[2:196] Fulfill the Pilgrimage and the Visitation to God;
The fulfillment of the Pilgrimage according to the language of scholars is the performance of its basic elements, its practice, its form, and the shedding of blood which is required in it without abridging any of the conditions. It is mentioned in the tafsīr literature that you are forbidden from the dwellings of your family in both [the Pilgrimage and the Visitation].
In the language of allusion the pilgrimage is the quest (qaṣd). The quest is to the House of the Real and the quest to the Real. The first is the pilgrimage of ordinary people and the second is the pilgrimage of the elect. Just as the one who makes the pilgrimage through his bodily self enters the consecrated state and stands [at ʿArafāt], circumambulates the House and runs [between Ṣafā and Marwa], and then shaves [his head], so it is with the one who makes the pilgrimage through his heart. His state of consecration (iḥrām) is through sound resolve (ʿaqd ṣaḥīḥ) on a pure quest (qaṣd ṣarīḥ). Then he removes the clothing of his oppositional aspects and his carnal passions. He then wraps himself in the two robes of patience and poverty. His holding back is from pursuing his worldly fortunes in following whims, and letting go of thoughts of desire, etc. Then [just as] as the pilgrim becomes more unkempt and dusty, likewise the traces of humility and submission appear upon [the pilgrim of the heart]. Then the talbiya of the innermost selves is in the responding of every part of you.
'The most excellent of the actions of the pilgrimage (hajj) is the sacrificial blood-letting (thajj) and the crying out (ʿajj)'. The thajj is the pouring of blood [of the animal sacrificed] and the ʿajj is raising the voice in talbiya. Likewise, the shedding of the blood of the lower self is with the knives of opposition [to it], and the raising of the voices of the innermost self is in the continuous seeking of [God's] help and the beauty of the response. Then [there is the] standing at the plains of nearness, seeking perfection in the attributes of awe. The standing place of the bodily selves is ʿArafāt, while the standing place of hearts are the names and attributes belonging to the majesty of the Essence at the time of intimate communications. Then [there is] the circumambulation of the hearts around the sites of majesty. The running of the innermost selves is between the two hills of the unveiling of the Sublimity (jalāl) and the kindness of the Beauty (jamāl). Then the completion [of the rites] is through cutting the ties of wishes and free choices, desires and resistances, in every way.
[2:196] but if you are prevented, then [give] such offering as may be feasible,
Being prevented may be from one of two causes, either an enemy or illness.
The allusion in it is if an enemy overcomes the lower self, you will find no escape but to dismount in the courtyard of indulgences (rukhaṣ) or rational interpretive license (taÌwīlāt al-ʿilm). At that moment this will be permitted to you because of [your] excuse and necessity since there is no wrangling with the decree (ḥukm). The offering is that which one gives at this time, paying the determined amount and giving it to the poor, and waiting for the restriction to pass so that the affair can resume.
If spiritual desires (irādāt) become infirm, the seeking (quṣūd) weak, and the affair has reverted to [mere] obligation (taklīf), let such a one strive to not turn away, just as in the external pilgrimage one strives not to turn away because of an illness or if one needs clothes or the shaving, etc., through the required expiation. Then if he is weak, his stopping place must be where he deems it, and so he stands and sits in the directions of the quest (awṣāf al-qaṣd) and the precepts of spiritual desire (aḥkām al-irāda). If he turns back - may God protect us - he will meet only rejection and obstruction'. It is said:
Our separating from one another
was not from hatred.
Rather it is the passage of time (dahr)
that breaks up and draws together.
Someone else said:
I am not - even though I love someone
who resides in space -
the first to hope
for something unattainable.
[2:196 cont'd] and do not shave your heads until the offering reaches its place. If any of you is sick, or has an ailment of the head, then a redemption by fast, or a voluntary almsgiving, or a ritual sacrifice.
One makes a sacrifice to the degree that one is able, expending all that one can. One should have the vestiges of grief and be filled with the sorrows of being veiled.
If any of you is sick...: the allusion in it is that one humbles oneself and exerts oneself in circumambulating the friends [of God], serving the poor (fuqarāÌ), and drawing near through what one is capable of in the various ways of striving and supplicating.
[2:196 cont'd] When you are secure, then whoever enjoys the Visitation, until the Pilgrimage; let his offering be such as is feasible, or if he finds none, then a fast of three days in the Pilgrimage. And of seven when you return; that is a full ten; that is for him whose family are not present at the Sacred Mosque. And fear God, and know that God is severe in retribution.
'When the moons of the questing appear from the unveilings of magnification, and the concealing veils are removed from the suns of union, and the light of the approach rises within the days of standing [at ʿArafāt], let him start anew from the union at that moment, and let him spread out a carpet for nearness. Let him renew the performance energetically by virtue of happiness, and let him say, “Come to joy for the days of testing are over!” Let him complete the Pilgrimage and the Visitation and let him continue to perform the precepts of companionship and service'.
And know that God is severe in retribution in veiling those who have not been shown the new moons of union and approach.