all of them. According to this recitation, the term jidāl (dispitation) means wrangling over the regulations of ḥajj, for Allah has already clarified them (1), set them out plainly, and removed every basis for dispute, unlike the people of the pre-Islamic era who used to quarrel about its rulings.
Under the other reading it can likewise be interpreted in this sense (2), and some have explained it as a prohibition on the pilgrim’s arguing with anyone at all.
The first interpretation is the sounder one, for Allah did not forbid the person in iḥrām—nor anyone else (3)—from debating in absolute terms; rather, debate may at times be obligatory or recommended (4), as Allah the Exalted says,
“And argue with them in the best manner” (Quran 16:125).
Debate may also be forbidden, during ḥajj and otherwise, such as disputation without knowledge or arguing against the truth after it has become clear (5).
According to ordinary Arabic usage this construction is acceptable, but within the Quran it is not, for Qur-anic recitation is a matter of transmitted sunnah and none of the recognized qurra (canonical readers) has ever recited it in that way.
Abu Amr al-Dani records in Jamiʿ al-Bayan, 2/910: “They are unanimously agreed that the word is in the accusative without tanwin in the phrase wa-la jidala fi l-hajj (and no disputation during the pilgrimage, Q 2:197), except for a report transmitted from al-Mufaddal on the authority of ʿAsim stating that he placed the three nouns in the nominative and added tanwin. I myself have never received that reading through his chain.”
(1) In manuscript D: “waddahahu” (“he clarified it”).
(2) In manuscript D: “fi hadha” (“in this”).
(3) The phrase “wa-la ghayrahu” (“nor anything else”) is absent from manuscripts A and B.
(4) In manuscript B: “fa-in” (“for indeed”).
(5) In manuscripts C and D: “wa-kal-jidali” (“and like the dispute”).