbalī: as Shāfiʿī.

أُذِنَ لِلَّذِينَ يُقَاتَلُونَ بِأَنَّهُمْ ظُلِمُوا وَإِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ نَصْرِهِمْ لَقَدِيرٌ Udhina li-lladhīna yuqātalūna bi-annahum ẓulimū wa inna llāha ʿalā naṣrihim la-qadīr Permission is given to those who are fought against, because they have been wronged and indeed Allah is capable of giving them victory. Al-Qurṭubī: this is the first Quranic permission for fighting a defensive permission granted specifically because of prior wrong (ẓulm). Al-Qurṭubī reads the conditional "because they have been wronged" as establishing that the primary legal justification for this fighting is harm prevention and righting of injustice.

لَن يَنَالَ اللَّهَ لُحُومُهَا وَلَا دِمَاؤُهَا وَلَٰكِن يَنَالُهُ التَّقْوَىٰ مِنكُمْ Lan yanāla llāha luḥūmuhā wa lā dimāʾuhā wa lākin yanāluhu t-taqwā minkum The flesh of the sacrificial animals does not reach Allah, nor their blood but your piety reaches Him. Al-Qurṭubī: this verse establishes the essential principle of Islamic ritual: sacrifice is not a feeding of the deity but an act of taqwā (God-consciousness) by the worshipper. The legal ruling: the meat is to be eaten and distributed; the spiritual value is in the intention and taqwā, not in the blood itself.

Uḍḥiyah obligation debate: Al-Qurṭubī documents the Ḥanafī wājib vs. three-school sunnah-muʾakkadah disagreement without resolving it recognising the legitimacy of both positions via ijtihād.
Defensive jihād justification: 22:39 is read as establishing harm prevention as the primary legal basis for jihād the permission is conditional on prior wrong, not a general licence for offensive warfare.
Ṭawāf as farḍ: Al-Qurṭubī derives the obligatory status of ṭawāf from its Quranic command sunnah then specifies the conditions, but the obligation is Quranic.
Sacrifice distribution map: The four-school positions on hadī distribution (poor-priority to three-thirds) are documented a practically significant Ḥajj fiqh question.
Taqwā as purpose of ritual: "Piety reaches Him" is read as the teleological principle of all Islamic rituals any ritual divorced from taqwā is formally correct but spiritually empty.

Surah Overview

Key Themes from Al-Qurṭubī

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