Surah 22. Al-Hajj, Ayah 32

Lit., "God’s symbols (sha'a'ir)~~ - an expression which in this context refers to the rites of pilgrimage (see the second half of note [4] on 5:2 ). This stress on the symbolic character of all the rites connected with the pilgrimage is meant to draw the believer’s attention to the spiritual meaning of those rites, and thus to warn him against making, unthinkingly, a sort of fetish of them. - The assumption of some of the commentators that the "symbols" referred to here relate specifically to the sacrificial animals, resp. their sacrifice as such, is not warranted by the text. As Tabari explains in his commentary on this and the next verse, the term sha'a’ir comprises all the rites, actions and places connected with the pilgrimage (all of which have a symbolic meaning), and cannot be restricted to any one of them.

Sha'air, symbols, signs, marks by which something is known to belong to some particular body of men, such as flags. In ii. 158 the word was applied to Safa and Marwa: see n. 160 there. Here it seems to be applied to the rites of sacrifice. Such sacrifice is symbolical: it should betoken dedication and piety of heart. See below, xxii. 37.