The Pilgrimage
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[22:27]
Hence, [O Muhammad,] proclaim thou unto all people the [duty of] pilgrimage: they will come unto thee on foot and on every [kind of] fast mount, coming from every far-away point [on earth],

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* v.27 : Lit., “proclaim thou the pilgrimage among the people,” i.e., the believers (Tabarī). Most of the commentators assume that this passage is a continuation of God’s command to Abraham; but some of them – in particular, Al-Hasan al-Basrī – consider it to have been addressed to the Prophet Muhammad. (Regarding the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, as instituted in Islam, see 2:196-203 and the corresponding notes.)
* Lit., “lean mount” – an expression which has induced some of the commentators to assume that it denotes “a camel that has become lean on account of a long and fatiguing journey.” However, the verb dammarahu or admarahu relates in classical Arabic not only to camels but also to horses, and has the meaning of “he made it [i.e., the mount] lean and fit [for racing or war]”; thus, the noun midmār signifies “a training-ground where horses are prepared for racing or war,” as well as “a race-course” (Jawharī, Asās, etc.; cf. also Lane V, 1803 f.). Hence, the adjectival noun dāmir – especially when contrasted, as above, with the expression rijālan (“on foot”) – has the connotation of “fleetness” or, more properly, “fitness for speed,” and may by inference be applied to every kind of “fast conveyance.”