Announce the Hajj to the People

At verse 26 the treatment of the Hajj begins. Allah (swt) speaks of Ibrāhīm (peace be upon him) and of the place where the House is to be built; He then instructs him to purify the place for those who will come to prostrate and bow down to Allah (swt).

Then comes the well-known verse heard every Hajj season, verse 27, a verse of great beauty. Few laws are laid down here; the concern is rather one's approach to the Hajj. Allah says:

Wa-adhdhin fī al-nāsi bi-l-ḥajj: go and announce. So he was told, and he went up Jabal Abū Qubays, the small mount immediately beside the Ḥaram on which the present palaces stand; it can be seen from certain directions. That is Jabal Abū Qubays, and behind it lies Jabal Khandamah, the larger of the two.

He went there and proclaimed. He said: nobody is going to hear me — so Ibn Kathīr records it — and he was told: your task is only to proclaim. He proclaimed the Hajj; and, subḥānAllāh, to this day there are people whom that message reaches, almost subliminally, and who long to go there.