al-Ḥajj 22:34-35

Wa li-kulli ummatin jaʿalnā mansakan li-yadhkuru'sma'llāhi ʿalā mā razaqahum min bahīmati'l-anʿām · Fa-ilāhukum ilāhun wāḥidun fa-lahu aslimū · Wa bashshiri'l-mukhbitīn · Alladhīna idhā dhukira'llāhu wajilat qulūbuhum wa'ṣ-ṣābirīna ʿalā mā aṣābahum wa'l-muqīmi'ṣ-ṣalāti wa mimmā razaqnāhum yunfiqūn

"For every community We appointed a mansak, that they might make mention of the name of God over the beasts of the herds He has provided them. Your God is one God; so submit to Him. And give glad tidings to those who are lowly: those whose hearts tremble when God is mentioned, who are patient under what befalls them, who keep up the prayer, and who spend of what We have provided them."

The lexicographers dwell on the concrete sense of the root, and two branches are recorded:

The lexicographers enter a third record as well: the root also carries the sense of purification (nasaka'th-thawba — he washed the garment). In the sources these three senses are generally brought together in the idea of "setting a thing apart in order to cleanse it".

The pattern مَنْسَك may be a noun of place or time or a maṣdar mīmī. The word can therefore mean both "the place or the time of worship" and "the form of worship". Both readings are transmitted in the classical commentaries.

A note on variant readings: it is transmitted that the word is also read as مَنْسِك (mansik, with kasra). I do not name a reader. The two readings turn on the distinction between the pattern's being a noun of place and its being a verbal noun.

The most striking feature of the sentence is its plurality: li-kulli umma — "for every community".

I record this as an observation about word order: the verse reports that the sacrifice and the form of worship are not peculiar to this community. A different mansak has been given to different communities.

And immediately after, the common point is set down: fa-ilāhukum ilāhun wāḥid. The forms are plural, the one turned to is one.

The same sentence will come once more at 22/67: li-kulli ummatin jaʿalnā mansakan hum nāsikūh. There is a difference between the two occurrences:

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is that both verses open with the same sentence: the same piece of information is given twice and tied to two separate conclusions. In the one, submission; in the other, the abandoning of contention.

The root occurs here for the first time in the index.

The concrete sense the lexicographers give: khabt — low ground, a hollow, level land. Ground with no elevation, without unevenness. From this, in Form IV, ikhbāt — to be lowered, to submit, to grow still.

The picture in the word must be recorded: a mukhbit, by the root of the word, is a man who has no height. The attribute is thus described not by an action but by a form of ground.

And the root will occur once more in this sūra: at 22/54, fa-tukhbita lahu qulūbuhum — "that their hearts may be lowered before Him". What the two occurrences share is the heart.

The root: to shiver with fear, an inward trembling. The lexicographers describe wajal as "the sudden stirring of the heart".

And what distinguishes the word must be recorded: khawf (fear) is generally felt of a harm to come; wajal is a momentary, bodily shiver.

The trigger given in the verse is worth recording too: idhā dhukira'llāh — "when God is mentioned". The shiver arises, then, not from a threat but from a name.

The thirty-fifth verse names four attributes, and its order can be compared with the four at Luqmān 31/17:

The two lists share two items: prayer and patience. And patience comes in both with the same words: ʿalā mā aṣābahum / ʿalā mā aṣābak.

The difference lies in direction, and I record this as my own reading: Luqmān's list contains two outward-facing items (enjoining, forbidding); al-Ḥajj's list runs from the inside outward — heart, endurance, prayer, spending. In Luqmān patience stood at the end of the list, as the price of giving counsel; in al-Ḥajj patience stands in the middle of the list, as a state.