The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 2) — Page 316
CH. 5 AL-MĀ'IDAH PT. 6 أو لَمَسْتُمُ النِّسَاءَ فَلَمْ تَجِدُوا مَاءً while unclean, or one of you فَتَيَمَّمُوا صَعِيدًا طَيِّبًا فَامْسَحُوا بِوُجُوهِكُمْ وَأَيْدِيكُم مِّنْهُ مَا يُرِيدُ betake اللهُ لِيَجْعَلَ عَلَيْكُمْ مِّنْ حَرَجٍ وَلَكِنْ تُرِيدُ لِيُطَهِّرَكُمْ وَلِيُتِمَّ نِعْمَتَهُ عَلَيْكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ comes from the privy or you have touched women, and you find not water, yourselves to pure dust and wipe therewith your faces and your hands. "Allah desires not that He should place you in a difficulty, but He desires to purify you and to complete His favour upon you, so that you may be grateful. 646 646. Important Words: (unclean) for which see 4:44. Commentary: "2:186. After the questions of food and marriage comes the question of cleanliness on which Islam lays so much emphasis, specially on clean- liness necessary for the proper performance of worship. The feet are here mentioned after the head, not because they are intended, as alleged by the Shias, to be only wiped like the head, but because they come last in the process of ablution. This is apparent from the fact that the word Ja (feet) has been put in the accusative case in the standard text, addition of the verb "wash" before it in the translation. It is true that a solitary reading gives the word Ja (arjula) as J (arjulin in the genitive case). But even this does not necessarily mean that the word is not governed by the verb (wash); for, according to the rules of Arabic grammar, nouns in the accusative case may sometimes be put in the genitive case owing to their proximity to a noun in the genitive case. According to this rule, Jal (feet) would be taken to have been put in this reading in the genitive case owing to its proximity to the word (heads), but really it is governed not by the preposition ↳ but by the (feet) ارجل In fact, the word اغسلوا verb | ایدی faces) and) وجوه like the words (hands), thus showing that, like the latter, the word "feet" is also governed in the accusative case by the verb (wash) and not by the (over) which governs the (heads) only. Hence the particle word 756 has been put after (heads) to point out the order which is to be observed in the performance of ablution. The authentic sayings of the Holy Prophet also make it clear that in performing an ablution the feet