Request for Concrete Demonstration of Rituals

The general principles of religion are common among all prophets, while the details and branches differ, and each nation has its own specific way, method, and ritual of worship: “For every community We have appointed a rite”(77), “To each among you We have prescribed a law and a clear way”(78). Therefore, when Abraham was engaged in rebuilding the Kaaba until its completion, he asked God Almighty to show him how to worship in that house: “And show us our rites of worship.” This is because the worship of God has components, conditions, obstacles, concomitants, prerequisites, and consequences, each of which must be explained by the sacred lawgiver as an obligation, supererogatory act, or etiquette.

The request for demonstration (irāʾa) is different from asking for teaching and learning. Therefore, those two great prophets did not say “teach us our rites” (ʿallimnā manāsikanā), although demonstration sometimes means revelatory teaching, as in: “That you may judge between men by that which God has shown you”(79).

To explain, God Almighty sometimes announces a ruling or law to His prophet through revelation, such as: “Establish prayer from the declining of the sun to the darkness of the night and [also] the Qur’an of dawn. … And from [part of] the night, pray with it as additional [worship] for you”(80). Sometimes He sends down the delivery of a command, as in: “O Messenger, announce that which has been revealed to you from your Lord”(81). And sometimes He inspires the performance of righteous deeds, as in: “And We inspired to them the doing of good deeds”(82). In this noble verse, the addition of the verbal noun (fiʿl) to the plural definite article (al-khayrāt), which indicates comprehensiveness, unlike the previous two types, is a sign of external realization.

Another part is the concrete descent of the act; the specific rituals of Hajj were not made obligatory upon people merely through verbal instruction, such as: “Then depart from the place from where [all] the people depart”(83) and “O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting”(84). Rather, they were realized through external representation and in a practical form, descending in a concrete manner. Evidence for this statement is the phrase “Show us our rites of worship,” because this “showing” (irāʾa) does not mean conceptual teaching and acquired knowledge, which the mind would grasp through conception and affirmation. Instead, it means external witnessing and demonstration, as mentioned in the noble verse: “And thus did We show Abraham the realm of the heavens and the earth”(85). The expression “We show” (nurī), which is in the present tense and indicates continuity, suggests that Abraham (a.s.) was always blessed with witnessing the inner and outer realm of the world, and he organized and resolved many matters through direct vision.

After requesting the concrete demonstration of the rituals, Gabriel came to the presence of those two great ones and performed the acts of Hajj (circumambulation, running between Ṣafā and Marwā, the two standings, etc.) before them, and they repeated the same actions(86).