يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا أَوْفُوا
بِالْعُقُودِ أُحِلَّتْ لَكُمْ بَهِيمَةُ
الْأَنْعَامِ إِلَّا مَا يُتْلَى
عَلَيْكُمْ غَيْرَ مُحِلِّي الصَّيْدِ
وَأَنْتُمْ حُرُمٌ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَحْكُمُ
مَا يُرِيدُ
﴿5:1﴾
(5:1) Believers! Honour your bonds! *1
All grazing beasts of the flock *2
are permitted to you except those which
are recited to you hereinafter, but you
are not allowed to hunt in the state of
Ihram (a state of pilgrim sanctity). *3
Indeed Allah decrees as He wills. *4
*1. People should abide by the
limitations and prohibitions laid down
in this surah and elsewhere in the law
of God. This brief introductory
statement is followed by an enunciation
of those prohibitions which people are
required to observe.
*2. The Arabic word an'am (cattle)
denotes camels, oxen, sheep and goats,
whereas the word bahimah means all
grazing quadrupeds. Had God said that
an'am had been made lawful for them,
this permission would have included only
those animals to which the term an'am is
applicable. But the terms in which the
injunction is conveyed are bahimat al-an'am
(all grazing beasts of the flock). Hence
the permission is of wider import and
embraces all grazing quadrupeds of the
cattle type, i.e. which do not possess
canine teeth, which feed on plants
rather than animals, and which resemble
the cattle found in Arabia in other
characteristics. This implies that the
flesh of those animals which have canine
teeth and are carnivorous is not
permissible. This implication was
elucidated by the Prophet (peace be on
him) and is embodied in a tradition in
which he prohibited those beasts which
kill and eat other animals. Likewise,
the Prophet (peace be on him) also
prohibited birds with claws and those
that feed on carrion. According to a
tradition transmitted by Ibn 'Abbas:
"The Messenger of Allah (peace be on
him) prohibited all beasts with canine
teeth and all birds with claws.' (Bukhari,
'Dhaba'ih', 28, 29; 'Tibb', 53; Abu
Da'ud, 'At'imah', 32; Tirmidhi, 'At'imah',
9, 11; Muslim, 'Sayd', 11-16; Nasa'i, 'Sayd
wa Dhaba'ih', 28, 30, 33; Ibn Majah, 'Sayd',
13; etc. - Ed.)
*3. Ihram is the name of the simple
apparel worn at the time of Pilgrimage.
In every direction around the Ka'bah,
there are certain fixed points beyond
which no Pilgrim may proceed without
donning this special Pilgrim's garment
in place of his normal clothes. This
apparel consists of two sheets of
untailored cloth, one of which is
wrapped around the lower part of the
body while the other is thrown over the
upper part. This manner of dressing is
termed ihram because once a man has
assumed it he must treat as prohibited a
number of things which are ordinarily
lawful, for example either shaving or
trimming the hair, or using perfumes and
other items of toiletry and the
gratification of sexual desires. These
restrictions also extend to both killing
and hunting, and to leading anyone else
to either kill or hunt an animal.
*4. God is the absolute sovereign and
has absolute authority to issue whatever
command He might will. His creatures do
not have the right to complain about any
of these orders. Even though wisdom (hikmah)
underlies the ordinances of God, a true
believer does not obey them because he
considers them either appropriate or
conducive to his best interests. He
obeys them simply because they are the
ordinances of his Lord. He holds
unlawful all that God has declared
unlawful, because God has so decreed it;
whatever He has declared lawful is
regarded as such for no other reason
than that God, the Lord of all, has
allowed His servants the use of it.
Hence the Qur'an establishes very firmly
the principle that nothing except
permission from the Lord - or lack of it
- is to be taken into consideration in
deciding what is lawful and what is not.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا لَا
تُحِلُّوا شَعَائِرَ اللَّهِ وَلَا
الشَّهْرَ الْحَرَامَ وَلَا الْهَدْيَ
وَلَا الْقَلَائِدَ وَلَا آَمِّينَ
الْبَيْتَ الْحَرَامَ يَبْتَغُونَ فَضْلًا
مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ وَرِضْوَانًا وَإِذَا
حَلَلْتُمْ فَاصْطَادُوا وَلَا
يَجْرِمَنَّكُمْ شَنَآَنُ قَوْمٍ أَنْ
صَدُّوكُمْ عَنِ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ
أَنْ تَعْتَدُوا وَتَعَاوَنُوا عَلَى
الْبِرِّ وَالتَّقْوَى وَلَا تَعَاوَنُوا
عَلَى الْإِثْمِ وَالْعُدْوَانِ
وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ شَدِيدُ
الْعِقَابِ
﴿5:2﴾
(5:2) Believers! Neither desecrate the
symbols of (devotion to) Allah, *5
nor the holy month, nor the animals of
offering, nor the animals wearing
collars indicating they are for
sacrifice, nor ill-treat those who have
set out for the Holy House seeking from
their Lord His bounty and good pleasure. *6
But once you are free from Pilgrimage
obligations, you are free to hunt. *7
Do not let your wrath against the people
who have barred you from the Holy Mosque
move you to commit undue transgressions; *8
rather, help one another in acts of
righteousness and piety, and do not help
one another in sin and transgression.
Fear Allah. Surely Allah is severe in
retribution.
*5. Whatever characteristically
represents either a particular doctrine,
creed, way of thought or conduct is
recognized as its symbol. For example,
official flags, uniforms of the armed
forces, coins, notes and stamps are
symbols used by governments so that
their subjects - in fact all those who
live within their sphere of influence -
treat them with proper respect.
Cathedrals, altars and crosses are
symbols of Christianity. A special bunch
of hair on the head, a special kind of
bead-rosary and the temple are symbols
of Hinduism. A turban, bracelet and
Kirpan (a special dagger kept by the
Sikhs) are symbols of the Sikh religion.
The hammer and sickle are the symbols of
Communism. The swastika has been the
symbol of Aryan racialism. The followers
of these ideologies are required to
treat these symbols with respect. If a
man insults any symbol associated with a
particular ideology it is regarded as an
act of hostility; and if the person
concerned is himself a follower of that
ideology then that insult is considered
tantamount to an abandonment of, and a
revolt against it.
The expression 'sha'a'ir Allah' refers
to all those rites which, in opposition
to polytheism and outright disbelief and
atheism, are the characteristic symbols
of an exclusive devotion to God. Muslims
are required to respect these symbols,
regardless of the people among whom they
are found, provided their underlying
spirit is one of godliness and that they
have not been tainted by either
polytheistic or pagan associations.
Hence, whenever a Muslim encounters
something in either the creed or
practice of a non-Muslim, which embodies
any element of devotion and service to
the One True God, he will identify
himself with it and show respect to the
symbols which represent it. For this
true element in their religious life
constitutes the point of agreement
between them and the Muslims. The point
of dispute is not that they serve God,
but that they associate others in that
service.
It should be recalled that this
directive to treat the symbols of God
with due respect was given at a time
when a state of belligerency existed
between the Muslims and the polytheists
of Arabia, and Makka was under the
occupation of the latter. Polytheistic
tribes from all over Arabia used to
visit the Ka'bah for Pilgrimage, and the
routes of many of these tribes were
within the reach-of the Muslims if they
decided to attack. It was in such
circumstances that the Muslims were told
that, even though those people were
polytheists, they should not be molested
if they were proceeding towards the
'House of God'; that they should not be
attacked during the months of
Pilgrimage; and that the animals which
they were carrying for sacrificial
offering should not be touched. The
element of godliness which persisted in
their otherwise distorted religious life
deserved to be respected.
*6. Following a general directive that
the symbols of God should be treated
with proper respect a few such symbols
are mentioned specifically lest war
fever lead even to the desecration of
religious rites and symbols. The
enumeration of these particular symbols
does not mean that respect is due to
these alone.
*7. Ihram is also one of the symbols of
God and violation of any of the
prohibitions which should be observed in
that state is an act of sacrilege. The
prohibition of hunting while in the
state of ihram is mentioned in
connection with the desecration of the
symbols of God. When ihram is over, the
prohibitions become void, and one is
permitted to hunt.
*8. The unbelievers had prevented the
Muslims from visiting the Ka'bah. In
fact, in violation of the ancient usage
of Arabia they had even deprived them of
their right to make Pilgrimage. As a
result, the Muslims felt inclined to
prevent the pagan tribes from making
their pilgrimage by not letting them
pass along the routes to Makka which lay
close to the Islamic domains, and to
attack their trading caravans during the
time of Pilgrimage (Hajj). God prevented
them from carrying out this plan through
the revelation.
حُرِّمَتْ عَلَيْكُمُ الْمَيْتَةُ
وَالدَّمُ وَلَحْمُ الْخِنْزِيرِ وَمَا
أُهِلَّ لِغَيْرِ اللَّهِ بِهِ
وَالْمُنْخَنِقَةُ وَالْمَوْقُوذَةُ
وَالْمُتَرَدِّيَةُ وَالنَّطِيحَةُ وَمَا
أَكَلَ السَّبُعُ إِلَّا مَا ذَكَّيْتُمْ
وَمَا ذُبِحَ عَلَى النُّصُبِ وَأَنْ
تَسْتَقْسِمُوا بِالْأَزْلَامِ ذَلِكُمْ
فِسْقٌ الْيَوْمَ يَئِسَ الَّذِينَ
كَفَرُوا مِنْ دِينِكُمْ فَلَا
تَخْشَوْهُمْ وَاخْشَوْنِ الْيَوْمَ
أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ
عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِي وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ
الْإِسْلَامَ دِينًا فَمَنِ اضْطُرَّ فِي
مَخْمَصَةٍ غَيْرَ مُتَجَانِفٍ لِإِثْمٍ
فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ
﴿5:3﴾
(5:3) Forbidden to you are carrion, *9
blood, the flesh of swine, the animal
slaughtered in any name other than
Allah's, *10
the animal which has either been
strangled, killed by blows, has died of
a fall, by goring or that devoured by a
beast of prey - unless it be that which
you yourselves might have slaughtered
while it was still alive *11
- and that which was slaughtered at the
altars. *12- *13
You are also forbidden to seek knowledge
of your fate by divining arrows. *14
All these are sinful acts. This day the
unbelievers have fully despaired of your
religion. Do not fear them; but fear Me. *15
This day I have perfected for you your
religion, and have bestowed upon you My
bounty in full measure, and have been
pleased to assign for you Islam as your
religion. (Follow, then, the lawful and
unlawful bounds enjoined upon you.) *16
As for he who is driven by hunger,
without being wilfully inclined to sin,
surely Allah is All-Forgiving,
All-Compassionate. *17
*9.'Carrion' signifies the animal which
has died a natural death.
*10. This refers to the practice of
pronouncing the name of anyone or
anything other than God and dedicating
the animal, as an offering, to either a
holy personage, god or goddess before
slaughtering. (For details see Towards
Understanding the Qur'an, vol. I, Surah
2, n. 171.)
*11. It is lawful to eat the flesh of an
animal which may have suffered from any
of the above-mentioned accidents
providing it was still alive until
slaughtered. This verse also makes it
clear that the flesh of an animal
becomes lawful only by slaughtering
ritually, and that no other method of
killing is valid. The words dhabh and
dhakah belong to the technical
terminology of Islam and denote slitting
the throat so that the blood is
completely drained from the animal's
body. The disadvantage of killing an
animal by either guillotine or
strangulation is that the greater part
of the blood remains within the body,
and at various places it sticks to the
flesh and forms congealed lumps. If an
animal is slaughtered by slitting the
throat, on the other hand, the
connection between mind and body remains
intact for a short while, with the
result that the blood is thoroughly
drained out from all the veins and the
flesh becomes fully cleansed of blood.
We have just come across the injunction
prohibiting the eating of blood. So only
that flesh which has been purged of
blood is declared lawful.
*12. The word nusub signifies all the
places consecrated for offerings to
others than the One True God, regardless
of whether they are images of wood,
stone or something else.
*13. The division of objects of eating
and drinking into lawful and unlawful is
based on their moral rather than their
medicinal properties. God has left
matters relating to the physical world
to be tackled by man's own effort and
striving. It is for man himself to
discover by his own efforts which items
of food and drink provide him with
healthy nourishment and which are
useless and harmful. The Law (Shari'ah)
does not take upon itself to guide man
in such matters. Had it undertaken such
a task, perhaps one of the first things
for it to do would have been to
pronounce the prohibition of arsenic
oxide. But one will notice that the
Qur'an and Hadith mention neither
arsenic oxide nor other things which
either singly or jointly are fatal for
man. The underlying considerations of
the Law with regard to the various items
of eating and drinking are their
possible effects on man's morals and on
the purity of his soul. This is in
addition to the judgements that the Law
makes with regard to the various means
adopted by man in his quest for food -
whether they are appropriate according
to Islamic standards or not. It is
impossible for man to determine what is
beneficial and what is harmful for his
morals; he has not been endowed with the
capacities needed to arrive at sound
conclusions on these matters, and so he
frequently stumbles into error. Hence
the Law undertakes to guide him in these
matters and these matters alone.
Whatever has been prohibited by Islam
has been prohibited because of its bad
effects on human morals, because of its
repugnance to spiritual purity, and
because of its association with false
beliefs. Things which have been declared
lawful have been so declared because
they are untainted by these evils.
It may be asked why God did not specify
the considerations underlying the
prohibition of various things for this
would have afforded us very valuable
insights. In reply, it must be pointed
out that it is impossible for us to
fully grasp such considerations. The
kind of questions we face are for
instance: What are the corrupting
effects of the consumption of either
blood or the flesh of swine and carrion
on our morals? The extent to which this
corruption affects our morals, and the
way in which certain things affect our
morals is a matter that we are incapable
of investigating, for we do not possess
the means of weighing and measuring the
moral properties of various things. To
mention some of these bad effects would
carry little weight with the sceptic,
for how could he test the soundness of
statements on such questions? Hence, God
considers faith rather than man's own
judgement as the main basis for
observing the standards of lawfulness
and prohibition. Whoever is fully
convinced that the Qur'an is the Book of
God, that the Prophet (peace be on him)
was designated by Him, and that God is
All-Knowing and All-Wise, will
necessarily commit himself to observe
the restrictions enjoined by God
regardless of whether he is able to
grasp the wisdom underlying them or not.
Whoever lacks this basic conviction will
avoid only those evils which are fully
evident to human beings, and will remain
a prey to all those which have not yet
become apparent but which in fact are
intrinsically harmful.
*14. The things which are prohibited in
this verse fall into the following
categories:
(1) Polytheistic divination, which is a
form of omen-seeking whereby knowledge
either about one's future or about
matters beyond human perception, is
sought from gods and goddesses. The
polytheists of Makka had consecrated the
idol Hubal in the Ka'bah for this
purpose. Seven arrows had been placed at
its altars and on each of them different
words and sentences had been inscribed.
Whenever people were faced with the
question whether a certain course was
wise or not, or they wanted to trace
something lost, or sought a judgement in
a murder case, or had other similar
problems, they would approach the oracle
of Hubal, present him with an offering
as his fee, and pray to Hubal to issue a
verdict on the question concerned. Then
the oracle would draw arrows, and the
inscription on the arrow which fell to a
person's lot was deemed to represent the
verdict of Hubal.
(2) Superstitious divination, which has
also been prohibited, means that instead
of deciding the problems of life in a
rational way one should decide them on
fanciful grounds. Or it could mean
deciding matters by arbitrary
interpretation of accidental events, or
to have one's future prophesied by means
which have not been reasonably
established as adequate for obtaining
knowledge about the future. This
includes geomancy, astrology,
fortune-telling and the numerous other
methods adopted to determine omens.
(3) Games of chance are also prohibited
and include all those transactions in
which what one receives depends on
chance and other purely accidental
factors rather than on rational
considerations such as either due
payment or recompense for services
rendered. This applies, for instance, to
lotteries where the holder of an
arbitrarily-drawn number receives a huge
amount of money which has been obtained
from thousands of other people. It also
applies to crossword puzzles were the
award of prizes does not depend on the
actual correctness of the solution
(since several correct solutions are
possible) but on accidental conformity
with the particular solution which is
arbitrarily chosen as the only correct
one by the sponsors of the puzzle. After
prohibiting each of these three
categories, the only kind of lot-drawing
which Islam permits is that which one
resorts to when obliged to make a
decision either in favour of one of
numerous permissible options or in
favour of one out of two or more equally
legitimate claimants. For instance, two
persons have an equal claim over a thing
which neither of them is prepared to
relinquish, and at the same time there
is no reasonable basis for preferring
one to the other. In such a case, with
the consent of the claimants, the matter
may be settled by drawing lots. The
Prophet (peace be on him) himself used
to resort to drawing lots when he had to
make a decision between two equal
claimants, and when preferring one of
them would cause distress and grievance
to the other. (For such instances see
Ahmad b. Hanbal, Musnad, vol. 4, p. 373;
Bukhari, 'Nikah', 97 and 'Shahadat', 30;
Muslim, 'Fada'il al-Sahabah', 88; Ibn
Majah, 'Ahkam', 20, etc. - Ed.)
*15. 'This day', here, does not signify
a particular day or specific date. It
refers to that period of time when these
verses were revealed. In our own usage,
too, expressions like 'today' or 'this
day' often have the sense of the
'present time'. 'This day the
unbelievers have fully despaired of your
religion' refers to the fact that the
Muslims' religion had developed into a
full-fledged system of life, reinforced
by the authority and governmental power
which it had acquired. The unbelievers
who had hitherto resisted its
establishment now despaired of
destroying Islam and of forcing the
believers back to their former state of
Ignorance. The believers therefore no
longer needed to fear men: they should
fear God alone instead. Indeed, the
Muslims were repeatedly asked to fear
God, for they would not be treated
lightly if they failed to carry out His
commands, especially as there was no
longer any justifiable excuse for such
failure. If they still violated the law
of God, there could be no basis for
supposing that they did so under
constraint: it must mean that they
simply had no intention of obeying Him.
*16. The 'perfection of religion'
mentioned in this verse refers to making
it a self-sufficient system of belief
and conduct, and an order of social life
providing its own answers to the
questions with which man is confronted.
This system contains all necessary
guidance for man, either by expounding
fundamental principles from which
detailed directives can be deduced or by
spelling out such directives explicitly
so that in no circumstances would one
need to look for guidance to any
extraneous source.
The bounty referred to in the statement:
'I have bestowed upon you My bounty in
full measure', is the bounty of true
guidance.
The statement: 'I have been pleased to
assign for you Islam as your religion'
means that, since the Muslims had proved
by their conduct and their striving that
they were honest and sincere about the
commitment they had made to God in
embracing Islam - the commitment to
serve and obey Him - He had accepted
their sincerity and created conditions
in which they were no longer yoked in
bondage to anyone but Him. Thus the
Muslims were not prevented from living
in submission to God out of extraneous
constraints just as there were no
constraints preventing them from
subscribing to true beliefs. Having
recounted these favours, God does not
point out what should be the proper
response to those favours. But the
implication is obvious: the only
appropriate response on the part of the
believers must be unstinting observance
of the law of God out of gratitude to
Him.
According to authentic traditions this
verse was revealed in 10 A.H. on the
occasion of the Prophet's Farewell
Pilgrimage. The context however, seems
to indicate that it was revealed soon
after the conclusion of the Treaty of
Hudaybiyah (i.e. in 6 A.H.). All parts
of the discourse in which this verse
occurs are so tightly interwoven and so
closely inter-connected that it hardly
seems conceivable that it should have
been inserted here several years later.
My own estimate - and true knowledge of
this lies with God alone - is that this
verse was originally revealed in its
present context (i.e. commenting upon
the conditions prevailing at the time of
the Treaty of Hudaybiyah). It is
conceivable that the true significance
of the verse was not then fully
appreciated. But later on, when Islam
prevailed over the whole of Arabia and
the power of Islam reached a high point,
God once again revealed this sentence to
His Messenger and ordered him to
proclaim it.
*17. See Towards Understanding the
Qur'an, vol. I, Surah 2, n. 172.
يَسْأَلُونَكَ مَاذَا أُحِلَّ لَهُمْ قُلْ
أُحِلَّ لَكُمُ الطَّيِّبَاتُ وَمَا
عَلَّمْتُمْ مِنَ الْجَوَارِحِ
مُكَلِّبِينَ تُعَلِّمُونَهُنَّ مِمَّا
عَلَّمَكُمُ اللَّهُ فَكُلُوا مِمَّا
أَمْسَكْنَ عَلَيْكُمْ وَاذْكُرُوا اسْمَ
اللَّهِ عَلَيْهِ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ
إِنَّ اللَّهَ سَرِيعُ الْحِسَابِ
﴿5:4﴾
(5:4) They ask you what has been made
lawful to them. Say: 'All clean things
have been made lawful to you, *18
and such hunting animals as you teach,
training them to hunt, teaching them the
knowledge Allah has given you - you may
eat what they catch for you *19
- but invoke the name of Allah on it. *20
Have fear of Allah (in violating His
Law). Allah is swift in His reckoning.'
*18. There is a certain subtlety in how
the query is answered. Religious- minded
people often fall into a prohibitionist
mentality by tending to regard as
unlawful everything not expressly
declared as lawful. This makes them
excessively fastidious and
over-suspicious, and inclined to ask for
a complete list of all that is lawful
and permitted. The Qur'an's response to
this question seems to be aimed, in the
first place, at the reform of this
mentality. The questioners want a list
of what is lawful so they can treat
everything else as prohibited, but the
Qur'an provides them with a list of what
is prohibited and then leaves them with
the guiding principle that all 'clean
things' are lawful. This means a
complete reversal of the old religious
outlook according to which everything
that has not been declared lawful is
considered prohibited. This was a great
reform, and it liberated human life from
many unnecessary constraints.
Henceforth, except for a few
prohibitions, the lawful domain embraced
virtually everything.
The lawfulness of things has been tied,
however, to the stipulation of their
being clean so that no one can argue for
the lawfulness of things which are
unclean. The question which arises at
this point is: How are we to determine
which things are clean? The answer is
that everything is clean apart from
those things which can be reckoned
unclean either according to any of the
principles embodied in the Law or which
are repellent to man's innate sense of
good taste or which civilized human
beings have generally found offensive to
their natural feelings of cleanliness
and decency.
*19.The expression 'hunting animals'
signifies hounds, cheetahs, hawks and
all those beasts and birds which men use
in hunting. It is a characteristic of
animals which have been trained to hunt
that they hold the prey for their
masters rather than devour it. It is for
this reason that while the catch of
these trained animals is lawful, that of
others is prohibited.
There is some disagreement among the
jurists as to the hunting animals whose
catch is lawful. Some jurists are of the
opinion that if the hunting animal,
whether bird or beast, eats any part of
the game, it becomes prohibited since
the act of eating signifies that the
animal hunted for its own sake rather
than for the sake of its master. This is
the doctrine of Shafi'i. Other jurists
hold that the prey is not rendered
unlawful even if the hunting animal has
eaten part of the game; even if it has
devoured one-third of the animal, the
consumption of the remaining two-thirds
is lawful, irrespective of whether the
hunting animal is a bird or a beast.
This is the view of Malik. A third group
of jurists is of the opinion that if the
hunting animal which has eaten part of
the game is a beast it becomes
prohibited, but not so if the hunting
animal is a bird. The reason for this
distinction is that hunting beasts can
be trained to hold the game for their
master whereas experience shows that
hunting birds are not fully capable of
receiving such instruction. This is the
opinion of Abu Hanifah and his
disciples. 'Ali, however, is of the
opinion that it is unlawful to eat the
catch of hunting birds because they
cannot be trained to refrain from eating
the game and to hold it merely for the
sake of their master. (See the
commentaries of Ibn Kathir, Jassas, Ibn
al-'Arabi and Qurtubi on this verse. See
also Ibn Rushd, Bidayat al-Mujtahid,
vol. 2, pp. 440 ff. -Ed.)
*20.They should pronounce the name of
God at the time of dispatching animals
to the hunt. It is mentioned in a
tradition that 'Adi b. Hatim asked the
Prophet (peace be on him) whether he
could use hounds for hunting. The
Prophet (peace be on him) replied: 'If
you have pronounced the name of God
while dispatching your trained hound,
eat what he has caught for, you. And if
it has eaten from the game, then do not
eat for I fear that the hound had caught
the game for itself.' Then he inquired
what should be done if one had
pronounced the name of God while
dispatching one's own hound, but later
found another hound close to the prey.
The Prophet (peace be on him) replied:
'Do not eat that, for you have
pronounced the name of God on your own
hound, but not on the other one.' (For
relevant traditions see Bukhari,
'Dhaba'ih', 4, 10; Ibn Majah, 'Sayd', 3;
Ahmad b. Hanbal, Musnad, vol. 1, p. 231
and vol. 4, p. 195 - Ed.) The verse
under discussion makes it clear that it
is necessary to pronounce the name of
God while dispatching a hound to the
hunt. If a man later finds the prey
alive he should slaughter it. But if he
does not find it alive it will still be
lawful to eat it since the name of God
has already been pronounced. The same
rule applies with regard to shooting
arrows in hunting.
الْيَوْمَ أُحِلَّ لَكُمُ الطَّيِّبَاتُ
وَطَعَامُ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ
حِلٌّ لَكُمْ وَطَعَامُكُمْ حِلٌّ لَهُمْ
وَالْمُحْصَنَاتُ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنَاتِ
وَالْمُحْصَنَاتُ مِنَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا
الْكِتَابَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ إِذَا
آَتَيْتُمُوهُنَّ أُجُورَهُنَّ
مُحْصِنِينَ غَيْرَ مُسَافِحِينَ وَلَا
مُتَّخِذِي أَخْدَانٍ وَمَنْ يَكْفُرْ
بِالْإِيمَانِ فَقَدْ حَبِطَ عَمَلُهُ
وَهُوَ فِي الْآَخِرَةِ مِنَ
الْخَاسِرِينَ
﴿5:5﴾
(5:5) This day all good things have been
made lawful to you. The food of the
People of the Book is permitted to you,
and your food is permitted to them. *21
And permitted to you are chaste women,
be they either from among the believers
or from among those who have received
the Book before you, *22provided
you become their protectors in wedlock
after paying them their bridal-due,
rather than go around committing
fornication and taking them as
secret-companions. The work of he who
refuses to follow the way of faith will
go waste, and he will be among the utter
losers in the Hereafter. *23
*21. The food of the People of the Book
includes the animals slaughtered by
them. The rule that 'our food is lawful
to them and theirs lawful to us'
signifies that there need be no barriers
between us and the People of the Book
regarding food. We may eat with them and
they with us. But this general
proclamation of permission is preceded
by a reiteration of the statement: 'All
good things have been made lawful to
you.' This indicates that if the People
of the Book either do not observe those
principles of cleanliness and purity
which are considered obligatory by the
Law or if their food includes prohibited
items, then one should abstain from
eating them. If, for instance, they
either slaughter an animal without
pronouncing the name of God or if they
slaughter it in the name of anyone else
but God it is not lawful for us to eat
that animal. Likewise, if intoxicating
drinks, the flesh of swine, and any
other prohibited thing is found on their
dining table we may not justify our
partaking of such items on the ground
that the persons concerned are People of
the Book.
The same applies to those non-Muslims
who are not People of the Book, except
for one difference - that whereas the
animals slaughtered by the People of the
Book are lawful provided they have
pronounced the name of God at the time
of slaughtering them, we are not
permitted to eat the animals killed by
non-Muslims who are not People of the
Book.
*22.This expression signifies the Jews
and the Christians. Of non-Muslim women,
Muslims may marry only Christians and
Jews, and of them only those who have
been characterized as muhsanat (i.e.
'well-protected women').
There are differences among jurists as
to the detailed application of this
rule. The view of Ibn 'Abbas is that the
expression 'People of the Book' here
signifies only those People of the Book
who are subjects of the Domain of Islam
(Dar al-Islam). It is also unlawful to
marry Jewish and Christian women who are
either living in the Domain of War (Dar
al-Harb) or in the Domain of Disbelief
(Dar al-Kufr). The Hanafi jurists hold a
slightly different opinion. Although
they disapprove of marrying such women,
it is not considered unlawful. Sa'id b.
al-Musayyib and Hasan al-Basri are of
the opinion that the verse warrants
general application and hence there is
no need to differentiate between those
who are ahl al-Dhimmah (the non-Muslim
subjects of the Islamic State) and those
who are not.
There is also disagreement among the
jurists about the connotation of the
term muhsanat. 'Umar considered this
word to signify only those women who are
chaste and possess good moral character,
and hence ahl al-Kitab women who are of
loose character are excluded from this
permission. This is also the opinion of
Hasan al-Basri, Sha'bi and Ibrahim
al-Nakha'i and of the Hanafi jurists.
But Shafi'i considers this expression to
have been used as an antonym of 'slave
women', and hence it signifies all those
ahl al-Kitab women who are not slaves.
(Cf. the commentaries of Ibn Kathir, Ibn
al-'Arabi and Qurtubi - Ed.)
*23.The declaration that marriage to ahl
al-Kitab women is permitted is
immediately followed by this warning
which, in effect, means that those who
avail themselves of this permission
ought to be mindful of their faith and
morals. They are urged to beware of
infatuation with disbelieving women lest
they also become enamoured of the ideas
and beliefs which they cherish, thereby
allowing their faith to dissipate. They
are warned against adopting social
patterns and modes of conduct
inconsistent with the true requirements
of their faith.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا إِذَا
قُمْتُمْ إِلَى الصَّلَاةِ فَاغْسِلُوا
وُجُوهَكُمْ وَأَيْدِيَكُمْ إِلَى
الْمَرَافِقِ وَامْسَحُوا بِرُءُوسِكُمْ
وَأَرْجُلَكُمْ إِلَى الْكَعْبَيْنِ
وَإِنْ كُنْتُمْ جُنُبًا فَاطَّهَّرُوا
وَإِنْ كُنْتُمْ مَرْضَى أَوْ عَلَى
سَفَرٍ أَوْ جَاءَ أَحَدٌ مِنْكُمْ مِنَ
الْغَائِطِ أَوْ لَامَسْتُمُ النِّسَاءَ
فَلَمْ تَجِدُوا مَاءً فَتَيَمَّمُوا
صَعِيدًا طَيِّبًا فَامْسَحُوا
بِوُجُوهِكُمْ وَأَيْدِيكُمْ مِنْهُ مَا
يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ لِيَجْعَلَ عَلَيْكُمْ
مِنْ حَرَجٍ وَلَكِنْ يُرِيدُ
لِيُطَهِّرَكُمْ وَلِيُتِمَّ نِعْمَتَهُ
عَلَيْكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ
﴿5:6﴾
(5:6) Believers! When you stand up for
Prayer wash your faces and your hands up
to the elbows, and wipe your heads, and
wash your feet up to the ankles. *24
And if you are in the state of ritual
impurity, purify yourselves (by taking a
bath). *25
But if you are either ill, travelling,
have satisfied a want of nature or have
had contact with women and find no water
then have recourse to clean earth and
wipe your faces and your hands
therewith. *26
Allah does not want to lay any hardship
upon you; rather He wants to purify you
and complete His favours upon you *27
so that you may give thanks.
*24. The explanation of this injunction
by the Prophet (peace be on him)
indicates that washing of the face
includes rinsing one's mouth and
inhaling water into the nostrils. Unless
this is done the washing of the face is
not considered complete. Likewise, since
the ears are part of the head, 'wiping
the head' includes wiping one's hands
over the external and internal parts of
the ears as well. Moreover, before
starting to wash the other parts one
should first wash one's hands so that
the instruments of washing are
themselves clean.
*25. Janabah (the state of major ritual
impurity) - whether caused by the sexual
act or merely by seminal discharge -
renders it unlawful to perform the
ritual Prayer and to touch the Qur'an
(for further details see Surah 4, nn.
67-9 above).
*26. For explanation see Surah 4, nn.
69-70 above.
*27. Just as purity of the soul is a
blessing, so is cleanliness of the body.
God's favour to man can be completed
only when he has received comprehensive
direction in respect of both spiritual
purity and physical cleanliness.
وَاذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ
وَمِيثَاقَهُ الَّذِي وَاثَقَكُمْ بِهِ
إِذْ قُلْتُمْ سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا
وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ
بِذَاتِ الصُّدُورِ
﴿5:7﴾
(5:7) Remember Allah's favour upon you *28
and His covenant which He made with you
when you said: 'We have heard and we
obey.' So do fear Allah. Allah has full
knowledge even of that which is hidden
in the breasts of people.
*28. The 'favour' mentioned here denotes
illuminating the Straight Way, and
entrusting to the believers the task of
guidance and leadership of the whole
world.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا كُونُوا
قَوَّامِينَ لِلَّهِ شُهَدَاءَ
بِالْقِسْطِ وَلَا يَجْرِمَنَّكُمْ
شَنَآَنُ قَوْمٍ عَلَى أَلَّا تَعْدِلُوا
اعْدِلُوا هُوَ أَقْرَبُ لِلتَّقْوَى
وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ خَبِيرٌ
بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ
﴿5:8﴾
(5:8) Believers! Be upright bearers of
witness for Allah, *29
and do not let the enmity of any people
move you to deviate from justice. Act
justly, that is nearer to God-fearing.
And fear Allah. Surely Allah is well
aware of what you do.
*29. See Surah 4, nn. 164-5 above.
وَعَدَ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا
وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ لَهُمْ
مَغْفِرَةٌ وَأَجْرٌ عَظِيمٌ
﴿5:9﴾
(5:9) Allah has promised those who
believe and do righteous deeds
forgiveness from sins and a great
reward.
وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَكَذَّبُوا
بِآَيَاتِنَا أُولَئِكَ أَصْحَابُ
الْجَحِيمِ
﴿5:10﴾
(5:10) As for those who disbelieve and
give the lie to Our signs, they are
destined for the Blazing Flame.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا
اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ
إِذْ هَمَّ قَوْمٌ أَنْ يَبْسُطُوا
إِلَيْكُمْ أَيْدِيَهُمْ فَكَفَّ
أَيْدِيَهُمْ عَنْكُمْ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ
وَعَلَى اللَّهِ فَلْيَتَوَكَّلِ
الْمُؤْمِنُونَ
﴿5:11﴾
(5:11) Believers! Remember Allah's
favour upon you. When a certain people
decided to stretch their hands against
you, He restrained their hands from you. *30
Do fear Allah. Men of faith should put
their trust in Allah alone.
*30. This alludes to the incident
reported by Ibn 'Abbas when a group of
Jews invited the Prophet (peace be on
him) and a number of his close
Companions to dinner. They had in fact
hatched a plot to pounce upon the guests
and thus undermine the very foundation
of Islam. But by the grace of God the
Prophet (peace be on him) came to know
of the plot at the eleventh hour and did
not go. Since the following section is
addressed to the Children of Israel,
this incident is alluded to here in
order to mark the transition to a new
subject.
The discourse which begins here has two
purposes. The first is to warn the
Muslims against following the ways of
their predecessors, the People of the
Book. The Muslims are told, therefore,
that the Israelites and the followers of
Jesus had made a covenant with God in
the past, in the manner that the Muslims
had recently done so. The Muslims
should, therefore, take heed lest they
also break their covenant and fall a
prey to error and misguidance as their
predecessors had done.
The second is to sensitize the Jews and
Christians to the errors they have
committed and invite them to the true
religion.
وَلَقَدْ أَخَذَ اللَّهُ مِيثَاقَ بَنِي
إِسْرَائِيلَ وَبَعَثْنَا مِنْهُمُ
اثْنَيْ عَشَرَ نَقِيبًا وَقَالَ اللَّهُ
إِنِّي مَعَكُمْ لَئِنْ أَقَمْتُمُ
الصَّلَاةَ وَآَتَيْتُمُ الزَّكَاةَ
وَآَمَنْتُمْ بِرُسُلِي
وَعَزَّرْتُمُوهُمْ وَأَقْرَضْتُمُ
اللَّهَ قَرْضًا حَسَنًا لَأُكَفِّرَنَّ
عَنْكُمْ سَيِّئَاتِكُمْ
وَلَأُدْخِلَنَّكُمْ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي
مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ فَمَنْ
كَفَرَ بَعْدَ ذَلِكَ مِنْكُمْ فَقَدْ
ضَلَّ سَوَاءَ السَّبِيلِ
﴿5:12﴾
(5:12) Surely Allah took a covenant with
the Children of Israel, and We raised up
from them twelve of their leaders, *31
and Allah said: 'Behold, I am with you;
if you establish Prayer and pay Zakah
and believe in My Prophets and help
them, *32
and lend Allah a good loan, *33
I will certainly efface from you your
evil deeds, *34
and will surely cause you to enter the
Gardens beneath which rivers flow.
Whosoever of you disbelieves thereafter
has indeed gone astray from the right
way. *35
*31. The word naqib in Arabic denotes
supervisor and censor. There were twelve
tribes among the Israelites and each
tribe was required to appoint one of its
members as a naqib, to look after their
affairs and try to prevent them from
becoming victims of irreligiousness and
moral corruption. Although the Book of
Numbers in the Bible does mention these
twelve men, it does not seem to convey
the sense of their being religious and
moral mentors, as the term naqib
employed by the Qur'an does. The Bible
simply mentions them as the chiefs and
dignitaries of their tribes.
*32. The assurance of God's support is
made conditional upon their continuous
response to the call of God and for
support of His Prophets.
*33. This expression signifies spending
one's wealth for the sake of God. Since
God has promised to return to man every
penny that he spends in His way along
with His reward, which will be
several-fold, the Qur'an characterizes
this spending as a loan to God. This
spending is considered a loan provided
it is a 'good loan', that is, provided
the money spent in the cause of God has
been acquired by legitimate means and
has been spent in accordance with the
laws of God and with sincerity and
earnestness.
*34. To efface someone's evil deeds
signifies two things. First, that if a
man decides to follow the Straight Path
and strives to follow God's directives
in both thought and action his soul will
be purged of many evils and his way of
life will gradually become free of
corruption. Second, if, in spite of this
reform, weaknesses still persist in a
man's life he is assured that God will
not punish him and will have his failing
erased from his record. For God is not
too exacting over trivial errors,
providing a man has sincerely accepted
the basic guidance and reformed his
character.
*35. That is, they once found the 'right
way' and then allowed it to be lost and
thus put themselves on the road to
perdition. We have translated the
Qur'anic expression 'sawa' al-sabil' as
the 'right way' for the sake of brevity.
A better rendering could be, 'the
highroad of balance and moderation', but
even this would fail to bring out the
meaning fully.
In order to grasp the full significance
of what is being said here one should
bear in mind that in himself man
constitutes a microcosm of society. He
has innumerable powers and
potentialities, myriad desires, feelings
and inclinations, and a host of
divergent urges. Social life consists of
a huge network of complex relationships,
and with the growth of civilization and
culture the complexity of these
relationships increases. There is also a
rich fund of resources in the world and
there are countless possibilities for
their utilization; as a result, man is
confronted with a plethora of choices
and problems.
The fact that man has inherent
limitations means that he is incapable
of viewing in one sweep and in a
balanced way the entire span of
existence. Hence, man is in no position
to prescribe for his kind a judicious
way of life - a way of life wherein
justice is done to all his powers and
capacities; in which a wholesome balance
is maintained between all his inherent
potentialities; in which all his urges
are given their due; in which his
two-fold need for inner satisfaction and
external self-realization is fully met;
in which various aspects of human life
are taken into proper consideration,
giving birth to an integrated scheme
with a built-in capacity to harmonize
the multifarious strains and stresses of
social life; in which material resources
are fully exploited in the best
interests of both the individual and
society and within the framework of
equity, justice and righteousness. When
man takes upon himself the task of
prescribing the guidelines for his life
and becomes his own law-maker, his mind
tends to become preoccupied with one
specific aspect of human life, with one
of the numerous demands of his nature,
with one of the myriad problems calling
for solution. His mental involvement is
liable to be so intense that he adopts -
consciously or otherwise - an unjust
attitude towards all the other aspects,
requirements and problems of human life.
Consequently, when such opinions are
imposed, the balance which ought to
prevail in man's life is disrupted and
he begins to swing either towards one
extreme or the other. Gradually, this
deviation assumes intolerable
proportions. A reaction sets in, and
justice is demanded for the neglected
aspects of human life. Still, human life
remains deprived of justice. The reason
for this failure is that man's reaction
to imbalance is itself devoid of
balance. The new dispensation in turn
persists in excessive preoccupation with
either one specific aspect, problem or
requirement of human life at the expense
of all the others. Thus human life is
denied judicious and balanced progress.
Man continues to stumble hither and
thither; from one form of
self-destruction to another. All courses
of life charted by man himself are
winding and crooked. They move in the
wrong direction, reach the wrong end and
then turn back in another wrong
direction.
Among these numerous ways - all false -
there is just one way that lies exactly
in the middle. This way alone does full
justice to all of man's various
potentialities and urges, to all his
instincts and predispositions, to all
the multifarious claims of both the body
and the spirit; in short, to all aspects
of his life. In this way there is no
crookedness; it is the one course of
life in which nothing is given either
too much consideration or too little,
and nothing suffers inequity and
injustice. Man's very nature thirsts for
such a way, and the succession of
revolts against false ways of life is
merely a manifestation of his constant
quest for this right and straight way.
Left to himself, man is incapable of
charting this way. It is God alone Who
can direct him to it; and indeed the
Prophets were sent for this very
purpose.
The Qur'an designates this way as sawa
al-sabil ('the right way') in the
present verse and elsewhere as al-sirat
al-mustaqim ('the straight way'). (See
Towards Understanding the Qur'an, vol.
I, Surah 1, verse 5, and n. 8.) This is
the road which goes amidst the countless
winding and crooked paths of life; the
road which leads man, disregarding all
the curved and crooked paths, straight
on to his success, right from this world
to the Hereafter. Whoever goes along it
enjoys rectitude in this world and
success and felicity in the Next, but
whoever loses this road is bound to
become a victim of false beliefs and
false ways of conduct and thus comes to
have a wrong orientation in life. This
will lead him to Hell, where all bent
and crooked paths end. The following
illustrates man's dilemma.
In modern times some philosophers have
been so impressed by this constant
swinging in human life, from one extreme
to another, as to have mistakenly argued
that the dialectical process is the
natural course of human life. They
conclude, therefore, that the only way
for human life to progress is that a
thesis should first swing it in one
direction, and then an antithesis swing
it in the opposite direction, after
which there will emerge a synthesis
which constitutes the course of human
progress. These curved lines from one
extreme to the other do not indicate the
correct course of human progress. Rather
they represent the tragic stumblings
which again and again obstruct the true
progress of human life. Every extreme
thesis sets life on a certain course and
continues to pull it in that direction
for some time. When human life is thus
thrown off its 'right course' the result
is that certain realities of life -
which had not received their due - rise
up in revolt, and this revolt often
assumes the form of an antithesis. This
revolt begins to pull life in the
opposite direction. As the 'right way'
is approached the conflicting ideas -
the thesis and antithesis - begin to
effect some kind of mutual compromise,
leading to the emergence of a synthesis.
This synthesis comprises many elements
conducive to the good of mankind. But
since societies which do not submit to
the guidance of the Prophets are
deprived both of the signposts that
might indicate the 'right way' and of
faith to help steady man's feet thereon
this synthesis does not permit human
life to maintain the golden mean. Its
momentum is so powerful that it once
more pushes life to the opposite
extreme. At this point, certain
realities are once again denied their
due, with the result that another
antithesis emerges in reaction to the
iniquities of the earlier ideology. Had
the light of the Qur'an been available
to these short-sighted philosophers, and
had they been able to perceive the
'right way' envisaged by the Qur'an,
they would have realized that this was
the true course of human progress.
فَبِمَا نَقْضِهِمْ مِيثَاقَهُمْ
لَعَنَّاهُمْ وَجَعَلْنَا قُلُوبَهُمْ
قَاسِيَةً يُحَرِّفُونَ الْكَلِمَ عَنْ
مَوَاضِعِهِ وَنَسُوا حَظًّا مِمَّا
ذُكِّرُوا بِهِ وَلَا تَزَالُ تَطَّلِعُ
عَلَى خَائِنَةٍ مِنْهُمْ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا
مِنْهُمْ فَاعْفُ عَنْهُمْ وَاصْفَحْ
إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ الْمُحْسِنِينَ
﴿5:13﴾
(5:13) Then, for their breach of the
covenant We cast them away from Our
mercy and caused their hearts to harden.
(And now they are in such a state that)
they pervert the words from their
context and thus distort their meaning,
and have forgotten a good portion of the
teaching they were imparted, and
regarding all except a few of them you
continue to learn that they committed
acts of treachery. Pardon them, then,
and overlook their deeds. Surely Allah
loves those who do good deeds.
وَمِنَ الَّذِينَ قَالُوا إِنَّا نَصَارَى
أَخَذْنَا مِيثَاقَهُمْ فَنَسُوا حَظًّا
مِمَّا ذُكِّرُوا بِهِ فَأَغْرَيْنَا
بَيْنَهُمُ الْعَدَاوَةَ وَالْبَغْضَاءَ
إِلَى يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ وَسَوْفَ
يُنَبِّئُهُمُ اللَّهُ بِمَا كَانُوا
يَصْنَعُونَ
﴿5:14﴾
(5:14) We also took a covenant from
those who said: 'We are Christians'; *36
but they forgot a good portion of the
teaching they had been imparted with.
Wherefore We aroused enmity and spite
between them till the Day of
Resurrection, and ultimately Allah will
tell them what they had contrived.
*36. Some are of the opinion that the
word Nasara (meaning Christians) is
derived from Nasirah (Nazareth), the
birth-place of the Messiah. In fact this
word is not derived from Nasirah
(Nazareth) but from the word nusrah, and
the basis of this derivation is the
question posed by the Messiah to his
disciples: 'Who are my supporters
(ansari) in the way of God?' In response
to this they had said: 'We are the
supporters (ansar) (in the way) of God.'
Christian authors have been misled by
the resemblance between the words
Nasirah and Nasara into believing that
the name of the sect founded in the
early history of Christianity, and
contemptuously characterized as either
Nazarenes or Ebonites served as the
basis of the Qur'anic designation of the
Christians. But here the Qur'ijo
categorically states that they had
declared that they were 'Nasara' and it
is obvious that the Christians never
called themselves 'Nazarenes'.
In this connection it should be recalled
that Jesus never called his followers
'Christians' for he had not come to
found a new religion named after him.
His mission was to revive the religion
of Moses and of all the Prophets who
preceded him as well as of the one who
was to appear after him. Hence, he
neither formed any cult divorced from
the Israelites and the followers of the
Mosaic Law nor designated his followers
by any distinctive name. Likewise, his
early followers neither considered
themselves to be separate from the
Israelite community nor developed into
an independent group nor adopted any
distinctive symbol and name. They
worshipped in the temple of Jerusalem
along with other Jews and considered
themselves to be followers of the Mosaic
Law (see Acts 3:1-10; 21: 14-15,21).
Later on the process of alienation began
to operate on both sides. On the one
hand, Paul, one of the followers of
Jesus, declared independence from the
Mosaic Law holding that faith in Christ
was all that one needed for salvation.
On the other hand, the Jewish rabbis
declared the followers of Christ to be
heretics and excommunicated them.
Despite this, for some time the new sect
had no distinct appellation of its own.
The followers of Christ variously
described themselves as 'disciples', as
'brethren', as 'those who believed', and
as 'saints' (see Acts 2: 44; 4: 32; 9:
26; 11: 29; 13: 52; 15: 1; 23: 1 and
Romans 15: 25 and Colossians 1: 2). The
Jews sometimes designated them as
'Galileans' and as 'the sect of
Nazarenes' (see Acts 24: 5; Luke 13: 2).
These nicknames, which were originally
contrived in,.ojder to ridicule them,
referred to Nazareth, the home town of
Jesus in the district of Galilee. These
names, however, did not gain sufficient
popularity to become the permanent names
of the followers of Christ. They were
called 'Christians' for the first time
by the people of Antioch in 43 A.D. or
44 A.D. when Paul and Barnabas went
there and began to preach their religion
(Acts 11: 26). This appellation was
flung at them by the opponents of the
followers of Christ precisely in order
to tease them by using an appellation
which was unacceptable to them. But when
their enemies began to call them
consistently by this name their leaders
reacted by saying that if they were
called Christians because of their
allegiance to Christ they had no reason
to be ashamed of it (1 Peter 4: 16). It
was thus that the followers of Christ
also gradually began to call themselves
by the same name which had originally
been conferred upon them sarcastically.
In the course of time the Christians
ceased to realize that theirs had
originally been a derogatory appellation
chosen for them by outsiders rather than
by themselves.
The Qur'an, therefore, does not refer to
the followers of Christ as Christians.
It reminds them rather that they belong
to those who responded to the query of
Jesus: 'Who are my supporters (ansari)
in the way of God?' by saying that they
were his ansar (supporters) in God's
cause. (See Surah al-Saff 61: 14 - Ed.)
It is an irony of fate that far from
feeling grateful at being referred to by
a dignified appellation Christian
missionaries take offence at the fact
that the Qur'an designates them as
Nasara rather than as 'Christians'.
يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ قَدْ جَاءَكُمْ
رَسُولُنَا يُبَيِّنُ لَكُمْ كَثِيرًا
مِمَّا كُنْتُمْ تُخْفُونَ مِنَ
الْكِتَابِ وَيَعْفُو عَنْ كَثِيرٍ قَدْ
جَاءَكُمْ مِنَ اللَّهِ نُورٌ وَكِتَابٌ
مُبِينٌ
﴿5:15﴾
(5:15) People of the Book! Now Our
Messenger has come to you: he makes
clear to you a good many things of the
Book which you were wont to conceal, and
also passes over many things. *37
There has now come to you a light from
Allah, and a clear Book.
*37. God discloses some of the dishonest
and treacherous dealings of theirs where
He deems it necessary in order to
strengthen the cause of the true
religion, and ignores the disclosure of
those which are not truly indispensable.
يَهْدِي بِهِ اللَّهُ مَنِ اتَّبَعَ
رِضْوَانَهُ سُبُلَ السَّلَامِ
وَيُخْرِجُهُمْ مِنَ الظُّلُمَاتِ إِلَى
النُّورِ بِإِذْنِهِ وَيَهْدِيهِمْ إِلَى
صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ
﴿5:16﴾
(5:16) through which Allah shows to all
who seek to please Him the paths leading
to safety. *38
He brings them out, by His leave, from
darkness to light and directs them on to
the straight way.
*38. The word 'safety' here denotes
safety from false perception and
outlook, safety from misdeeds and their
consequences. Whoever seeks guidance
from the Book of God and from the
example of the Messenger (peace be on
him) can find out how to keep himself
safe from errors at each of life's
crossroads.
لَقَدْ كَفَرَ الَّذِينَ قَالُوا إِنَّ
اللَّهَ هُوَ الْمَسِيحُ ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ
قُلْ فَمَنْ يَمْلِكُ مِنَ اللَّهِ
شَيْئًا إِنْ أَرَادَ أَنْ يُهْلِكَ
الْمَسِيحَ ابْنَ مَرْيَمَ وَأُمَّهُ
وَمَنْ فِي الْأَرْضِ جَمِيعًا وَلِلَّهِ
مُلْكُ السَّمَوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَمَا
بَيْنَهُمَا يخْلُقُ مَا يَشَاءُ
وَاللَّهُ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
﴿5:17﴾
(5:17) Indeed those who said: 'Christ,
the son of Mary, he is indeed God',
disbelieved. *39
Say (O Muhammad!): 'Who could have
overruled Allah had He so willed to
destroy Christ, the son of Mary, and his
mother, and all those who are on earth?'
For to Allah belongs the dominion of the
heavens and the earth and all that is
between them; He creates what He wills. *40
Allah is All-Powerful.
*39. The original mistake committed by
the Christians in declaring Jesus to be
a combination of human and divine
essences turned Jesus into a mystery for
them, and the more the Christian
scholars tried to solve this mystery by
resorting to conjecture and rhetorical
extravagance the more involved the whole
matter became. Those who were more
impressed by the humanity of Jesus
stressed his being the son of God and
considered him to be one of the three
gods. Those who were more impressed by
the divinity of Jesus considered him to
be none other than God, stressing that
he was the human incarnation of God, and
worshipped him as God. Those who tried
to strike a middle path spent all their
efforts hammering out subtle verbal
formulations of the Trinity that would
allow people to consider the Messiah to
be God and man at one and the same time,
to affirm that God and the Messiah are
independent and simultaneously
constitute an inseparable whole (see
Surah 4, nn. 212, 213, 215 above).
*40. This statement hints at the
childishness of those who have been
misled into believing that the Messiah
himself is God either because of his
miraculous birth or because of his
flawless moral character or because of
the miracles which he performed. The
Messiah is merely a sign of the
innumerable wonders of God's creation; a
sign which somehow dazzled the eyes of
those superficial people. Had their
perception been wider they would have
been able to see that there are even
more inspiring examples of His creation
and infinite power. If anything their
attitude was indicative of the
intellectual puerility of those who were
so overawed by the excellence of a
creature as to mistake him for the
Creator. Those whose intelligence
penetrates through the excellence of
creatures, who look upon them merely as
signs of the magnificent power of God,
and who are led by such observations to
a reinforcement of faith in the Creator
are truly wise.
وَقَالَتِ الْيَهُودُ وَالنَّصَارَى
نَحْنُ أَبْنَاءُ اللَّهِ وَأَحِبَّاؤُهُ
قُلْ فَلِمَ يُعَذِّبُكُمْ بِذُنُوبِكُمْ
بَلْ أَنْتُمْ بَشَرٌ مِمَّنْ خَلَقَ
يَغْفِرُ لِمَنْ يَشَاءُ وَيُعَذِّبُ مَنْ
يَشَاءُ وَلِلَّهِ مُلْكُ السَّمَوَاتِ
وَالْأَرْضِ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَا وَإِلَيْهِ
الْمَصِيرُ
﴿5:18﴾
(5:18) The Jews and the Christians say:
'We are Allah's children and His beloved
ones.' Ask them: 'Why, then, does He
chastise you for your sins?' You are the
same as other men He has created. He
forgives whom He wills and chastises
whom He wills. And to Allah belongs the
dominion of the heavens and the earth,
and all that is between them. To Him is
the eventual return.
يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ قَدْ جَاءَكُمْ
رَسُولُنَا يُبَيِّنُ لَكُمْ عَلَى
فَتْرَةٍ مِنَ الرُّسُلِ أَنْ تَقُولُوا
مَا جَاءَنَا مِنْ بَشِيرٍ وَلَا نَذِيرٍ
فَقَدْ جَاءَكُمْ بَشِيرٌ وَنَذِيرٌ
وَاللَّهُ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
﴿5:19﴾
(5:19) People of the Book! After a long
interlude during which no Messengers
have appeared there has come to you Our
Messenger to elucidate the teaching of
the true faith lest you say: 'No bearer
of glad tidings and no warner has come
to us.' For now there indeed has come to
you a bearer of glad tidings and a
warner, Allah is All-Power-ful. *41
*41. In the present context this
sentence is extremely eloquent and
subtle. It signifies that the same God
who had sent warners and bearers of glad
tidings to men in the past has now sent
Muhammad (peace be on him) with the same
task. At the same time it also means
that they {should not treat the message
of this warner and bearer of glad
tidings lightly. They should bear in
mind that if they disregard the
injunctions of God, He can chastise them
as He wills, for He is All-Powerful and
All-Mighty.
وَإِذْ قَالَ مُوسَى لِقَوْمِهِ يَا
قَوْمِ اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ
عَلَيْكُمْ إِذْ جَعَلَ فِيكُمْ
أَنْبِيَاءَ وَجَعَلَكُمْ مُلُوكًا
وَآَتَاكُمْ مَا لَمْ يُؤْتِ أَحَدًا مِنَ
الْعَالَمِينَ
﴿5:20﴾
(5:20) Remember when Moses said to his
people: 'My people, remember Allah's
favour upon you when He raised Prophets
amongst you and appointed you rulers,
and granted to you what He had not
granted to anyone else in the world. *42
*42. This refers to the glory the
Israelites enjoyed before the time of
Moses. There had appeared among them
such great Prophets as Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob and Joseph. Moreover, from the
time of Joseph they were able to achieve
very considerable power and authority in
Egypt. For a considerable period they
were the greatest rulers of the
civilized world, reigning supreme in
Egypt and the surrounding territories.
People are generally inclined to regard
the time of Moses as the starting point
for the rise of the Israelites. The
Qur'an, however, states categorically
that the truly glorious period of their
history had passed long before Moses,
and that Moses himself drew the
attention of his people to that period
as their time of glory.
يَا قَوْمِ ادْخُلُوا الْأَرْضَ
الْمُقَدَّسَةَ الَّتِي كَتَبَ اللَّهُ
لَكُمْ وَلَا تَرْتَدُّوا عَلَى
أَدْبَارِكُمْ فَتَنْقَلِبُوا خَاسِرِينَ
﴿5:21﴾
(5:21) My people! Enter the holy land
which Allah has ordained for you; *43
and do not turn back for then you will
turn about losers. *44
They answered: 'Moses, therein live a
ferocious people: we will not enter
unless they depart from it; but if they
do depart from it then we will surely
enter it.'
*43. This signifies Palestine which had
been the homeland of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob. After their exodus from Egypt,
God ordered the Israelites to go forth
to Egypt and conquer it.
*44. This statement of Moses refers to
the second year after they had come out
of Egypt when he and his people lived in
tents in the wilderness of Paran. This
desert lies in the Sinai peninsula
adjacent to the northern borders of
Arabia and the southern borders of
Palestine.
قَالُوا يَا مُوسَى إِنَّ فِيهَا قَوْمًا
جَبَّارِينَ وَإِنَّا لَنْ نَدْخُلَهَا
حَتَّى يَخْرُجُوا مِنْهَا فَإِنْ
يَخْرُجُوا مِنْهَا فَإِنَّا دَاخِلُونَ
﴿5:22﴾
(5:22) Two from among these who were
frightened but upon whom Allah had
bes-towed His favour *45
said: 'Enter upon them through the gate
- for if you do enter - you will be the
victors. And put your trust in Allah if
indeed you are men of faith.'
*45. This could have two meanings:
either that two of those who feared the
high-handed people of the Promised Land
made that statement or that two of those
who feared God did so. (However, most
Qur'anic commentators subscribe to the
latter meaning - Ed.)
قَالَ رَجُلَانِ مِنَ الَّذِينَ
يَخَافُونَ أَنْعَمَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمَا
ادْخُلُوا عَلَيْهِمُ الْبَابَ فَإِذَا
دَخَلْتُمُوهُ فَإِنَّكُمْ غَالِبُونَ
وَعَلَى اللَّهِ فَتَوَكَّلُوا إِنْ
كُنْتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ
﴿5:23﴾
(5:23) Nevertheless they said: "O Moses!
Never shall we enter it as long as they
are there. Go forth, then, you and your
Lord, and fight, both of you. As for us,
we will sit here."
قَالُوا يَا مُوسَى إِنَّا لَنْ
نَدْخُلَهَا أَبَدًا مَا دَامُوا فِيهَا
فَاذْهَبْ أَنْتَ وَرَبُّكَ فَقَاتِلَا
إِنَّا هَاهُنَا قَاعِدُونَ
﴿5:24﴾
(5:24) Nevertheless they said: 'O Moses!
Never shall we enter it as long as they
are there. Go forth, then, you and your
Lord, and fight, both of you. As for us,
we will sit here.'
قَالَ رَبِّ إِنِّي لَا أَمْلِكُ إِلَّا
نَفْسِي وَأَخِي فَافْرُقْ بَيْنَنَا
وَبَيْنَ الْقَوْمِ الْفَاسِقِينَ
﴿5:25﴾
(5:25) Thereupon Moses said: 'My Lord! I
have control over none but my own self
and my brother; so distinguish between
us and the transgressing people.'
قَالَ فَإِنَّهَا مُحَرَّمَةٌ عَلَيْهِمْ
أَرْبَعِينَ سَنَةً يَتِيهُونَ فِي
الْأَرْضِ فَلَا تَأْسَ عَلَى الْقَوْمِ
الْفَاسِقِينَ
﴿5:26﴾
(5:26) Allah said: 'This land will now
be forbidden to them for forty years and
they will remain wandering about on the
earth. *46
Do not grieve over the condition of
these transgressing people. *47
*46. The details of this incident are
found in the Bible in Numbers,
Deuteronomy and Joshua. The essence of
the story is that Moses sent twelve
heads of Israel to spy out Palestine.
They returned after forty days and said:
'We came to the land to which you sent
us; it flows with milk and honey. Yet
the people who dwell in the land are
strong, and the cities are fortified and
very large; and besides, we saw the
descendants of Anak there . . . and all
the people that we saw in it are men of
great stature. And there we saw the
Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come
from the Nephilim); and we seemed to
ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we
seemed to them.' Then all the
congregation cried out: 'Would that we
had died in the land of Egypt; or would
that we had died in this wilderness; why
does the Lord bring us into this land,
to fall by the sword? Our wives and our
little ones will become a prey; would it
not be better for us to go back to
Egypt?' At this they were censured for
cowardice by two of the twelve heads who
had spied out Palestine, Joshua and
Caleb. Caleb suggested that they should
go and seize Palestine. Then both of
them said: 'If the Lord delights in us,
He will bring us into this land and give
it to us, a land which flows with milk
and honey. Only do not rebel against the
Lord; and do not fear the people of the
land ... for the Lord is with us; do not
fear them' (Numbers 14: 1-9). But the
congregation responded to this by crying
out that both ought to be stoned. This
so provoked the wrath of God that He
commanded that their bodies would fall
dead in the wilderness and that of all
their numbers numbered from twenty years
old and upward, who had murmured against
Him, none would come into the promised
land except Caleb and Joshua; that only
after an entire generation had passed
away and a new generation had sprung up
would they be enabled to conquer
Palestine. Because of this divine
decree, it took the people of Israel
thirty-eight years to reach Transjordan
from Paran. During this period all those
who had left Egypt in their youth had
perished. After the conquest of
Transjordan Moses died (Ibid., 14: 10
ff.).
WANDERINGS OF THE ISRAELITES IN THE
SINAI PENINSULA
The Prophet Moses (peace be on him) led
the Israelites out of Egypt and brought
them to Mount Sinai by way of Marah,
Elim and Rephaim in the Sinai Peninsula.
Here he stayed for a little over a year
and received most of the Commandments of
the Torah. Then he was commanded to lead
the Israelites towards Palestine and
conquer it, for that land was to be
given to them as an inheritance. So, he
led them through Taberah and Nazareth
and came to the desert of Paran from
where he despatched a deputation of
prominent Israelites to spy out
Palestine. The deputation returned after
forty days and made their report at
Kadesh. Except for the encouraging
picture presented by Joshua and Caleb,
the report made by the other members was
so disappointing that the Israelites
cried out in disgust and refused to
march on to Palestine. Thereupon God
decreed that they would wander for forty
years in the wilderness and none of
their older generation except Joshua and
Caleb would see Palestine. Thus, the
Israelites wandered homeless in the
wilderness of Paran, Shur and Zin,
fighting and struggling against the
Amalekites, the Amorites, the Edomites,
the Midianites and the Moabites. When
the forty years was about to end, the
Prophet Aaron (peace be on him) died in
Mount Hor, near the border of Edom. At
about this time the Prophet Moses (peace
be on him) entered Moab at the head of
the Israelites, conquered the whole area
and reached Heshbon and Shittim. After
him Joshua, his first successor, crossed
the River Jordan from the east and
captured Jericho, the first Palestinian
city to fall to the Israelites. Later on
the whole of Palestine was conquered by
them within a short period.
Ailah (present-day Aqaba) on this map is
the place where probably the well-known
incident of the Sabbath-breakers, as
mentioned in Surah al-Baqarah 2: 65 and
Surah al-A'raf 7: 166, took place.
Later on during the caliphate* (sic) of
Joshua the Israelites became capable of
conquering Palestine.
*47. The purpose of referring to this
event becomes clear if we reflect upon
the context. It seems to be to bring
home to the Israelites that the
punishment to which they would be
subjected if they adopted a rebellious
attitude towards Muhammad (peace be on
him) would be even more severe than the
.one to which they had been subjected in
the time of Moses.
وَاتْلُ عَلَيْهِمْ نَبَأَ ابْنَيْ آَدَمَ
بِالْحَقِّ إِذْ قَرَّبَا قُرْبَانًا
فَتُقُبِّلَ مِنْ أَحَدِهِمَا وَلَمْ
يُتَقَبَّلْ مِنَ الْآَخَرِ قَالَ
لَأَقْتُلَنَّكَ قَالَ إِنَّمَا
يَتَقَبَّلُ اللَّهُ مِنَ الْمُتَّقِينَ
﴿5:27﴾
(5:27) Narrate to them in all truth the
story of the two sons of Adam. When they
made an offering and it was accepted
from one of them and was not accepted
from the other, the latter said: 'I will
surely kill you.' Thereupon the former
said: 'Allah accepts offerings only from
the God-fearing. *48
*48. God's refusal to accept the
sacrifice of one of the two brothers was
not due to any wrong the other brother
might have committed but to his own lack
of piety. Hence, rather than attempt to
kill his brother he should be concerned
with cultivating piety.
لَئِنْ بَسَطْتَ إِلَيَّ يَدَكَ
لِتَقْتُلَنِي مَا أَنَا بِبَاسِطٍ يَدِيَ
إِلَيْكَ لِأَقْتُلَكَ إِنِّي أَخَافُ
اللَّهَ رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ
﴿5:28﴾
(5:28) Even if you stretch forth your
hand against me to kill, I will not
stretch forth my hand to kill you. *49
Surely, I fear Allah, the Lord of the
entire universe.
*49. This does not mean, that his
brother assured him that when the latter
stepped forward to kill him he would
keep his hands tied and stretch out his
own neck to be cut down rather than
defend himself. What this statement
amounts to is an assurance on the part
of the first brother that, even though
the other was intent on killing him, he
himself had no such intention. In other
words, he assured his brother that even
though the latter was busy planning his
murder he would not take the initiative
in killing him despite his knowledge of
the latter's intent.
*In view of the fact that the followers
of all the Prophets are Muslims, the
author has used a peculiarly Islamic
term - caliphate, rather than kingship,
etc. - to signify the predominantly
religious (or shall we say, Islamic)
quality of his rule and to distinguish
it from systems of government not
animated by the religious spirit - Ed.
Righteousness does not demand at all
that when a man is subjected to wrongful
aggression he should surrender to the
aggressor rather than defend himself.
Righteousness, however, demands that a
man should not take the initiative and
try to kill someone even though he knows
him to be bent on killing him. He should
rather wait for the act of aggression to
be initiated by the other person. And
this is exactly what was intended by the
statement of the righteous son of Adam.
إِنِّي أُرِيدُ أَنْ تَبُوءَ بِإِثْمِي
وَإِثْمِكَ فَتَكُونَ مِنْ أَصْحَابِ
النَّارِ وَذَلِكَ جَزَاءُ الظَّالِمِينَ
﴿5:29﴾
(5:29) I would desire that you be laden
with my sin and with your sin, *50
and thus become among the inmates of the
Fire. That indeed is the right
recompense of the wrong-doers.'
*50. The righteous son of Adam told his
brother that rather than both of them
becoming sinners by trying to kill each
other, he would prefer to see the entire
sin fall on the lot of the one who was
intent on the murder - the sin of the
aggressor's attempt to murder, as well
as the sin of any injury that might be
inflicted on him in self-defence.
فَطَوَّعَتْ لَهُ نَفْسُهُ قَتْلَ أَخِيهِ
فَقَتَلَهُ فَأَصْبَحَ مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ
﴿5:30﴾
(5:30) At last his evil soul drove him
to the murder of his brother, and he
killed him, whereby he himself became
one of the losers.
فَبَعَثَ اللَّهُ غُرَابًا يَبْحَثُ فِي
الْأَرْضِ لِيُرِيَهُ كَيْفَ يُوَارِي
سَوْءَةَ أَخِيهِ قَالَ يَا وَيْلَتَى
أَعَجَزْتُ أَنْ أَكُونَ مِثْلَ هَذَا
الْغُرَابِ فَأُوَارِيَ سَوْأَةَ أَخِي
فَأَصْبَحَ مِنَ النَّادِمِينَ
﴿5:31﴾
(5:31) Thereupon Allah sent forth a
raven who began to scratch the earth to
show him how he might cover the corpse
of his brother. So seeing he cried: 'Woe
unto me! Was I unable even to be like
this raven and find a way to cover the
corpse of my brother? *51
Then he became full of remorse at his
doing. *52
*51. In this way God made this errant
son of Adam realize his ignorance and
folly. Once his attention turned to
self-appraisal, his regret was not
confined to realizing that in his effort
to hide his brother's corpse he proved
to be even less efficient than the
raven. He also began to feel how foolish
he was to have killed his own brother.
The later part of the sentence indicates
this remorse.
*52.The purpose of mentioning this
particular incident is to reproach the
Jews subtly for the plot they had
hatched to assassinate the Prophet
(peace be on him) and some of his
illustrious Companions (see n. 30
above). The resemblance between the two
incidents is evident. God honoured some
of the illiterate people of Arabia and
disregarded the ancient People of the
Book because the former were pious while
the latter were not. But rather than
reflect upon the causes of their
rejection by God, and do something to
overcome the failings which had led to
that rejection, the Israelites were
seized by the same fit of arrogant
ignorance and folly which had once
seized the criminal son of Adam, and
resolved to kill those whose good deeds
had been accepted by God. It was obvious
that such acts would contribute nothing
towards their acceptance by God. They
would rather earn them an even greater
degree of God's disapproval.
مِنْ أَجْلِ ذَلِكَ كَتَبْنَا عَلَى بَنِي
إِسْرَائِيلَ أَنَّهُ مَنْ قَتَلَ نَفْسًا
بِغَيْرِ نَفْسٍ أَوْ فَسَادٍ فِي
الْأَرْضِ فَكَأَنَّمَا قَتَلَ النَّاسَ
جَمِيعًا وَمَنْ أَحْيَاهَا فَكَأَنَّمَا
أَحْيَا النَّاسَ جَمِيعًا وَلَقَدْ
جَاءَتْهُمْ رُسُلُنَا بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ
ثُمَّ إِنَّ كَثِيرًا مِنْهُمْ بَعْدَ
ذَلِكَ فِي الْأَرْضِ لَمُسْرِفُونَ
﴿5:32﴾
(5:32) Therefore We ordained for the
Children of Israel *53
that he who slays a soul unless it be
(in punishment) for murder or for
spreading mischief on earth shall be as
if he had slain all mankind; and he who
saves a life shall be as if he had given
life to all mankind. *54
And indeed again and again did Our
Messengers come to them with clear
directives; yet many of them continued
to commit excesses on earth.
*53.Since the same qualities which had
been displayed by the wrong doing son of
Adam were manifest in the Children of
Israel, God strongly urged them not to
kill human beings and couched His
command in forceful terms. It is a pity
that the precious words which embody
God's ordinance are to be found nowhere
in the Bible today. The Talmud, however,
does mention this subject in the
following words:
To him who kills a single individual of
Israel, it shall be reckoned as if he
had slain the whole race and he who
preserves a single individual of Israel,
it shall be reckoned in the Book of God
as if he had preserved the whole world.
The Talmud also mentions that in trials
for murder, the Israelite judges used to
address the witnesses as follows:
Whoever kills one person, merits
punishment as if he had slain all the
men in the world.
*54. This means that the survival of
human life depends on everyone
respecting other human beings and in
contributing actively to the survival
and protection of others. Whosoever
kills unrighteously is thus not merely
guilty of doing wrong to one single
person, but proves by his act that his
heart is devoid of respect for human
life and of sympathy for the human
species as such. Such a person,
therefore, is an enemy of all mankind.
This is so because he happens to be
possessed of a quality which, were it to
become common to all men, would lead to
the destruction of the entire human
race. The person who helps to preserve
the life of even one person, on the
other hand, is the protector of the
whole of humanity, for he possesses a
quality which is indispensable to the
survival of mankind.
إِنَّمَا جَزَاءُ الَّذِينَ يُحَارِبُونَ
اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ وَيَسْعَوْنَ فِي
الْأَرْضِ فَسَادًا أَنْ يُقَتَّلُوا أَوْ
يُصَلَّبُوا أَوْ تُقَطَّعَ أَيْدِيهِمْ
وَأَرْجُلُهُمْ مِنْ خِلَافٍ أَوْ
يُنْفَوْا مِنَ الْأَرْضِ ذَلِكَ لَهُمْ
خِزْيٌ فِي الدُّنْيَا وَلَهُمْ فِي
الْآَخِرَةِ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ
﴿5:33﴾
(5:33) Those who wage war against Allah
and His Messenger, and go about the
earth spreading mischief *55
-indeed their recompense is that they
either be done to death, or be
crucified, or have their hands and feet
cut off from the opposite sides or be
banished from the land. *56
Such shall be their degradation in this
world; and a mighty chastisement lies in
store for them in the World to Come
*55. The 'land' signifies either the
country or territory wherein the
responsibility of establishing law and
order has been undertaken by an Islamic
state. The expression 'to wage war
against Allah and His Messenger' denotes
war against the righteous order
established by the Islamic state. It is
God's purpose, and it is for this very
purpose that God sent His Messengers,
that a righteous order of life be
established on earth; an order that
would provide peace and security to
everything found on earth; an order
under whose benign shadow humanity would
be able to attain its perfection; an
order under which the resources of the
earth would be exploited in a manner
conducive to man's progress and
prosperity rather than to his ruin and
destruction. If anyone tried to disrupt
such an order, whether on a limited
scale by committing murder and
destruction and robbery and brigandry or
on a large scale by attempting to
overthrow that order and establish some
unrighteous order instead, he would in
fact be guilty of waging war against God
and His Messenger. All this is not
unlike the situation where someone tries
to overthrow the established government
in a country. Such a person will be
convicted of 'waging war against the
state' even though his actual action may
have been directed against an ordinary
policeman in some remote part of the
country, and irrespective of how remote
the sovereign himself is from him.
*56. These penalties are mentioned here
in brief merely to serve as guidelines
to either judges or rulers so they may
punish each criminal in accordance with
the nature of his crime. The real
purpose is to indicate that for any of
those who live in the Islamic realm to
attempt to overthrow the Islamic order
is the worst kind of crime, for which
any of the highly severe punishments may
be imposed.
إِلَّا الَّذِينَ تَابُوا مِنْ قَبْلِ
أَنْ تَقْدِرُوا عَلَيْهِمْ فَاعْلَمُوا
أَنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ
﴿5:34﴾
(5:34) except for those who repent
before you have overpowered them. Know
well that Allah is All-Forgiving,
All-Compassionate. *57
*57. If they give up subversion and
abandon their endeavour to disrupt or
overthrow the righteous order, and their
subsequent conduct shows that they have
indeed become peace-loving, law-abiding
citizens of good character, they need
not be subjected to the punishments
mentioned here even if any of their
former crimes against the state should
come to light. If their crime involves
violation of the rights of other men
they may not be absolved from their
guilt. If, for instance, they have
either killed a person, seized someone's
property or committed any other crime
against human life or property they will
be tried according to the criminal law
of Islam. They will not, however, be
accused of either rebellion and high
treason or of waging war against God and
His Messenger.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا اتَّقُوا
اللَّهَ وَابْتَغُوا إِلَيْهِ
الْوَسِيلَةَ وَجَاهِدُوا فِي سَبِيلِهِ
لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ
﴿5:35﴾
(5:35) Believers! Fear Allah and seek
the means to come near to Him, *58
and strive hard in His way; *59
maybe you will attain true success.
*58. People are urged to solicit all
means which might bring them close to
God and enable them to please Him.
*59. The English imperative 'strive
hard' does not do full justice to the
actual word used in the Qur'an: jahidu.
The verbal form mujahadah signifies and
carries the nuance of doing something in
defiance of, or in opposition to
someone. The true sense of the Qur'anic
injunction 'strive hard' in the way of
Allah is that the Muslims ought to use
all their strength and engage in
vigorous struggle against those forces
which either forcefully prevent them
from living in obedience to God or force
them to live in obedience to others than
God. It is this struggle which is likely
to lead man to his true success and
bring him to a close relationship with
God.
This verse directs the believer to
engage in a ceaseless, multifrontal
struggle. On one side is the accursed
Satan with his horde. Then comes the
animal spirit of man, with its defiant
and refractory desires. Then there are
many men who have turned away from God,
but with whom one is linked by social,
cultural and economic ties. Then there
are false religious, cultural and social
systems which rest on rebellion against
God and which force man to worship
falsehood rather than Truth. These
rebellious forces use different means to
achieve their end, but those ends are
always the same - to make men serve them
rather than God. But man's true progress
and his attainment of close communion
with God depends entirely on his total
obedience to God, on his serving God
unreservedly in the inner as well as in
the external aspects of his life. He
cannot achieve this objective without
engaging in simultaneous combat with all
the forces which are defiant and
rebellious towards God, carrying on an
unceasing struggle against them and
trampling down all obstructions to his
advancement along God's path.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَوْ أَنَّ
لَهُمْ مَا فِي الْأَرْضِ جَمِيعًا
وَمِثْلَهُ مَعَهُ لِيَفْتَدُوا بِهِ مِنْ
عَذَابِ يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ مَا
تُقُبِّلَ مِنْهُمْ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ
أَلِيمٌ
﴿5:36﴾
(5:36) For those who disbelieved - even
if they had all that is in the earth,
and the like of it with it, and offered
it all as ransom from chastisement on
the Day of Resurrection, it will not be
accepted of them - a painful
chastisement lies in store for them.
يُرِيدُونَ أَنْ يَخْرُجُوا مِنَ النَّارِ
وَمَا هُمْ بِخَارِجِينَ مِنْهَا وَلَهُمْ
عَذَابٌ مُقِيمٌ
﴿5:37﴾
(5:37) They will wish to come out of the
Fire, but they will not. Theirs will be
a long-lasting chastisement.
وَالسَّارِقُ وَالسَّارِقَةُ فَاقْطَعُوا
أَيْدِيَهُمَا جَزَاءً بِمَا كَسَبَا
نَكَالًا مِنَ اللَّهِ وَاللَّهُ عَزِيزٌ
حَكِيمٌ
﴿5:38﴾
(5:38) As for the thief -male or female
- cut off the hands of both. *60
This is a recompense for what they have
done, and an exemplary punishment from
Allah. Allah is All-Mighty, All-Wise.
*60. The injunction is to cut off one
not both hands. There is consensus among
jurists that in the event of the first
theft the right hand should be cut off.
This punishment has been laid down for
theft alone. The Prophet (peace be on
him) declared: "There is no cutting off
of a hand for he who embezzles.' (Abu
Da'ud, 'Hudud', 14; Tirmidhi, 'Hudud',
18; Ibn Majah, 'Hudud', 36; Nasa'i,
'Qat' al-Sariq', 13 - Ed.) This shows
that the punishment prescribed for theft
does not cover acts involving
embezzlement and other dishonest
practices. It is applicable only to acts
involving the seizure, by stealth, of
someone else's property.
The Prophet (peace be on him) also
instructed that the punishment of
cutting off a hand should not be applied
in cases where the value of the article
stolen is less than that of a shield. In
the time of the Prophet (peace be on
him) according to a tradition from Ibn
'Abbas, this was ten dirhams; according
to a tradition from Ibn 'Umar, it was
three dirhams; according to a tradition
from Anas b. Malik, it was five dirhams;
and according to another tradition from
'A'ishah, it was a quarter of a dinar.
Owing to this discrepancy, there is
disagreement among jurists regarding the
minimum value of the goods stolen which
merits the punishment of cutting off a
hand. This value, according to Abu
Hanifah, is ten dirhams whereas
according to Malik, Shafi'i and Ahmad b.
Hanbal, it is one quarter of a dinar
(three dirhams). (For traditions on
objects and amounts of things on which
the hand of the thief is to be cut off,
see Bukhari, 'Hudud', 13; Muslim,
'Hudud', 1-7; Abu Da'ud, 'Hudud', 12,
13; Tirmidhi, 'Hudud', 16; Nasa'i, 'Qat'
al-Sariq', 5, 8-10 - Ed.)
Moreover, there are several things the
theft of which would not necessitate
cutting off a hand. The Prophet (peace
be on him) directed, for instance, that
no hand should be cut off if the stolen
article was food. According to a
tradition from 'A'ishah: '(The hand of)
the thief was not cut off during the
time of the Messenger of Allah for the
theft of trivial things.' (Ahmad b.
Hanbal, Musnad, vol. 3, p. 464; Darimi,
'Hudud', 4, 7 - Ed.) Furthermore, 'Ali
and 'Uthman gave the judgement - and
none of the Companions disagreed with it
- that a person's hand should not be cut
off for stealing birds. 'Umar and 'Ali
did not cut off the hands of those who
had stolen from the public treasury, and
on this question no disagreement on the
part of any Companion has been reported.
On these grounds the founders of the
schools of Islamic Law exempted certain
things from the application of this
penal injunction.
According to Abu Hanifah a man's hand
should not be cut off for stealing
vegetables, fruit, meat, cooked food,
grain which is not stored in a barn, and
instruments of music and play. Likewise,
he is of the opinion that a hand should
not be cut off for either stealing
animals grazing in the forest or for
stealing from the public treasury. The
founders of the other schools of Islamic
Law have also exempted the stealing of
certain things from the punishment of
cutting off a hand. But this exemption
does not mean that the guilty parties
should receive no punishment at all.
(See the commentaries of Ibn Kathir, Ibn
al-'Arabi, Qurtubi and Jassas on this
verse. See also Ibn Rushd, Bidayat
al-Mujtahid, vol. 2, pp. 441 ff. - Ed.)
فَمَنْ تَابَ مِنْ بَعْدِ ظُلْمِهِ
وَأَصْلَحَ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ يَتُوبُ
عَلَيْهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ
﴿5:39﴾
(5:39) But he who repents after he has
committed wrong, and makes amends, Allah
will graciously turn to him. *61
Truly Allah is All-Forgiving,
All-Compassionate.
أَلَمْ تَعْلَمْ أَنَّ اللَّهَ لَهُ
مُلْكُ السَّمَوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ
يُعَذِّبُ مَنْ يَشَاءُ وَيَغْفِرُ لِمَنْ
يَشَاءُ وَاللَّهُ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ
قَدِيرٌ
﴿5:40﴾
(5:40) Do you not know that to Allah
belongs the dominion of the heavens and
the earth? He chastises whom He wills
and forgives whom He wills. Allah is
All-Powerful.
*61. Forgiveness on the part of Allah
does not mean that the hand of the thief
should not be cut off. It means rather
that one who repents and becomes
righteous by purging his soul of the sin
of stealing will be spared the wrath of
God, Who will remove the stain of that
sin from him. But if after his hand has
been cut off the person concerned does
not purge himself of evil intent and
continues to nurture the same impure
feelings which led to his stealing and
thus to the cutting off of his hand, it
is evident that even though his hand has
been severed from his body, stealing
remains ingrained in his soul. The
result will be that he will continue to
merit God's wrath as he did before his
hand was cut off. The Qur'an therefore
directs the thief to seek pardon from
God and to try to reform himself. For
the hand of that thief was cut off for
the sake of the judicious administration
of human society and the cutting off of
a hand did not automatically purify the
soul of the person on whom the
punishment was carried out. Purity of
soul can be achieved only by repentance
and turning oneself to God. Traditions
mention that after the hand of a thief
had been cut off in compliance with the
Prophet's order, he was summoned by the
Prophet (peace be on him) himself who
said to him: 'Say: "I seek pardon from
God, and to Him do I turn in
repentance.'" The thief uttered these
words as directed by the Prophet (peace
be on him) who then prayed for the
thief, saying: 'O God, accept his
repentance.' (Abu Da'ud, 'Hudud', 8 -
Ed.)
يَا أَيُّهَا الرَّسُولُ لَا يَحْزُنْكَ
الَّذِينَ يُسَارِعُونَ فِي الْكُفْرِ
مِنَ الَّذِينَ قَالُوا آَمَنَّا
بِأَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَلَمْ تُؤْمِنْ
قُلُوبُهُمْ وَمِنَ الَّذِينَ هَادُوا
سَمَّاعُونَ لِلْكَذِبِ سَمَّاعُونَ
لِقَوْمٍ آَخَرِينَ لَمْ يَأْتُوكَ
يُحَرِّفُونَ الْكَلِمَ مِنْ بَعْدِ
مَوَاضِعِهِ يَقُولُونَ إِنْ أُوتِيتُمْ
هَذَا فَخُذُوهُ وَإِنْ لَمْ تُؤْتَوْهُ
فَاحْذَرُوا وَمَنْ يُرِدِ اللَّهُ
فِتْنَتَهُ فَلَنْ تَمْلِكَ لَهُ مِنَ
اللَّهِ شَيْئًا أُولَئِكَ الَّذِينَ لَمْ
يُرِدِ اللَّهُ أَنْ يُطَهِّرَ
قُلُوبَهُمْ لَهُمْ فِي الدُّنْيَا خِزْيٌ
وَلَهُمْ فِي الْآَخِرَةِ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ
﴿5:41﴾
(5:41) O Messenger! Do not be grieved on
account of those who vie with one
another in disbelieving: *62
even though they be those who say with
their mouths: 'We believe' even though
their hearts have no faith; or they be
Jews who have their ears eagerly turned
to falsehood *63
and spy for other people who did not
chance to come to you, *64
who pervert the words of Allah, taking
them out of their proper context in
order to distort their meaning. *65
They say to people: 'If such and such
teaching is given to you, accept it; if
you are not given that, then beware! *66
You can be of no avail to him whom Allah
wills to fall into error. *67
Those are the ones whose hearts Allah
does not want to purify. *68
For them there is degradation in this
world and a mighty chastisement in the
Next.
*62. This verse refers to those who
devoted all their capacities and efforts
to ensure that the status quo ante of
Jahiliyah remained intact, and that the
reformative mission of Islam should fail
to set right the corruption that had
come down to them from the past.
Disregarding all moral scruples, these
people used the vilest methods against
the Prophet (peace be on him). They
deliberately suppressed the truth and
resorted to lying, deceit, treachery and
low cunning in order to frustrate the
mission of the Prophet (peace be on him)
who was engaged in a tireless struggle
actuated by absolute selflessness and
benevolence, and who sought the welfare
of all human beings, including that of
his opponents. All this naturally hurt
the Prophet (peace be on him). A sincere
person must feel heartbroken when he
sees men of low moral character, driven
by ignorance, blind selfishness and
bigotry, resort to vile methods in
opposition to his mission, which is
actuated by charity and goodwill towards
all men. Hence the purpose of God's
directive here is not to ask the Prophet
(peace be on him) to abstain from this
natural feeling of grief but rather that
he should not allow such feelings to
undermine his morale and that he should
persevere in his task. As for the
opponents of the Prophet (peace be on
him), in view of their low morals, their
mean conduct was not at all contrary to
expectations.
*63. This has two meanings. First, that
since such people are slaves to their
desires they cannot have the least
interest in the Truth, falsehood alone
gratifies them. It is with falsehood
alone that they like to fill their ears,
for nothing else quenches the thirst of
their souls. Second, it is the same love
of falsehood which motivates them when
they come and spend some time in the
company of the Prophet (peace be on him)
and the Muslims. They want to distort
whatever they see or hear, to taint the
facts with their fabrications, and then
circulate them among those who have had
no contact with the Prophet (peace be on
him) and the Muslims in order to
scandalize them.
*64. This also has two meanings. First,
that they socialized with the Prophet
(peace be on him) and the Muslims in
order to pry into their affairs and
communicate them to the enemy. Second,
that they went about collecting
information to try to slander them.
Their objective was to create misgivings
about the Prophet (peace be on him) and
the Muslims among those who were
unacquainted with them.
*65. They deliberately tamper with those
injunctions of the Torah that do not
accord with their desires, and by
altering the meanings of the words
occurring in the text they deduce laws
that suit their interests.
*66. This refers to the Jews who went
about telling the ignorant masses that
they should follow the teachings of the
Prophet (peace be on him) only if they
conformed to the teachings of the Jews.
*67.God's will to put someone to the
test means that God confronts one in
whom He sees the growth of evil with the
opportunities of doing just that, so
that he experiences the struggle between
good and evil. If the person is not yet
fully inclined towards evil, his moral
health improves and his latent
potentialities for resisting evil are
revived. But if he has become
excessively inclined towards evil, and
goodness has been totally crushed from
within his being, then every such test
is bound to entangle him still more
tightly in evil. The well-wisher is now
powerless to rescue him. It might be
added that not only individuals but also
nations are put to this kind of test.
*68. God did not will that their hearts
be purified for they themselves did not
want them to be purified. It is not
God's way to deprive of purity those who
love it and strive for it; but God does
not wish to purify those who do not seek
their own purification.
سَمَّاعُونَ لِلْكَذِبِ أَكَّالُونَ
لِلسُّحْتِ فَإِنْ جَاءُوكَ فَاحْكُمْ
بَيْنَهُمْ أَوْ أَعْرِضْ عَنْهُمْ وَإِنْ
تُعْرِضْ عَنْهُمْ فَلَنْ يَضُرُّوكَ
شَيْئًا وَإِنْ حَكَمْتَ فَاحْكُمْ
بَيْنَهُمْ بِالْقِسْطِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ
يُحِبُّ الْمُقْسِطِينَ
﴿5:42﴾
(5:42) They are listeners of falsehood
and greedy devourers of unlawful
earnings. *69
If they come to you you may either judge
between them or turn away from them. And
were you to turn away from them they
shall not be able to harm you; and were
you to judge between them judge with
justice. Surely Allah loves the just. *70
*69. Here pointed reference is made to
judges and jurisconsults who accept
false evidence and invent reports in
order to issue verdicts contrary to
justice and in favour of either those
who bribe them or with whom their
illegitimate interests lie.
*70. Until then the Jews had not become
full-fledged subjects of the Islamic
state. Their relations with that state
were based on agreements according to
which the Jews were to enjoy internal
autonomy, and their disputes were to be
decided by their own judges and in
accordance with their own laws. They
were not legally bound to place their
disputes either before the Prophet
(peace be on him) for adjudication or
before the judges appointed by him. But
in cases where it appeared against their
interests to have their disputes judged
according to their own religious law
they approached the Prophet (peace be on
him) in the hope that the Prophet might
have a different ruling.
The particular case referred to here was
that of a woman belonging to a
respectable family, who was found to be
involved in an unlawful sexual
relationship with a man. The punishment
for this in the Torah was that both be
stoned to death (see Deuteronomy 22:
23-4). But the Jews did not want to
enforce this punishment. Hence they
deliberated among themselves and decided
to put the case before the Prophet
(peace be on him), with the reservation
that his judgement be accepted only if
it was other than stoning. The Prophet
(peace be on him) decided that the
punishment should, in fact, be stoning.
When the Jews declined to accept the
judgement, the Prophet (peace be on him)
asked their rabbis what punishment had
been prescribed for such a case in their
religion. They replied that it was to
strike the culprit with lashes, to
blacken the face and to make the person
concerned ride on a donkey. The Prophet
(peace be on him) asked them under oath
if the Torah had indeed prescribed that
as punishment for adultery committed by
married men and women. They repeated the
same false reply. However, one of them
called Ibn Sawriya who, according to the
Jews themselves, was the greatest living
scholar of the Torah at that time, kept
silent. The Prophet (peace be on him)
asked him to state on oath in the name
of God, Who had emancipated them from
Pharaoh and had given them the Law,
whether the punishment for adultery
provided for in the Torah was what they
had mentioned. He replied: 'Had you not
put me under such a heavy oath, I would
not have volunteered the correct
information. The fact is that the
prescribed punishment for adultery is
indeed stoning, but when adultery became
common among us our rulers adopted the
rule that when respectable people
committed adultery they were left
unpunished, whereas when ordinary people
were convicted they were punished by
stoning. Later on when this caused
resentment among the common people we
altered the law of the Torah and adopted
the rule that adulterers and
adulteresses would be lashed, their
faces would be blackened, and they would
be made to ride on donkeys, seated in a
backward-looking position.' This left
the Jews with nothing to say and the
adulterer and adulteress were, in
accordance with the order of the Prophet
(peace be on him), stoned to death. (Ibn
Kathir, Tafsir, vol. 3, pp. 574-5 - Ed.)
وَكَيْفَ يُحَكِّمُونَكَ وَعِنْدَهُمُ
التَّوْرَاةُ فِيهَا حُكْمُ اللَّهِ ثُمَّ
يَتَوَلَّوْنَ مِنْ بَعْدِ ذَلِكَ وَمَا
أُولَئِكَ بِالْمُؤْمِنِينَ
﴿5:43﴾
(5:43) Yet how will they appoint you a
judge when they have the Torah with
them, wherein there is Allah's judgement
- and still they turn away from it? *71
The fact is, they are not believers.
*71. In this verse, God unmasks
completely the dishonesty of these
people. It shows how these so-called
religious people who had cast the spell
of their religious piety and knowledge
of the Scriptures over the whole of
Arabia had set aside a categorical
injunction of the book which they
themselves recognized to be the Book of
God, and which they professed to believe
in. They had referred that judicial case
to the Prophet (peace be on him) for his
decision even though they vehemently
denied his prophethood. This made it
quite clear that there was nothing to
which they subscribed sincerely. Their
true religion consisted merely of
worshipping their interests and desires.
They were ready to turn their backs upon
the very book which they recognized as
the Book of God merely because some of
its injunctions were unpalatable to
them, and in such cases they did not
mind approaching one whom they regarded
as an imposter (may God be our refuge
from such a blasphemy) in the hope that
they might be able to obtain a judgement
to their liking.
إِنَّا أَنْزَلْنَا التَّوْرَاةَ فِيهَا
هُدًى وَنُورٌ يَحْكُمُ بِهَا
النَّبِيُّونَ الَّذِينَ أَسْلَمُوا
لِلَّذِينَ هَادُوا وَالرَّبَّانِيُّونَ
وَالْأَحْبَارُ بِمَا اسْتُحْفِظُوا مِنْ
كِتَابِ اللَّهِ وَكَانُوا عَلَيْهِ
شُهَدَاءَ فَلَا تَخْشَوُا النَّاسَ
وَاخْشَوْنِ وَلَا تَشْتَرُوا بِآَيَاتِي
ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا وَمَنْ لَمْ يَحْكُمْ
بِمَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ فَأُولَئِكَ هُمُ
الْكَافِرُونَ
﴿5:44﴾
(5:44) Surely We revealed the Torah,
wherein there is guidance and light.
Thereby did Prophets - who had submitted
themselves (to Allah) - judge for the
Judaized folk; *72
and so did the scholars and jurists. *73
They judged by the Book of Allah for
they had been entrusted to keep it, and
bear witness to it. So (O Jews!) do not
fear men but fear Me, and do not barter
away My signs for a trivial gain. Those
who do not judge by what Allah has
revealed are indeed the unbelievers.
*72.Here the verse tells the Jews that
all the Prophets were muslims
(submitters to God) whereas the Jews had
deviated from islam (submission to God),
and true to their chauvinistic
sectarianism, were content with
remaining merely 'Jews'.
*73.Rabbani = religious scholars,
theologians. Ahbar = religious jurists.
وَكَتَبْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ فِيهَا أَنَّ
النَّفْسَ بِالنَّفْسِ وَالْعَيْنَ
بِالْعَيْنِ وَالْأَنْفَ بِالْأَنْفِ
وَالْأُذُنَ بِالْأُذُنِ وَالسِّنَّ
بِالسِّنِّ وَالْجُرُوحَ قِصَاصٌ فَمَنْ
تَصَدَّقَ بِهِ فَهُوَ كَفَّارَةٌ لَهُ
وَمَنْ لَمْ يَحْكُمْ بِمَا أَنْزَلَ
اللَّهُ فَأُولَئِكَ هُمُ الظَّالِمُونَ
﴿5:45﴾
(5:45) And therein We had ordained for
them: 'A life for a life, and an eye for
an eye, and a nose for a nose, and an
ear for an ear, and a tooth for a tooth,
and for all wounds, like for like. *74
But whosoever forgoes it by way of
charity, it will be for him an
expiation. *75
Those who do not judge by what Allah has
revealed are indeed the wrong-doers.
*74. Cf. Exodus 21: 23-5.
*75. Whoever forgoes his right of
retaliation does a good deed which will
atone for many of his sins. The same is
confirmed by a tradition of the Prophet
(peace be on him) in which he said:
'Whoever receives an injury on his body,
then pardons (the inflictor of the
injury), his sins are atoned for to the
measure of his pardoning.' (Ahmad b.
Hanbal, Musnad, vol. 5, pp. 316, 329 -
Ed.)
وَقَفَّيْنَا عَلَى آَثَارِهِمْ بِعِيسَى
ابْنِ مَرْيَمَ مُصَدِّقًا لِمَا بَيْنَ
يَدَيْهِ مِنَ التَّوْرَاةِ وَآَتَيْنَاهُ
الْإِنْجِيلَ فِيهِ هُدًى وَنُورٌ
وَمُصَدِّقًا لِمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ مِنَ
التَّوْرَاةِ وَهُدًى وَمَوْعِظَةً
لِلْمُتَّقِينَ
﴿5:46﴾
(5:46) And We sent Jesus, the son of
Mary, after those Prophets, confirming
the truth of whatever there still
remained of the Torah. And We gave him
the Gospel, wherein is guidance and
light, and which confirms the truth of
whatever there still remained of the
Torah, *76
and a guidance and admonition for the
God-fearing.
*76.The Messiah did not expound a new
religion. That very religion which had
been the religion of all the Prophets
was also his religion, and it is towards
that religion that he called people. He
believed in the true teachings of the
Torah which were extant in his time, and
the Gospels (Injil) confirm this (see,
for example, Matthew 5: 17-18). The
Qur'an repeatedly stresses the
fundamental fact that none of the
Prophets of God, no matter in which part
of the world they appeared, denied the
Prophets who had preceded them. On the
contrary, each Prophet confirmed the
message of his predecessors and sought
to promote the mission which was the
sacred legacy of them all. God did not
reveal any of the Books in order to
repudiate the previous ones; each
confirmed and supported the preceding
ones.
وَلْيَحْكُمْ أَهْلُ الْإِنْجِيلِ بِمَا
أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ فِيهِ وَمَنْ لَمْ
يَحْكُمْ بِمَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ
فَأُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْفَاسِقُونَ
﴿5:47﴾
(5:47) Let the followers of the Gospel
judge by what Allah has revealed
therein, and those who do not judge by
what Allah has revealed are the
transgressors. *77
*77. Here three judgements are issued
against those who do not judge in
accordance with the Law revealed by God.
The first is that they are kafir
(unbelievers); the second, that they are
zalim (wrong-doers); and the third, that
they are fasiq (transgressors). This
clearly means that one who, in disregard
of God's commandments and of the Laws
revealed by Him, pronounces judgements
according to man-made laws (whether made
by himself or by others) is guilty of
three major offences. First, his act
amounts to rejecting the commandment of
God, and this rejection is equivalent to
kufr (infidelity, unbelief). Second, his
act is contrary to justice, for only the
laws made by God are in complete accord
with the dictates of justice. Any
judgement in contravention of God's
injunctions amounts, therefore, to
committing injustice (zulm). Third, when
he enforces either his own or anyone
else's law in disregard of the Laws of
his Lord he steps out of the fold of
subjection and obedience, and this
constitutes fisq (transgression).
Kufr, zulm and fisq are essential
elements in deviation from God's
commandments. One finds them wherever
there is deviation from the commandment
of God. There is variation in the degree
of deviation and hence in the degree of
these three offences. Whoever passes
judgement on something in opposition to
an injunction of God, believing that
injunction to be false, and holds either
his own or anyone else's judgement to be
sound, is an unbeliever (kafir),
wrong-doer (zalim) and transgressor
(fasiq). A man who is convinced that the
injunctions of God are right but makes
judgements contrary to them in practice
is not an unbeliever in the sense that
he ceases to remain a member of the
Islamic community, but he is guilty of
adulterating his faith by blending it
with kufr, zulm and fisq. In the same
manner, those who deviate from the
injunctions of God in all matters are
unbelievers, wrong-doers and
transgressors. For those who are
obedient in some respects and
disobedient in others, the blending of
faith and submission to God with the
opposite attributes of unbelief,
wrong-doing and transgression in their
lives will be exactly in proportion to
the mixture of their obedience to and
their deviation from God's commands.
Some commentators have attempted to
restrict the application of these verses
to the People of the Book alone. The
verses, however, hardly lend themselves
to such a restrictive interpretation.
The best answer to such a restrictive
interpretation has been given by the
Companion Hudhayfah. When someone told
him that these verses related merely to
the Israelites, meaning that the
unbelievers, wrong-doers and
transgressors were only the Jews who
passed judgement contrary to the
injunctions revealed by God, Hudhayfah
remarked: 'What good brothers these
Israelites are to you! Whatever is
bitter goes to them; whatever is sweet
comes to you. Nay, by God, you will
follow their way, your steps following
theirs.'
وَأَنْزَلْنَا إِلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ
بِالْحَقِّ مُصَدِّقًا لِمَا بَيْنَ
يَدَيْهِ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ وَمُهَيْمِنًا
عَلَيْهِ فَاحْكُمْ بَيْنَهُمْ بِمَا
أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ وَلَا تَتَّبِعْ
أَهْوَاءَهُمْ عَمَّا جَاءَكَ مِنَ
الْحَقِّ لِكُلٍّ جَعَلْنَا مِنْكُمْ
شِرْعَةً وَمِنْهَاجًا وَلَوْ شَاءَ
اللَّهُ لَجَعَلَكُمْ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً
وَلَكِنْ لِيَبْلُوَكُمْ فِي مَا
آَتَاكُمْ فَاسْتَبِقُوا الْخَيْرَاتِ
إِلَى اللَّهِ مَرْجِعُكُمْ جَمِيعًا
فَيُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِمَا كُنْتُمْ فِيهِ
تَخْتَلِفُونَ
﴿5:48﴾
(5:48) Then We revealed the Book to you
(O Muhammad!) with Truth, confirming
whatever of the Book was revealed
before, *78
and protecting and guarding over it. *79
Judge, then, in the affairs of men in
accordance with the Law that Allah has
revealed, and do not follow their
desires in disregard of the Truth which
has come to you. For each of you We have
appointed a Law and a way of life. *80
And had Allah so willed, He would surely
have made you one single community;
instead, (He gave each of you a Law and
a way of life) in order to test you by
what He gave you.
Vie, then, one with another in good
works. Unto Allah is the return of all
of you; and He will then make you
understand the truth concerning the
matters on which you disagreed. *81
*78. This points to a fact of major
significance. It could also have been
said that the Qur'an confirms all those
parts of the earlier divine books which
are still extant in their true and
original form. But the sense has been
conveyed by employing the word 'the
Book' rather than 'the previous Books'.
This expression reveals that the Qur'an
and all those Books sent down by God at
various times and in different languages
in reality constitute one and the same
Book. Their Author is one and the same;
their aim and purpose are the same;
their teaching is the same; and the
knowledge which they seek to impart to
mankind is the same. The difference
between these Books lies in their modes
of expression, and this was necessarily
so since they were addressed to
different audiences. It is, therefore,
not merely that these divine books
support rather than contradict each
other but that they are actually
different editions of one and the same
book - 'the Book'.
*79. In Arabic, haymana, yuhayminu,
hayamanah signify 'to protect, to
witness, to keep trust, to back and to
support'. The expression 'haymana
al-rajul al-shay' means that the man
protected and guarded the thing.
Likewise, 'haymana al-ta'ir
'alafirdkhih' means that the bird took
its young ones under the protection of
its wings. Once 'Umar said to the
people: 'Inni da'in fa hayminu' ('I am
praying; support me by saying amen'). To
say that the Qur'an is muhaymin of
al-kitab means that it preserves all the
true teachings of the earlier divine
books; that it has secured them from
loss. The Qur'an also confirms those
Books in that the contents of the Qur'an
testify to the truth of those parts
which are indeed from God. The Qur'an
is, further, a witness over those Books
in the sense that, with its help, the
elements which embody true revelations
from God can be distinguished from the
accretions which have corrupted them.
Whatever in these Books accords with the
Qur'an is from God, and whatever is not
in conformity with it is from human
beings.
*80. This is a parenthetical phrase, the
purpose of which is to elucidate a
question which is likely to arise in the
mind of the reader who has read the
above section and might feel uneasy. The
question is: Why do the religious laws
propounded by the various Prophets
differ in matters of detail even though
the Prophets and their Books preach one
and the same religion (din) and even
confirm and support each other? Why is
it that in regard to the prescribed
forms of worship, the regulations
concerning what is permitted and what is
prohibited, and the detailed legal
regulations governing the social and
collective life, there is some
disagreement among the various laws
propounded by the different Prophets and
the divine Books?
*81. This constitutes a detailed answer
to the above question (see n. 80). It
consists of the following points:
(1) It is a mistake to think that
variations in religious laws result from
a difference of source. It is God
Himself Who altered the legal
prescriptions to suit different nations
at different times and in different
circumstances.
(2) It was indeed possible, by divising
one legal code for all human beings, for
all men to have been made into one
nation (ummah). But one of the many
benevolent considerations keeping the
religious laws of various Prophets
different from one another was that God
wanted this difference to become a means
of testing people. Those who understand
true religion, who have grasped its
spirit and essence, and who are aware of
the true importance of the different
legal prescriptions, always recognize
the Truth and accept it whatever its
form. They have no hesitation in
accepting the new ordinances of God in
place of the old ones, in contrast to
those who are not conversant with the
spirit of true religion and who seem to
identify it with a specific body of
legal minutiae. Such people have
overlaid God-given principles with their
own legal deductions, and have sub
sequently fossilized this entire
amalgam, seeking to preserve it in its
entirety. They have grown so attached to
it that, in order to preserve it, they
spurn every directive which subsequently
comes to them from God. In order to
distinguish the people of the first
category from those of the second God
made the legal prescriptions of the
various Prophets vary.
(3) The real purpose of all the divine
religious laws is the attainment of
goodness and righteousness. This purpose
can be achieved only when a man obeys
whatever commandment he receives from
God at a particular time. The proper
mode of conduct for people who keep
their eyes fixed on this true purpose is
to strive for God's good pleasure rather
than quarrel about differences in the
legal prescriptions of the various
Prophets.
(4) The differences which have arisen
because of the unjustified rigidity,
prejudice, obduracy and erroneous
attitudes of the human mind can be
finally settled neither in the debating
hall nor on the battlefield. The final
judgement will be made by God Himself.
Then the reality of everything will be
fully uncovered, and it will be clear
how much truth and falsehood underlay
the squabbles which whole lives were
wasted over.
وَأَنِ احْكُمْ بَيْنَهُمْ بِمَا أَنْزَلَ
اللَّهُ وَلَا تَتَّبِعْ أَهْوَاءَهُمْ
وَاحْذَرْهُمْ أَنْ يَفْتِنُوكَ عَنْ
بَعْضِ مَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ إِلَيْكَ
فَإِنْ تَوَلَّوْا فَاعْلَمْ أَنَّمَا
يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ أَنْ يُصِيبَهُمْ
بِبَعْضِ ذُنُوبِهِمْ وَإِنَّ كَثِيرًا
مِنَ النَّاسِ لَفَاسِقُونَ
﴿5:49﴾
(5:49) Therefore, judge bet-ween them (O
Muhammad!) *82
by what Allah has revealed and do not
follow their desires, and beware lest
they tempt you away from anything of
what Allah has revealed to you. And if
they turn away, then know well that
Allah has indeed decided to afflict them
for some of their sins. For surely many
of them are transgressors.
*82. Following this parenthetical
clause, the previous subject is resumed.
أَفَحُكْمَ الْجَاهِلِيَّةِ يَبْغُونَ
وَمَنْ أَحْسَنُ مِنَ اللَّهِ حُكْمًا
لِقَوْمٍ يُوقِنُونَ
﴿5:50﴾
(5:50) (If they turn away from the Law
of Allah) do they desire judgement
according to the Law of Ignorance? *83
But for those who have certainty of
belief whose judgement can be better
than Allah's?
*83. The word jahiliyah (literally
'ignorance') is used as an antonym to
Islam. Islam is the way of 'ilm (true
knowledge), since it is God Himself Who
has shown this way, and His knowledge
embraces everything. In contrast is the
way that diverges from Islam - the path
of Ignorance (jahiliyah). The
pre-Islamic period in Arabia is
designated as jahiliyah because this was
the era when human beings derived their
norms from either superstitious beliefs,
conjectures and imagination or from
their desires. Whenever such an attitude
is adopted, it is bound to be designated
as Ignorance. The appellation
'jahiliyah' will apply to every aspect
of life which is developed in disregard
of the knowledge made available by God,
based only on man's partial knowledge
blended with imagination, superstitious
fancies, conjectures and desires.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا لَا
تَتَّخِذُوا الْيَهُودَ وَالنَّصَارَى
أَوْلِيَاءَ بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلِيَاءُ
بَعْضٍ وَمَنْ يَتَوَلَّهُمْ مِنْكُمْ
فَإِنَّهُ مِنْهُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا
يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ
﴿5:51﴾
(5:51) Believers! Do not take the Jews
and the Christians for your allies. They
are the allies of each other. And among
you he who takes them for allies, shall
be regarded as one of them. Allah does
not guide the wrong-doers.
فَتَرَى الَّذِينَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ مَرَضٌ
يُسَارِعُونَ فِيهِمْ يَقُولُونَ نَخْشَى
أَنْ تُصِيبَنَا دَائِرَةٌ فَعَسَى
اللَّهُ أَنْ يَأْتِيَ بِالْفَتْحِ أَوْ
أَمْرٍ مِنْ عِنْدِهِ فَيُصْبِحُوا عَلَى
مَا أَسَرُّوا فِي أَنْفُسِهِمْ
نَادِمِينَ
﴿5:52﴾
(5:52) Indeed you see those afflicted
with the disease of hypocrisy race
towards them, saying: 'We fear lest some
misfortune overtakes us. *84
And it may happen that Allah will either
bring you a decisive victory or bring
about something else from Himself? *85
and then they will feel remorseful at
their hypocrisy which they have kept
concealed in their breasts -
*84. The outcome of the conflict in
Arabia between Islam and unbelief (kufr)
had not crystallized. Although Islam had
become a formidable force owing to the
daring, courage and sacrifices of its
followers, the forces opposed to it were
also tremendously powerful. To an
objective observer it must have seemed
that either party had an equal chance of
success, and so the hypocrites,
apparently an integral part of the
Muslim body politic, sought to maintain
good relations with the Jews and the.
Christians as well. They expected refuge
and protection from the Jews in case
Islam was defeated. Moreover, the Jews
and Christians held the greatest
economic power in Arabia insofar as the
banking system and the greenest and most
fertile regions of Arabia were in their
possession. For these reasons the
hypocrites were keen to maintain good
relations with them: they thought that
to regard the conflict between Islam and
unbelief as crucially important, and to
sever their relations with all those
currently in conflict with Islam, would
be too great a risk both politically and
economically.
*85. They were looking for a conclusive
victory, or at least something not far
short of it, to inspire confidence that
the conflict would end in favour of
Islam.
وَيَقُولُ الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا أَهَؤُلَاءِ
الَّذِينَ أَقْسَمُوا بِاللَّهِ جَهْدَ
أَيْمَانِهِمْ إِنَّهُمْ لَمَعَكُمْ
حَبِطَتْ أَعْمَالُهُمْ فَأَصْبَحُوا
خَاسِرِينَ
﴿5:53﴾
(5:53) while those who believe will
exclaim: 'Are these the self-same people
who solemnly swore by Allah that they
were with you?' All their acts have gone
to waste and now they are the losers. *86
*86. However much they might profess to
follow Islam - by performing Prayers, by
observing Fasts, by paying Zakah, by
taking part in wars in the cause of God
- all was reduced to naught because they
had not devoted themselves to the
service of the One True God. In pursuit
of their worldly ambitions they had
split their souls into two, distributing
half to God and half to those in
rebellion against Him.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا مَنْ
يَرْتَدَّ مِنْكُمْ عَنْ دِينِهِ فَسَوْفَ
يَأْتِي اللَّهُ بِقَوْمٍ يُحِبُّهُمْ
وَيُحِبُّونَهُ أَذِلَّةٍ عَلَى
الْمُؤْمِنِينَ أَعِزَّةٍ عَلَى
الْكَافِرِينَ يُجَاهِدُونَ فِي سَبِيلِ
اللَّهِ وَلَا يَخَافُونَ لَوْمَةَ
لَائِمٍ ذَلِكَ فَضْلُ اللَّهِ يُؤْتِيهِ
مَنْ يَشَاءُ وَاللَّهُ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ
﴿5:54﴾
(5:54) Believers! If any of you should
ever turn away from your faith, remember
that Allah will raise up a people whom
He loves, and who love Him; a people
humble towards the believers, and firm
towards the unbelievers; *87
who will strive hard in the way of Allah
and will not fear the reproach of the
reproacher. *88
This is the favour of Allah which He
grants to whom He wills. Allah is vast
in resources, All-Knowing.
*87. To be 'humble towards believers'
signifies that a person should never use
his strength against the believers. His
native intelligence, shrewdness,
ability, influence, wealth, physical
prowess should not be used for the
purpose of either suppressing,
persecuting or causing harm to the
Muslims. Among themselves, the Muslims
should always find him gentle, merciful,
sympathetic and mild tempered.
To be 'firm towards unbelievers', on the
contrary, means that by virtue of the
intensity of his faith, the sincerity of
his conviction, his strict adherence to
his principles, his strength of
character and his insight and
perspicacity born of faith, a man should
be firm as a rock in his dealings with
the opponents of Islam, so that they
find it impossible to dislodge him.
There should be no doubt in their minds
that the believer would rather lay down
his life than compromise his position by
yielding to external pressures.
*88.In following the religion of God, in
implementing His injunctions, in judging
things to be either right or wrong
according to the criteria of the faith,
the believer will be afraid of nothing.
He will be impervious to opposition,
reproach, denunciation, name-calling and
scorn. Even when public opinion happens
to be hostile, and his efforts to follow
Islam single him out for the scorn of
the whole world, the man of faith will
still follow the way which he recognizes
in his heart to be true.
إِنَّمَا وَلِيُّكُمُ اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ
وَالَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا الَّذِينَ
يُقِيمُونَ الصَّلَاةَ وَيُؤْتُونَ
الزَّكَاةَ وَهُمْ رَاكِعُونَ
﴿5:55﴾
(5:55) Only Allah, His Messenger, and
those who believe and who establish
Prayer, pay Zakah, and bow (before
Allah) are your allies.
وَمَنْ يَتَوَلَّ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ
وَالَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا فَإِنَّ حِزْبَ
اللَّهِ هُمُ الْغَالِبُونَ
﴿5:56﴾
(5:56) All those who take Allah and His
Messenger and those who believe as their
allies, should remember that the party
of Allah will be triumphant.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا لَا
تَتَّخِذُوا الَّذِينَ اتَّخَذُوا
دِينَكُمْ هُزُوًا وَلَعِبًا مِنَ
الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ مِنْ
قَبْلِكُمْ وَالْكُفَّارَ أَوْلِيَاءَ
وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ
مُؤْمِنِينَ
﴿5:57﴾
(5:57) Believers! Do not take for your
allies those who make a mockery and
sport of your faith, be they those given
the Book before you or other
unbelievers. Fear Allah if you indeed
believe.
وَإِذَا نَادَيْتُمْ إِلَى الصَّلَاةِ
اتَّخَذُوهَا هُزُوًا وَلَعِبًا ذَلِكَ
بِأَنَّهُمْ قَوْمٌ لَا يَعْقِلُونَ
﴿5:58﴾
(5:58) And when you call for Prayer,
they take it for a mockery and sport. *89
That is because they are a people who do
not understand. *90
*89. When they hear the call to Prayer
the unbelievers make fun of it by
mimicry, pervert its words to ridicule
it, and utter disparaging and taunting
remarks about it.
*90. These are merely acts of stupidity
on the part of unbelievers. Had they not
been ignorant and foolish they would not
have stooped to such base tactics,
despite their significant differences
with the Muslims on religious questions.
After all, can any reasonable person be
happy to see the people who call to the
worship of God be ridiculed and mocked?
قُلْ يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ هَلْ
تَنْقِمُونَ مِنَّا إِلَّا أَنْ آَمَنَّا
بِاللَّهِ وَمَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْنَا وَمَا
أُنْزِلَ مِنْ قَبْلُ وَأَنَّ
أَكْثَرَكُمْ فَاسِقُونَ
﴿5:59﴾
(5:59) Say to them: 'People of the Book!
Do you hate us for anything else except
that we believe in Allah, and in the
teaching which has been revealed to us
and in the teaching which was revealed
before? Indeed most of you are
transgressors.'
قُلْ هَلْ أُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِشَرٍّ مِنْ
ذَلِكَ مَثُوبَةً عِنْدَ اللَّهِ مَنْ
لَعَنَهُ اللَّهُ وَغَضِبَ عَلَيْهِ
وَجَعَلَ مِنْهُمُ الْقِرَدَةَ
وَالْخَنَازِيرَ وَعَبَدَ الطَّاغُوتَ
أُولَئِكَ شَرٌّ مَكَانًا وَأَضَلُّ عَنْ
سَوَاءِ السَّبِيلِ
﴿5:60﴾
(5:60) Then say to them: 'Shall I tell
you about those whose retribution with
Allah is even worse? They are the ones
whom Allah has cursed, and who incurred
His wrath and some of whom were changed
into apes and swine, and who served the
false deities. Such have an even worse
rank and have strayed farther away from
the right path. *91
*91. This alludes to the Jews whose
history shows that they were subjected,
over and over again, to the wrath and
scourge of God. When they desecrated the
law of the Sabbath the faces of many of
them were distorted, and subsequently
their degeneration reached such a low
point that they took to worshipping
Satan quite openly. The purpose of
saying all this is to draw attention to
their criminal boldness while they had
sunk to the lowest level of evil,
transgression and moral decadence, they
vigorously opposed all those who, thanks
to their faith, lived a truly pious and
righteous life.
وَإِذَا جَاءُوكُمْ قَالُوا آَمَنَّا
وَقَدْ دَخَلُوا بِالْكُفْرِ وَهُمْ قَدْ
خَرَجُوا بِهِ وَاللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِمَا
كَانُوا يَكْتُمُونَ
﴿5:61﴾
(5:61) Whenever they come to you they
say: 'We believe,' whereas, in fact,
they come disbelieving, and go away
disbelieving, and Allah knows all that
they hide.
وَتَرَى كَثِيرًا مِنْهُمْ يُسَارِعُونَ
فِي الْإِثْمِ وَالْعُدْوَانِ
وَأَكْلِهِمُ السُّحْتَ لَبِئْسَ مَا
كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ
﴿5:62﴾
(5:62) You will see many of them
hastening towards sin and transgression
and devouring unlawful earnings. Indeed
what they do is evil.
لَوْلَا يَنْهَاهُمُ الرَّبَّانِيُّونَ
وَالْأَحْبَارُ عَنْ قَوْلِهِمُ الْإِثْمَ
وَأَكْلِهِمُ السُّحْتَ لَبِئْسَ مَا
كَانُوا يَصْنَعُونَ
﴿5:63﴾
(5:63) Why is it that their scholars and
jurists do not forbid them from sinful
utterances and devouring unlawful
earnings? Indeed they have been
contriving evil.
وَقَالَتِ الْيَهُودُ يَدُ اللَّهِ
مَغْلُولَةٌ غُلَّتْ أَيْدِيهِمْ
وَلُعِنُوا بِمَا قَالُوا بَلْ يَدَاهُ
مَبْسُوطَتَانِ يُنْفِقُ كَيْفَ يَشَاءُ
وَلَيَزِيدَنَّ كَثِيرًا مِنْهُمْ مَا
أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْكَ مِنْ رَبِّكَ
طُغْيَانًا وَكُفْرًا وَأَلْقَيْنَا
بَيْنَهُمُ الْعَدَاوَةَ وَالْبَغْضَاءَ
إِلَى يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ كُلَّمَا
أَوْقَدُوا نَارًا لِلْحَرْبِ أَطْفَأَهَا
اللَّهُ وَيَسْعَوْنَ فِي الْأَرْضِ
فَسَادًا وَاللَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ
الْمُفْسِدِينَ
﴿5:64﴾
(5:64) The Jews say: 'The Hand of Allah
is fettered.
*92It is
their own hands which are fettered, *93
and they stand cursed for the evil they
have uttered. *94
No! His Hands are outspread; He spends
as He wills.
Surely the message that has been
revealed to you from your Lord has
increased many of them in their
in-surgence and unbelief, *95
and so We have cast enmity and spite
among them until the Day of
Resurrection. And as often as they
kindle the fire of war, Allah
extinguishes it; and they go about
trying to spread mischief on earth,
whereas Allah does not love those who
spread mischief.
*92. To say that someone's hands are
tied, in Arabic usage, is to say that he
is niggardly, that something prevents
him from being generous and bountiful.
Thus the Jewish observation does not
mean that God's Hand is literally tied
but that He is niggardly and miserly.
For centuries the Jews had lived in
humiliation and misery. Their past
greatness had become legend, seemingly
too remote ever to be restored, and so
they would blasphemously lament that God
had become a miser and that as the door
to His treasury was now permanently
locked, that He had nothing to offer
them except suffering and calamity. This
attitude, however, is not confined to
the Jews. When confronted with trials
and tribulations foolish people of other
nations, too, are prone to utter such
blasphemies rather than turn to God with
humble prayer and supplication.
*93. They accused God of the miserliness
from which they themselves had suffered
and had become notorious for.
*94. If they entertained the hope that
by such insolent and taunting
expressions they might evoke God's
munificence, and that His bounties would
begin to shower upon them, they were
dreaming of the impossible. Indeed, such
insolence was bound to have the opposite
effect - to alienate them further from
God's bounty, to cast them even further
from His mercy.
*95. Instead of learning any lessons
from the Book of God, instead of
recognizing their own mistakes and
wrongs and then trying to make amends
for them, instead of probing their
miserable situation and then turning to
reform, they reacted by launching a
violent campaign of opposition to truth
and righteousness. Rather than take to
the right way as a result of being
reminded of the forgotten lesson of
righteousness, they attempted to
suppress the voice which sought to
remind them and others of such things.
وَلَوْ أَنَّ أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ آَمَنُوا
وَاتَّقَوْا لَكَفَّرْنَا عَنْهُمْ
سَيِّئَاتِهِمْ وَلَأَدْخَلْنَاهُمْ
جَنَّاتِ النَّعِيمِ
﴿5:65﴾
(5:65) Had the People of the Book only
believed and been God-fearing, We should
surely have effaced from them their evil
deeds, and caused them to enter Gardens
of Bliss.
وَلَوْ أَنَّهُمْ أَقَامُوا التَّوْرَاةَ
وَالْإِنْجِيلَ وَمَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْهِمْ
مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ لَأَكَلُوا مِنْ
فَوْقِهِمْ وَمِنْ تَحْتِ أَرْجُلِهِمْ
مِنْهُمْ أُمَّةٌ مُقْتَصِدَةٌ وَكَثِيرٌ
مِنْهُمْ سَاءَ مَا يَعْمَلُونَ
﴿5:66﴾
(5:66) Had the People of the Book
observed the Torah and the Gospel, and
all that had been revealed to them from
their Lord, sustenance would have been
showered over them from above and risen
from beneath their feet. *96
Some among them certainly keep to the
right path; but many of them do things
which are evil.
*96 In the Old Testament, Leviticus
(chapter 26) and Deuteronomy (chapter
28) record a sermon of Moses in which he
impresses upon Israel, in great detail,
the bounties and blessings of God with
which they would be endowed if they
obeyed His commandments, and the
afflictions, scourges and devastations
that would descend upon them if they
disobeyed Him and rejected the Book of
God. That sermon of Moses is the best
explanation of this verse of the Qur'an.
يَا أَيُّهَا الرَّسُولُ بَلِّغْ مَا
أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْكَ مِنْ رَبِّكَ وَإِنْ
لَمْ تَفْعَلْ فَمَا بَلَّغْتَ
رِسَالَتَهُ وَاللَّهُ يَعْصِمُكَ مِنَ
النَّاسِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِي
الْقَوْمَ الْكَافِرِينَ
﴿5:67﴾
(5:67) O Messenger! Deliver what has
been revealed to you from your Lord, for
if you fail to do that, you have not
fulfilled the task of His messengership.
Allah will certainly protect you from
the evil of men. Surely Allah will not
guide the unbelievers (to succeed
against you).
قُلْ يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ لَسْتُمْ
عَلَى شَيْءٍ حَتَّى تُقِيمُوا
التَّوْرَاةَ وَالْإِنْجِيلَ وَمَا
أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْكُمْ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ
وَلَيَزِيدَنَّ كَثِيرًا مِنْهُمْ مَا
أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْكَ مِنْ رَبِّكَ
طُغْيَانًا وَكُفْرًا فَلَا تَأْسَ عَلَى
الْقَوْمِ الْكَافِرِينَ
﴿5:68﴾
(5:68) Say to them: 'People of the Book!
You have no solid ground to stand on
unless you establish the Torah and the
Gospel and all that had been revealed to
you from your Lord. *97
Indeed the message revealed to you from
your Lord will aggravate insurgence and
unbelief in many of them. *98
So do not grieve for those who
disbelieve.
*97. By 'establishing the Torah and the
Gospel' is meant observing them honestly
and making them the law of life.
It should be noted here that the
Scriptures which comprise the Bible
consist of two kinds of writings. One
was composed by the Jewish and Christian
authors themselves. The second consists
of those portions which have been
recorded as either the injunctions of
God or as the utterances of Moses, Jesus
and other Prophets. Such portions are
those in which it has been categorically
stated that God said so and so, or that
a particular Prophet said so and so. If
we were to exclude the portions
belonging to the first category and
carefully study those belonging to the
second we would notice that their
teachings are not perceptibly different
from those of the Qur'an. It is true
that the second category has not
altogether escaped the tamperings of
translators, scribes and exegetes, and
the errors of oral transmitters.
Nevertheless, one cannot help feeling
that the teachings embodied in the
second category call man to the same
pure monotheism as the Qur'an, that they
propound those very beliefs propounded
by the Qur'an and that they direct man
to the same way of life as that to which
the Qur'an seeks to direct him. Hence,
had the Jews and the Christians adhered
to the teaching attributed in their
Scriptures to God and the Prophets they
would certainly have become a
truth-loving and truth-oriented group of
people and would have been able to see
in the Qur'an that very light which
illuminates the earlier divine
Scriptures. There would then have been
no question of their abandoning their
religion in order to follow the Prophet
(peace be on him). To follow him would
have caused neither break nor
discontinuity; they would simply have
gone one stage further along the same
road.
*98. Instead of reflecting on this
seriously and dispassionately, they were
seized by a fit of intransigence which
intensified their opposition.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا وَالَّذِينَ
هَادُوا وَالصَّابِئُونَ وَالنَّصَارَى
مَنْ آَمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ
الْآَخِرِ وَعَمِلَ صَالِحًا فَلَا خَوْفٌ
عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
﴿5:69﴾
(5:69) (Know well, none has an exclusive
claim to the Truth.) For all those who
believe in Allah and in the Last Day and
do good deeds - be they either
believers, Jews, Sabaeans or Christians
- neither fear shall fall upon them, nor
shall they have any reason to grieve. *99
*99. See Towards Understanding the
Qur'an, vol. I, Surah 2, verse 62, and n
80.
لَقَدْ أَخَذْنَا مِيثَاقَ بَنِي
إِسْرَائِيلَ وَأَرْسَلْنَا إِلَيْهِمْ
رُسُلًا كُلَّمَا جَاءَهُمْ رَسُولٌ بِمَا
لَا تَهْوَى أَنْفُسُهُمْ فَرِيقًا
كَذَّبُوا وَفَرِيقًا يَقْتُلُونَ
﴿5:70﴾
(5:70) And We took a covenant from the
Children of Israel and sent to them many
Messengers. But whenever any Messenger
brought to them something that did not
suit their desires, they gave the lie to
some of them and killed the others,
وَحَسِبُوا أَلَّا تَكُونَ فِتْنَةٌ
فَعَمُوا وَصَمُّوا ثُمَّ تَابَ اللَّهُ
عَلَيْهِمْ ثُمَّ عَمُوا وَصَمُّوا
كَثِيرٌ مِنْهُمْ وَاللَّهُ بَصِيرٌ بِمَا
يَعْمَلُونَ
﴿5:71﴾
(5:71) thinking that no harm would come
from it. Thus they became blind and deaf
(to the Truth). Thereafter Allah turned
towards them in gracious forgiveness;
but many of them became even more deaf
and blind (to the Truth). Allah sees all
that they do.
لَقَدْ كَفَرَ الَّذِينَ قَالُوا إِنَّ
اللَّهَ هُوَ الْمَسِيحُ ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ
وَقَالَ الْمَسِيحُ يَا بَنِي
إِسْرَائِيلَ اعْبُدُوا اللَّهَ رَبِّي
وَرَبَّكُمْ إِنَّهُ مَنْ يُشْرِكْ
بِاللَّهِ فَقَدْ حَرَّمَ اللَّهُ
عَلَيْهِ الْجَنَّةَ وَمَأْوَاهُ النَّارُ
وَمَا لِلظَّالِمِينَ مِنْ أَنْصَارٍ
﴿5:72﴾
(5:72) And surely they disbelieved when
they said: 'Christ, the son of Mary, is
indeed God'; whereas Christ had said:
'Children of Israel! Serve Allah, Who is
your Lord and my Lord.' Allah has
forbidden Paradise to those who
associate anything with Him in His
divinity and their refuge shall be the
Fire. No one will be able to help such
wrong-doers.
لَقَدْ كَفَرَ الَّذِينَ قَالُوا إِنَّ
اللَّهَ ثَالِثُ ثَلَاثَةٍ وَمَا مِنْ
إِلَهٍ إِلَّا إِلَهٌ وَاحِدٌ وَإِنْ لَمْ
يَنْتَهُوا عَمَّا يَقُولُونَ
لَيَمَسَّنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنْهُمْ
عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ
﴿5:73﴾
(5:73) Those who said: 'Allah is one of
the Three', certainly they disbelieved,
for there is no god save the One God.
And if they do not give up this claim,
all who have disbelieved among them
shall be subjected to painful
chastisement.
أَفَلَا يَتُوبُونَ إِلَى اللَّهِ
وَيَسْتَغْفِرُونَهُ وَاللَّهُ غَفُورٌ
رَحِيمٌ
﴿5:74﴾
(5:74) Will they not, then, turn to
Allah in repentance, and ask for His
forgiveness? Allah is All-Forgiving,
All-Compassionate.
مَا الْمَسِيحُ ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ إِلَّا
رَسُولٌ قَدْ خَلَتْ مِنْ قَبْلِهِ
الرُّسُلُ وَأُمُّهُ صِدِّيقَةٌ كَانَا
يَأْكُلَانِ الطَّعَامَ انْظُرْ كَيْفَ
نُبَيِّنُ لَهُمُ الْآَيَاتِ ثُمَّ
انْظُرْ أَنَّى يُؤْفَكُونَ
﴿5:75﴾
(5:75) The Messiah, son of Mary, was no
more than a Messenger before whom many
Messengers have passed away; and his
mother adhered wholly to truthfulness,
and they both ate food (as other mortals
do). See how We make Our signs clear to
them; and see where they are turning
away! *100
*100. In these few words the Christian
doctrine of the divinity of Christ is
repudiated. The nature of the Messiah is
clear from the indications given here;
he was merely a human being. He was one
born from the womb of a woman, who had a
known genealogy, who possessed a
physical body, who was subject to all
the limitations of a human being and who
had all the attributes characteristic of
human beings. He slept, ate, felt the
discomfort of heat and cold and was so
human that he was even put to the test
by Satan. How could any reasonable
person believe that such a being was
either God or a partner or associate of
God in His godhead? But the Christians
continue to insist on the divinity of
the Messiah, whose life has been
portrayed in their own Scriptures as
that of a human. The fact of the matter
is that they do not believe at all in
the historical Messiah. They have woven
a Messiah out of their imagination and
have deified that imaginary being.
قُلْ أَتَعْبُدُونَ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ
مَا لَا يَمْلِكُ لَكُمْ ضَرًّا وَلَا
نَفْعًا وَاللَّهُ هُوَ السَّمِيعُ
الْعَلِيمُ
﴿5:76﴾
(5:76) Say: 'Do you serve, beside Allah,
that which has no power either to harm
or benefit you, whereas Allah alone is
All-Hearing, All-Knowing?'
قُلْ يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ لَا تَغْلُوا
فِي دِينِكُمْ غَيْرَ الْحَقِّ وَلَا
تَتَّبِعُوا أَهْوَاءَ قَوْمٍ قَدْ
ضَلُّوا مِنْ قَبْلُ وَأَضَلُّوا كَثِيرًا
وَضَلُّوا عَنْ سَوَاءِ السَّبِيلِ
﴿5:77﴾
(5:77) Say: 'People of the Book! Do not
go beyond bounds in your religion at the
cost of truth, and do not follow the
caprices of the people who fell into
error before, and caused others to go
astray, and strayed far away from the
right path. *101
*101. This refers to those misguided
nations from whom the Christians derived
their false beliefs and ways,
particularly to the Hellenistic
philosophers under the spell of whose
ideas the Christians had veered from the
straight way they had originally
followed. The beliefs of the early
followers of the Messiah were mainly in
conformity with the reality they had
witnessed, and conformed to the
teachings they had received from their
guide and mentor. But they later
resorted to an exaggerated veneration of
Jesus, and interpreted their own beliefs
in the light of the philosophical
doctrines and superstitious ideas of the
neighbouring nations. Thus they invented
an altogether new religion not even
remotely related to the original
teachings of the Messiah. In this
connection the observations of a
Christian theologian, the Reverend
Charles Anderson Scott are significant.
In a lengthy article entitled 'Jesus'
Christ', published in the fourteenth
edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica, he
writes:
. . . there is nothing in these three
Gospels to suggest that their writers
thought of Jesus as other than human, a
human being specially endowed with the
Spirit of God and standing in an
unbroken relation to God which justified
His being spoken of as the 'Son of God'.
Even Matthew refers to Him as the
carpenter's son and records that after
Peter had acknowleged Him as Messiah he
'took Him aside and began to rebuke Him'
(Matthew, xvi. 22). And in Luke the two
disciples on the way to Emmaus can still
speak of Him as 'a prophet mighty in
deed and word before God and all the
people' (Luke, xxiv. 19). It is very
singular that in spite of the fact that
before Mark was composed 'the Lord' had
become the description of Jesus common
among Christians, He is never so
described in the second Gospel (nor yet
in the first, though the word is freely
used to refer to God). All three relate
the Passion of Jesus with a fullness and
emphasis of its great significance; but
except the 'ransom' passage (Mark, x.
45) and certain words at the Last Supper
there is no indication of the meaning
which was afterwards attached to it. It
is not even suggested that the death of
Jesus had any relation to sin or
forgiveness.
A little further on he writes:
That He ranked Himself as a prophet
appears from a few passages such as 'It
cannot be that a prophet perish out of
Jerusalem'. He frequently referred to
Himself as the Son of Man; but while
this must be maintained in face of
influential opinions to the contrary,
the result for our purpose is less
important than we might expect, for the
possible meanings of the phrase are as
numerous as the sources from which it
may possibly have been derived. They
range from simple 'man' through 'man in
his human weakness' and the
representative 'Man' to the supernatural
man from heaven foreshadowed in Daniel.
If we had to postulate one source and
one meaning for the phrase as used by
Jesus of Himself, it would probably be
found in Psalm Ixxx., where the poignant
appeal to God for the redemption of
Israel runs out on the hope of a 'son of
man whom thou madest strong for thyself.
The same author adds:
Certain words of Peter spoken at the
time of Pentecost, 'A man approved of
God', described Jesus as He was known
and regarded by His contemporaries. He
was 'found in fashion as a man', that
is, in all particulars which presented
themselves to outward observation He
Appeared and behaved as one of the human
race. He 'was made man'. The Gospels
leave no room for doubt as to the
completeness with which these statements
are to be accepted. From them we learn
that Jesus passed through the natural
stages of development, physical and
mental, that He hungered, thirsted, was
weary and slept, that He could be
surprised and require information, that
He suffered pain and died. He not only
made no claim to omniscience, He
distinctly waived it. This is not to
deny that He had insight such as no
other ever had, into human nature, into
the hearts of men and the purposes and
methods of God. But there is no reason
to suppose that He thought of the earth
as other than the centre of the solar
system, of any other than David as the
author of the Psalms, or did not share
the belief of His age that demons were
the cause of disease. Indeed, any claim
to omniscience would be not only
inconsistent with the whole impression
created by the Gospels, it could not be
reconciled with the cardinal experiences
of the Temptation, of Gethsemane and of
Calvary. Unless such experiences were to
be utterly unreal, Jesus must have
entered into them and passed through
them under the ordinary limitations of
human knowledge, subject only to such
modifications of human knowledge as
might be due to prophetic insight or the
sure vision of God.
There is still less reason to predicate
omnipotence of Jesus. There is no
indication that He ever acted
independently of God, or as an
independent God. Rather does He
acknowledge dependence upon God, by His
habit of prayer and in such words as
'this kind goeth not forth save by
prayer'. He even repudiates the
ascription to Himself of goodness in the
absolute sense in which it belongs to
God alone. It is a remarkable testimony
to the truly historical character of
these Gospels that though they were not
finally set down until the Christian
Church had begun to look up to the risen
Christ as to a Divine Being, the records
on the one hand preserve all the
evidence of His true humanity and on the
other nowhere suggest that He thought of
Himself as God.
The same author also observes that:
He proclaimed that at and through the
Resurrection Jesus had been publicly
installed as Son of God with power; and
if the phrase has not wholly lost its
official Messianic connotation, it
certainly includes a reference to the
personal Sonship, which Paul elsewhere
makes clear by speaking of Him as God's
'own Son' . . .
It may not be possible to decide whether
it was the primitive community or Paul
himself who first put full religious
content into the title 'Lord' as used of
Christ. Probably it was the former. But
the Apostle undoubtedly adopted the
title in its full meaning, and did much
to make that meaning clear by
transferring to 'the Lord Jesus Christ'
many of the ideas and phrases which in
the Old Testament had been specifically
assigned to the Lord Jehovah. God 'gave
unto Him that name that is above every
name - the name of "Lord"'. At the same
time by equating Christ with the Wisdom
of God and with the Glory of God, as
well as ascribing to Him Sonship in an
absolute sense, Paul claimed for Jesus
Christ a relation to God which was
inherent and unique, ethical and
personal, eternal. While, however, Paul
in many ways and in many aspects,
equated Christ with God, he definitely
stopped short of speaking of him as
'God'.
In another article in Encyclopaedia
Britannica (xiv edition), under the
title 'Christianity', the Reverend
George William Knox writes as follows
about the fundamental beliefs of the
Church:
Its moulds of thought are those of Greek
philosophy, and into these were run the
Jewish teachings. We have thus a
peculiar combination - the religious
doctrines of the Bible, as culminating
in the person of Jesus, run through the
forms of an alien philosophy.
The Doctrine of the Trinity. The Jewish
sources furnished the terms Father, Son
and Spirit. Jesus seldom employed the
last term and Paul's use of it is not
altogether clear. Already in Jewish
literature it had been all but
personified (Cf. the Wisdom of Solomon).
Thus the material is Jewish, though
already doubtless modified by Greek
influence: but the problem is Greek; it
is not primarily ethical nor even
religious, but it is metaphysical. What
is the ontological relationship between
these three factors? The answer of the
Church is given in the Nicene formula,
which is characteristically Greek, . . .
Also significant in this connection are
the following passages of another
article in Encyclopaedia Britannica (xiv
edition), entitled 'Church History': The
recognition of Christ as the incarnation
of the Logos was practically universal
before the close of the 3rd century, but
His deity was still widely denied, and
the Arian controversy which distracted
the Church of the 4th century concerned
the latter question. At the Council of
Nicaea in 325 the deity of Christ
received official sanction and was given
formulation in the original Nicene
Creed. Controversy continued for some
time, but finally the Nicene decision
was recognised both in East and West as
the only orthodox faith. The deity of
the Son was believed to carry with it
that of the Spirit, who was associated
with Father and Son in the baptismal
formula and in the current symbols, and
so the victory of the Nicene Christology
meant the recognition of the doctrine of
Trinity as part of the orthodox faith.
The assertion of the deity of the Son
incarnate in Christ raised another
problem which constituted the subject of
dispute in the Christological
controversies of the 4th and following
centuries. What is the relation of the
divine and human natures in Christ? At
the Council of Chalcedon in 451 it was
declared that in the person of Christ
are united two complete natures, divine
and human, which retain after the union
all their properties unchanged. This was
supplemented at the 3rd Council of
Constantinople in 680 by the statement
that each of the natures contains a
will, so that Christ possesses two
wills. The Western Church accepted the
decisions of Nicaea, Chalcedon and
Constantinople, and so the doctrines of
the Trinity and of the two natures in
Christ were handed down as orthodox
dogma in West as well as East.
Meanwhile in the Western Church the
subject of sin and grace, and the
relation of divine and human activity in
salvation, received special attention;
and finally, at the 2nd Council of
Orange in 529, after both Pelagianism
and semi-Pelagianism had been epudiated,
a moderate form of Augustinianism was
adopted, involving the theory that every
man as a result of the Fall is in such a
condition that he can take no steps in
the direction of salvation until he has
been renewed by the divine grace given
in baptism, and that he cannot continue
in the good thus begun except by the
constant assistance of that grace, which
is mediated only by the Catholic Church.
It is evident from these statements of
Christian scholars that it was
exaggerated love and veneration of
Christ which led the early Christians
astray. This exaggeration and the use of
expressions such as 'Lord' and 'Son of
God' led to Jesus being invested with
divine attributes and to the peculiar
Christian notion of redemption, even
though these could not be accommodated
into the body of the teachings of
Christ. When the Christians came to be
infected with philosophical doctrines,
they did not abandon the original error
into which they had fallen, but tried to
accommodate the errors of their
predecessors through apologetics and
rational explanations. Thus, instead of
returning to the true teachings of
Christ, they used logic and philosophy
to fabricate one false doctrine after
another. It is to this error that the
Qur'an calls the Christians' attention
in these verses.
لُعِنَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنْ بَنِي
إِسْرَائِيلَ عَلَى لِسَانِ دَاوُودَ
وَعِيسَى ابْنِ مَرْيَمَ ذَلِكَ بِمَا
عَصَوْا وَكَانُوا يَعْتَدُونَ
﴿5:78﴾
(5:78) Those of the Children of Israel
who took to unbelief have been cursed by
the tongue of David and Jesus, son of
Mary, for they rebelled and exceeded the
bounds of right.
كَانُوا لَا يَتَنَاهَوْنَ عَنْ مُنْكَرٍ
فَعَلُوهُ لَبِئْسَ مَا كَانُوا
يَفْعَلُونَ
﴿5:79﴾
(5:79) They did not forbid each other
from committing the abominable deeds
they committed. *102
Indeed what they did was evil.
*102. The corruption of any nation
begins with that of a few individuals.
If the collective conscience of that
nation is alive, the pressure of public
opinion keeps those persons in check and
prevents the nation as a whole from
becoming corrupted. But if instead of
censuring such individuals, the nation
leaves them free to behave corruptly,
the corruption originally confined to a
few continues to spread till it engulfs
the whole nation. It was this which
ultimately caused the degeneration of
Israel. (For the curse against Israel in
the words of David and Jesus see Psalms
10, 50 and Matthew 23.)
تَرَى كَثِيرًا مِنْهُمْ يَتَوَلَّوْنَ
الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَبِئْسَ مَا
قَدَّمَتْ لَهُمْ أَنْفُسُهُمْ أَنْ
سَخِطَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ وَفِي
الْعَذَابِ هُمْ خَالِدُونَ
﴿5:80﴾
(5:80) And now you can see many of them
taking the unbelievers (instead of the
believers) for their allies. Indeed they
have prepared evil for themselves. Allah
is angry with them, and they shall abide
in chastisement.
وَلَوْ كَانُوا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ
وَالنَّبِيِّ وَمَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْهِ مَا
اتَّخَذُوهُمْ أَوْلِيَاءَ وَلَكِنَّ
كَثِيرًا مِنْهُمْ فَاسِقُونَ
﴿5:81﴾
(5:81) For had they truly believed in
Allah and the Messenger and what was
sent down to him, they would not have
taken unbelievers (instead of believers)
for their allies. *103
But many of them have rebelled against
Allah altogether.
*103. It seems natural that those who
believe in God and the Prophets and the
Scriptures, compared with the
polytheists, would naturally be more
sympathetic to those who at least share
with them belief in God, in prophethood
and in .revelation (whatever their
disagreements on other religious
issues). It was ironic, therefore, that
the Jews should openly support the
polytheists in the struggle between
polytheism and monotheism, and that
their sympathies in the conflict between
those who rejected prophethood and those
who believed in it should lie expressly
with the former. Despite all this, they
brazenly claimed to be true believers in
God, in the Prophets and in the
Scriptures.
لَتَجِدَنَّ أَشَدَّ النَّاسِ عَدَاوَةً
لِلَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا الْيَهُودَ
وَالَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُوا وَلَتَجِدَنَّ
أَقْرَبَهُمْ مَوَدَّةً لِلَّذِينَ
آَمَنُوا الَّذِينَ قَالُوا إِنَّا
نَصَارَى ذَلِكَ بِأَنَّ مِنْهُمْ
قِسِّيسِينَ وَرُهْبَانًا وَأَنَّهُمْ لَا
يَسْتَكْبِرُونَ
﴿5:82﴾
(5:82) Of all men you will find the Jews
and those who associate others with
Allah in His divinity to be the most
hostile to those who believe; and you
will surely find that of ail people they
who say: 'We are Christians', are
closest to feeling affection for those
who believe. This is because there are
worshipful priests and monks among them,
and because they are not arrogant.
وَإِذَا سَمِعُوا مَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَى
الرَّسُولِ تَرَى أَعْيُنَهُمْ تَفِيضُ
مِنَ الدَّمْعِ مِمَّا عَرَفُوا مِنَ
الْحَقِّ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا آَمَنَّا
فَاكْتُبْنَا مَعَ الشَّاهِدِينَ
﴿5:83﴾
(5:83) And when they hear what has been
revealed to the Messenger you see that
their eyes overflow with tears because
of the Truth that they recognize and
they say: 'Our Lord! We do believe;
write us down, therefore, with those who
bear witness (to the Truth).
وَمَا لَنَا لَا نُؤْمِنُ بِاللَّهِ وَمَا
جَاءَنَا مِنَ الْحَقِّ وَنَطْمَعُ أَنْ
يُدْخِلَنَا رَبُّنَا مَعَ الْقَوْمِ
الصَّالِحِينَ
﴿5:84﴾
(5:84) And why should we not believe in
Allah and the Truth which has come down
to us when we do fervently desire that
our Lord include us among the
righteous?'
فَأَثَابَهُمُ اللَّهُ بِمَا قَالُوا
جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِهَا
الْأَنْهَارُ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا وَذَلِكَ
جَزَاءُ الْمُحْسِنِينَ
﴿5:85﴾
(5:85) So Allah rewarded them for these
words with Gardens beneath which rivers
flow so that they would abide there for
ever. Such is the reward of the people
who do good.
وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَكَذَّبُوا
بِآَيَاتِنَا أُولَئِكَ أَصْحَابُ
الْجَحِيمِ
﴿5:86﴾
(5:86) Those who disbelieved and gave
the lie to Our signs are rightfully the
inmates of the Blazing Flame.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا لَا
تُحَرِّمُوا طَيِّبَاتِ مَا أَحَلَّ
اللَّهُ لَكُمْ وَلَا تَعْتَدُوا إِنَّ
اللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ الْمُعْتَدِينَ
﴿5:87﴾
(5:87) Believers! Do not hold as
unlawful the good things which Allah has
made lawful to you, *104
and do not exceed the bounds of right. *105
Allah does not love those who transgress
the bounds of right.
*104. This verse embodies two
directives. The first is that man should
not attribute to himself the authority
to proclaim things either lawful or
unlawful according to his own wishes.
Only that which God has held to be
lawful is lawful, and only that which
God has declared unlawful is unlawful.
If men were to declare certain things
either lawful or unlawful on their own
authority, they would not be following
the law of God but their own laws. The
second directive is that they should not
adopt the course of world-renunciation
and abstention from worldly pleasures as
the Christian monks, Hindu mendicants,
Buddhist bhikshus and illuminist mystics
did. Religious-minded and virtuous
people have always tended to consider
their physical and carnal desires an
impediment to spiritual growth. They
have considered suffering, deprivation
from worldly pleasures and abstention
from the means of worldly sustenance to
be acts of goodness and indispensable
for achieving proximity to God. Even
some of the Companions leaned in this
direction. The Prophet (peace be on him)
once came to know that some Companions
had resolved that they would fast
without interruption, that instead of
spending the night on their beds they
would remain awake praying, that they
would consume neither meat nor fat, and
would have no (sexual) relations with
women. The Prophet (peace be on him)
addressed the people on this subject and
said: 'I have not been commanded to do
so. Even your own self has rights
against you. So, fast on certain days
and refrain from fasting on others. Stay
awake praying at night and also sleep.
Look at me; 1 sleep as well as stay
awake (praying); sometimes I fast and
sometimes I don't. I consume meat as
well as fat. Whosoever dislikes my way
does not belong to me.' He then added:
'What has happened to people that they
have prohibited for themselves women,
good food, perfumes, sleep and the
pleasures of the world, whereas I have
not taught you to become monks and
priests. In my religion there is neither
abstention from women nor from meat,
neither seclusion nor withdrawal.
For the purposes of self-control my
religion has fasting. As for
monasticism, all its benefits can be
derived from jihad (struggle in the way
of God). Serve God and associate none
with Him. Perform Hajj and 'Umrah,
establish Prayers, dispense Zakah and
observe the fasts of Ramadan. Those who
were destroyed before you were destroyed
because they were severe with
themselves, and when they became severe
with themselves God became severe with
them as well. It is the remnants of such
people who you see in the oratories and
hermitages of monks.' (Ibn Kathir, vol.
2, pp. 626 and 628-9 - Ed.)
There are traditions to the effect that
the Prophet (peace be on him) once came
to know that one of his Companions was
always so preoccupied with worship and
devotion that he did not approach his
wife for long periods. The Prophet
(peace be on him) called for him and
directed him to go to his wife. On being
told that he was fasting, the Prophet
(peace be on him) asked him to break the
fast and proceed to his wife. During the
reign of 'Umar a lady once lodged the
complaint that her husband fasted all
day and prayed all night and had no
relations with her. 'Umar appointed the
famous Successor (Tabi'i), Ka'b b. Thawr
al-Azdi to look into the matter. He
issued the judgement that the husband
had the right to spend three nights in
Prayer if he so wished, but every fourth
night was the right of his wife. (Fiqh
al-Sunnah, vol. 2, p. 164 - Ed.)
*105. 'Do not exceed the bounds of
right' has a broad signification. To
hold the things which are lawful to be
unlawful, and to shun the things
declared by God to be clean as if they
were unclean, is in itself an act of
wrongful excess. It should be
remembered, at the same time, that
extravagant indulgence even in clean
things is an act of wrongful excess.
Likewise, to overstep the limits of the
permissible is also an act of wrongful
excess. God disapproves of all three
kinds of excess.
وَكُلُوا مِمَّا رَزَقَكُمُ اللَّهُ
حَلَالًا طَيِّبًا وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ
الَّذِي أَنْتُمْ بِهِ مُؤْمِنُونَ
﴿5:88﴾
(5:88) And partake of the lawful, good
things which Allah has provided you as
sustenance, and refrain from disobeying
Allah in Whom you believe.
لَا يُؤَاخِذُكُمُ اللَّهُ بِاللَّغْوِ
فِي أَيْمَانِكُمْ وَلَكِنْ يُؤَاخِذُكُمْ
بِمَا عَقَّدْتُمُ الْأَيْمَانَ
فَكَفَّارَتُهُ إِطْعَامُ عَشَرَةِ
مَسَاكِينَ مِنْ أَوْسَطِ مَا تُطْعِمُونَ
أَهْلِيكُمْ أَوْ كِسْوَتُهُمْ أَوْ
تَحْرِيرُ رَقَبَةٍ فَمَنْ لَمْ يَجِدْ
فَصِيَامُ ثَلَاثَةِ أَيَّامٍ ذَلِكَ
كَفَّارَةُ أَيْمَانِكُمْ إِذَا
حَلَفْتُمْ وَاحْفَظُوا أَيْمَانَكُمْ
كَذَلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ
آَيَاتِهِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ
﴿5:89﴾
(5:89) Allah does not take you to task
for the oaths you utter vainly, but He
will certainly take you to task for the
oaths you have sworn in earnest. The
expiation (for breaking such oaths) is
either to feed ten needy persons with
more or less the same food as you are
wont to give to your families, or to
clothe them, or to set free from bondage
the neck of one man; and he who does not
find the means shall fast for three
days. This shall be the expiation for
your oaths whenever you have sworn (and
broken them.) *106
But do keep your oaths. *107
Thus does Allah make clear to you His
commandments; maybe you will be
grateful.
*106. Since some people had taken an
oath prohibiting for themselves the
things which He had permitted, God laid
down this injunction regarding oaths
made inadvertently. The injunction makes
it unnecessary to feel bound by the
terms of inadvertent oaths, and for
which one will not be reproached by God.
And if a person had deliberately made an
oath which entails sin he should not
abide by his oath and should expiate it
(see Towards Understanding the Qur'an,
vol. I, Surah 2, nn. 243-4; for
expiation see Surah 4, n. 125 above).
*107. To be mindful of one's oaths has
several meanings. First, one should make
proper use of oaths and should not
employ them either frivolously or
sinfully. Second, when a person takes an
oath, he should take care not to forget
it lest he be led to break it. Third,
when a man deliberately takes an oath
regarding something sound in itself he
should pay the penalty if he happens to
violate it.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا إِنَّمَا
الْخَمْرُ وَالْمَيْسِرُ وَالْأَنْصَابُ
وَالْأَزْلَامُ رِجْسٌ مِنْ عَمَلِ
الشَّيْطَانِ فَاجْتَنِبُوهُ لَعَلَّكُمْ
تُفْلِحُونَ
﴿5:90﴾
(5:90) Believers! Intoxicants, games of
chance, idolatrous sacrifices at altars,
and divining arrows *108
are all abominations, the handiwork of
Satan. So turn wholly away from it that
you may attain to true success. *109
*108.For 'altars' and divination by
arrows see nn. 12 and 14 above. For
games of chance see n. 14 above.
While divination by arrow-shooting
essentially constitutes a game of chance
there is nevertheless a certain
difference between the two, since
divination by arrow-shooting, in
addition to being a game of chance, is
also tainted with polytheistic beliefs
and superstitions. As for games of
chance, this expression is applied to
those games and acts in which accidental
factors are considered the criteria for
acquisition, fortune-making and the
division of goods and property.
*109. In this verse four things are
categorically prohibited:
(1) intoxicants;
(2) games of chance;
(3) places consecrated for the worship
of anyone else besides God, and altars
for either sacrifices or offerings in
the name of others than God; and
(4) polytheistic divination by
arrow-shooting.
The last three items have already been
explained. (See Towards Understanding
the Qur'an, vol. I, Surah 2: 219, n. 235
and Surah 5: 3, n. 14 above). Two
injunctions had already been revealed
concerning the prohibition of
intoxicants (See Surahs 2: 219 and 4:
43). Before the revelation of the last
injunction, the Prophet (peace be on
him) had warned the people that
intoxicants were highly displeasing to
God. Hinting at the possibility of their
being prohibited, he advised people to
dispose of intoxicants if they had any.
A little later on the present verse was
revealed and the Prophet (peace be on
him) then proclaimed that those who had
intoxicants should neither consume nor
sell them, but rather destroy them.
Intoxicating liquors were poured into
the streets of Madina. When asked if
such liquor might be offered to the Jews
as a gift the Prophet (peace be on him)
replied in the negative and said: 'He
Who has prohibited it has also required
it not to be given away as a gift.' Some
people inquired whether it was permitted
to make vinegar out of such liquor. The
Prophet (peace be on him) told them not
to do so, but to throw it away instead.
Another person asked insistently whether
or not an intoxicant could be used as
medicine. The Prophet (peace be on him)
replied that far from being a remedy for
any malady it was in itself a malady.
Others sought permission to consume
intoxicating liquor on the plea that
they lived in a very cold region and had
to work very hard, and that the people
of that region habitually drank
intoxicants to combat exhaustion and
cold. The Prophet (peace be on him)
inquired if the drink concerned did
cause intoxication. On being told that
it did, he said that they should abstain
from it. They pointed out that the
people of their region would not accept
this, to which the Prophet (peace be on
him) replied that they should fight
them.
It is reported by 'Abd Allah Ibn 'Umar
that the Prophet (peace be on him) said:
'God has cursed khamr (wine) and him who
drinks it, him who provides it to others
and him who buys or sells it, him who
squeezes (the grapes) into wine and him
who causes others to squeeze grapes (in
order to make wine), him who carries it
and him to whom it is carried.' (See
Ahmad b. Hanbal, Musnad, vol. 2, p. 97;
vol. 1, p. 316; Abu Da'ud, 'Ashribah', 2
- Ed.)
According to another tradition the
Prophet (peace be on him) instructed not
to eat at the table where intoxicating
drinks were being taken. In the
beginning the Prophet (peace be on him)
even forbade the use of vessels in which
intoxicating drinks had either been made
or served. Later on, when the
prohibition of drinks was completely
observed the Prophet (peace be on him)
withdrew the interdiction regarding the
use of these vessels. (See Abu Da'ud,
'At'imah', 18; Tirmidhi, 'Adab', 43;
Darimi, 'Ashribah', 15; Ahmad b. Hanbal,
Musnad, vol. 1, p. 20; vol. 3, p. 339 -
Ed.) Though the word khamr in Arabic
means literally 'the drink made from
grapes', it was also used figuratively
for intoxicating liquors made from
wheat, barley, raisins, dates and honey.
The Prophet (peace be on him) applied
the prohibition of wine to all
intoxicants. In this regard we find
categorical statements from the Prophet
(peace be on him) embodied in
traditions: 'Every intoxicant is khamr,
and every intoxicant is prohibited.'
'Every drink which causes intoxication
is prohibited.' 'I forbid everything
which intoxicates.' In a Friday sermon
'Umar defined khamr in the following
manner: 'Whatever takes hold of the mind
is khamr.' (See Bukhari, 'Wudu", 71;
'Maghazi', 60, 'Ashribah', 4,10, 'Adab',
8, 'Ahkam', 22; Muslim, 'Ashribah',
67-9; Abu Da'ud, 'Ashribah', 5, 71; Ibn
Majah, 'Ashribah', 9, 13, 14; Darimi,
'Ashribah', 8, 9; Muwatta', 'Dahaya', 8;
Ahmad b. Hanbal, Musnad, vol. 1, pp.
274, 289, 350; vol. 2, pp. 16, 158, 171,
185, 429, 501; vol. 3, pp. 63, 66, 112,
119, 361; vol. 4, pp. 41, 416; vol. 6,
pp. 36, 71, 72, 97, 131, 190 and 226 -
Ed.)
The Prophet (peace be on him) also
enunciated the following principle: 'If
anything causes intoxication when used
in large quantity, even a small quantity
of it is prohibited.' 'If a large
quantity of something causes
intoxication, to drink even a palmful of
it is prohibited.' (See Abu Da'ud,
'Ashribah', 5; Ibn Majah, 'Ashribah',
10; Ahmad b. Hanbal, Musnad, vol. 2, pp.
167, 179 and vol. 3, p. 343 - Ed.)
In the time of the Prophet (peace be on
him) no specific punishment had been
laid down for drinking. A person caught
drunk would be struck with shoes, fists,
and whips made of twisted cloth and palm
sticks. The maximum number of lashes to
which any culprit was subjected was
forty. In the time of Abu Bakr the
punishment continued to be forty lashes.
In the time of 'Umar the punishment
initially remained at forty lashes also,
but when he saw people persist in
drinking he fixed the punishment at
eighty lashes after consulting the
Companions. This was considered the
prescribed legal punishment for drinking
by Malik and Abu Hanifah, and even by
Shafi'i according to one tradition. But
Ahmad b. Hanbal, and, according to a
variant tradition, Shafi'i, considered
the punishment to consist of forty
lashes, and 'Ali is reported to have
preferred this opinion.
According to Islamic Law, it is the
bounden duty of an Islamic government to
enforce this prohibition. In the time of
'Umar the shop of a member of the Thaqif
tribe, by the name of Ruwayshid, was
burnt down because he carried on the
sale of liquor. On another occasion a
whole hamlet was set on fire because it
had become a center of illegal traffic
in liquor.
إِنَّمَا يُرِيدُ الشَّيْطَانُ أَنْ
يُوقِعَ بَيْنَكُمُ الْعَدَاوَةَ
وَالْبَغْضَاءَ فِي الْخَمْرِ
وَالْمَيْسِرِ وَيَصُدَّكُمْ عَنْ ذِكْرِ
اللَّهِ وَعَنِ الصَّلَاةِ فَهَلْ
أَنْتُمْ مُنْتَهُونَ
﴿5:91﴾
(5:91) By intoxicants and games of
chance Satan only desires to create
enmity and hatred between you, and to
turn you away from the remembrance of
Allah and from Prayer. Will you, then,
desist?
وَأَطِيعُوا اللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُوا
الرَّسُولَ وَاحْذَرُوا فَإِنْ
تَوَلَّيْتُمْ فَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّمَا عَلَى
رَسُولِنَا الْبَلَاغُ الْمُبِينُ
﴿5:92﴾
(5:92) Obey Allah and obey the
Messenger, and beware. But if you turn
away, then know well that Our Messenger
had merely to deliver the message
clearly.
لَيْسَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا
وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ جُنَاحٌ فِيمَا
طَعِمُوا إِذَا مَا اتَّقَوْا وَآَمَنُوا
وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ ثُمَّ اتَّقَوْا
وَآَمَنُوا ثُمَّ اتَّقَوْا وَأَحْسَنُوا
وَاللَّهُ يُحِبُّ الْمُحْسِنِينَ
﴿5:93﴾
(5:93) There will be no blame on those
who believe and do righteous deeds for
whatever they might have partaken (in
the past) as long as they refrain from
things prohibited, and persist in their
belief and do righteous deeds, and
continue to refrain from whatever is
forbidden and submit to divine
commandments, and persevere in doing
good, fearing Allah. Allah loves those
who do good.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا
لَيَبْلُوَنَّكُمُ اللَّهُ بِشَيْءٍ مِنَ
الصَّيْدِ تَنَالُهُ أَيْدِيكُمْ
وَرِمَاحُكُمْ لِيَعْلَمَ اللَّهُ مَنْ
يَخَافُهُ بِالْغَيْبِ فَمَنِ اعْتَدَى
بَعْدَ ذَلِكَ فَلَهُ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ
﴿5:94﴾
(5:94) Believers! Allah will surely try
you with a game which will be within the
range of your hands and lances so that
He might mark out those who fear Him,
even though He is beyond the reach of
human perception. A painful chastisement
awaits whosoever transgresses after that
the bounds set by Allah.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا لَا
تَقْتُلُوا الصَّيْدَ وَأَنْتُمْ حُرُمٌ
وَمَنْ قَتَلَهُ مِنْكُمْ مُتَعَمِّدًا
فَجَزَاءٌ مِثْلُ مَا قَتَلَ مِنَ
النَّعَمِ يَحْكُمُ بِهِ ذَوَا عَدْلٍ
مِنْكُمْ هَدْيًا بَالِغَ الْكَعْبَةِ
أَوْ كَفَّارَةٌ طَعَامُ مَسَاكِينَ أَوْ
عَدْلُ ذَلِكَ صِيَامًا لِيَذُوقَ وَبَالَ
أَمْرِهِ عَفَا اللَّهُ عَمَّا سَلَفَ
وَمَنْ عَادَ فَيَنْتَقِمُ اللَّهُ مِنْهُ
وَاللَّهُ عَزِيزٌ ذُو انْتِقَامٍ
﴿5:95﴾
(5:95) Believers! Do not kill game while
you are in the state of pilgrim
sanctity. *110
Whoever of you kills it wilfully there
shall be a recompense, the like of what
he has killed in cattle - as shall be
judged by two men of equity among you -
to be brought to the Ka'bah as an
offering, or as an expiation the feeding
of the needy, or its equivalent in
fasting *111
in order that he may taste the
grievousness of his deed. Allah has
pardoned whatever has passed; but Allah
will exact a penalty from him who
repeats it. Allah is All-Mighty. He is
fully capable of exacting penalties.
*110. When a person is in the state of
pilgrim sanctity (ihram) it is
prohibited for him both to hunt and to
assist in hunting animals. Indeed, even
if an animal has been hunted for him by
someone else he may not eat it. However,
if someone hunts an animal for himself
and makes a gift of it to such a person,
there is no harm in his eating it. There
is an exception to this injunction and
that is with regard to harmful animals.
Snakes, scorpions, mad dogs and other
such animals which cause injury to man
may be killed even by one in the state
of ihram. (See Bukhari, 'Talaq', 24;
'Sayd', 2; Abu Da'ud, 'Manasik', 40, 41;
Tirmidhi, 'Hajj', 27; 'Sayd', 26 - Ed.)
*111. It would also be 'two men of
equity' (Surah al-Ma'idah 5: 95) to
judge as to the number of persons one
should feed or the number of days one
should fast by way of expiation for
killing a certain animal.
أُحِلَّ لَكُمْ صَيْدُ الْبَحْرِ
وَطَعَامُهُ مَتَاعًا لَكُمْ
وَلِلسَّيَّارَةِ وَحُرِّمَ عَلَيْكُمْ
صَيْدُ الْبَرِّ مَا دُمْتُمْ حُرُمًا
وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ الَّذِي إِلَيْهِ
تُحْشَرُونَ
﴿5:96﴾
(5:96) The game of the water and eating
thereof *112
are permitted to you as a provision for
you (who are settled) and for those on a
journey; but to hunt on land while you
are in the state of Pilgrim sanctity is
forbidden for you. Beware, then, of
disobeying Allah to Whom you shall all
be mustered.
*112. Since one often runs out of
provisions during a voyage and is left
with no alternative but to catch sea
creatures, fishing in the sea has been
made lawful.
جَعَلَ اللَّهُ الْكَعْبَةَ الْبَيْتَ
الْحَرَامَ قِيَامًا لِلنَّاسِ
وَالشَّهْرَ الْحَرَامَ وَالْهَدْيَ
وَالْقَلَائِدَ ذَلِكَ لِتَعْلَمُوا أَنَّ
اللَّهَ يَعْلَمُ مَا فِي السَّمَوَاتِ
وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ
بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ
﴿5:97﴾
(5:97) Allah has appointed the Ka'bah,
the Sacred House, as a means of support
for (the collective life of) men, and
has caused the holy month (of
Pilgrimage), and the animals of
sacrificial of-fering and their
distinguishing collars to assist
therein. *113
This is so that you may know that Allah
is aware of all that is in the heavens
and all that is in the earth; and that
Allah has knowledge of everything. *114
*113. In Arabia, the Ka'bah was not
merely a sacred place of worship. Thanks
to its central position and its
sanctity, it nurtured the economic and
cultural life of the whole peninsula.
Since the entire populace was drawn
towards the Ka'bah for the performance
of Hajj and 'Umrah, their coming
together brought about a measure of
unity in the life of the Arabs which was
otherwise rent with disunity. This
enabled the people of various regions
and tribes to establish social and
cultural ties among themselves.
Moreover, the security which reigned in
the vicinity of the Ka'bah provided an
impetus to creative literary activity,
with the result that in the fairs held
in the sacred territory, poets placed
their poetic compositions before the
audience, trying to excel one another.
This led to the growth and flowering of
their language and literature. Thanks,
again, to the peace and security which
reigned in the sacred territory, it
became a major centre of trade and
commerce. Moreover, since certain months
of the year were regarded as sacred
months in which there could be no
bloodshed, the Arabs enjoyed peace and
security for about a quarter of the
year. It was during this period that
caravans moved in freedom and with ease
from one end of the peninsula to the
other. The custom of consecrating
animals for sacrifice, marked off from
others by the collars around their
necks, also facilitated the movement of
caravans, for whenever the Arabs saw
those animals with their collars
signifying consecration for sacrifice,
they-bent their heads in reverence and
no predatory tribe had the courage to
molest them.
*114. Were they to consider even the
social and economic aspects of the life
of their people, the existing
arrangements would provide them with
clear testimony to the fact that God has
deep and thorough knowledge of the
interests and requirements of His
creatures, and that He can ensure
immensely beneficial effects on many
sectors of human life by just one single
commandment. During the several
centuries of anarchy and disorder which
preceded the advent of the Prophet
(peace be on him), the Arabs were
themselves unaware of their own
interests and seemed bent upon
self-destruction. God, however, was
aware of their needs and requirements
and by merely investing the Ka'bah with
a central position in Arabia He ensured
their national survival. Even if they
disregarded innumerable other facts and
reflected on this alone they would
become convinced that the injunctions
revealed by God were conducive to their
well-being, and that underlying them
were a great many benefits and
advantages for them which they
themselves could neither have grasped
nor achieved by their own contriving.
اعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ شَدِيدُ
الْعِقَابِ وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ
رَحِيمٌ
﴿5:98﴾
(5:98) Know well that Allah is severe in
retribution, and that Allah is also
All-Forgiving, All-Compassionate.
مَا عَلَى الرَّسُولِ إِلَّا الْبَلَاغُ
وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تُبْدُونَ وَمَا
تَكْتُمُونَ
﴿5:99﴾
(5:99) The Messenger is bound only to
deliver the message, whereafter Allah
knows well all that you disclose and all
that you conceal.
قُلْ لَا يَسْتَوِي الْخَبِيثُ
وَالطَّيِّبُ وَلَوْ أَعْجَبَكَ كَثْرَةُ
الْخَبِيثِ فَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ يَا أُولِي
الْأَلْبَابِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ
﴿5:100﴾
(5:100) (O Messenger!) Say to them: "The
bad things and the good things are not
equal, even though the abundance of the
bad things might make you pleased with
them. *115
Men of understanding, beware of
disobeying Allah; then maybe you will
attain true success.'
*115. This verse enunciates a standard
of evaluation and judgement quite
distinct from the standards employed by
superficial people. For the latter, for
instance, a hundred dollars are worth
more than five dollars, since a hundred
is more than five. But, according to
this verse, if those hundred dollars
have been earned in a manner entailing
the disobedience of God the entire
amount becomes unclean. If, on the
contrary, a man earns five dollars while
obeying God then this amount is clean;
and anything which is unclean, whatever
its quantity, cannot be worth that which
is clean. A drop of perfume is more
valuable than a heap of filth; a palmful
of clean water is much more valuable
than a huge cauldron brimming with
urine. A truly wise person should
therefore necessarily be content with
whatever he acquires by clean,
permissible means, however small and
humble its quantity may be. He should
not reach out for what is prohibited,
however large in quantity and glittering
in appearance.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا لَا
تَسْأَلُوا عَنْ أَشْيَاءَ إِنْ تُبْدَ
لَكُمْ تَسُؤْكُمْ وَإِنْ تَسْأَلُوا
عَنْهَا حِينَ يُنَزَّلُ الْقُرْآَنُ
تُبْدَ لَكُمْ عَفَا اللَّهُ عَنْهَا
وَاللَّهُ غَفُورٌ حَلِيمٌ
﴿5:101﴾
(5:101) Believers! Do not ask of the
things which, if made manifest to you,
would vex you; *116
for, if you should ask about them while
the Qur'an is being revealed, they will
be made manifest to you. Allah has
pardoned whatever happened in the past.
He is All-Forgiving, All-Forbearing.
*116. People used to ask the Prophet
(peace be on him) many questions which
were of no practical relevance to either
religious or day-to-day affairs. Once,
for instance, a person asked the Prophet
(peace be on him) in the presence of a
crowd: 'Who is my real father?'
Likewise, many people used to ask
unnecessary questions about legal
matters. By these uncalled for inquiries
they sought knowledge of matters which
had for good reasons, been deliberately
left undetermined by the Law-giver. In
the Qur'an, for example. Pilgrimage had
been declared obligatory. A person who
became aware of this came to the Prophet
(peace be on him) and inquired: 'Has it
been made obligatory to perform it every
year?' To this the Prophet (peace be on
him) made no reply. When he inquired for
the second time the Prophet (peace be on
him) again stayed silent. On being asked
for the third time, he said: 'Pity on
you! Had I uttered "Yes" in reply to
your question, it would have become
obligatory to perform it every year. And
then you would not have been able to
observe it and would have been guilty of
disobedience.' (See Bukhari, 'Riqaq',
22; 'Zakah', 53; I'tisam', 3; 'Adab', 6;
Muslim, 'Aqdiyah', 10, 11, 13, 14;
Darimi, 'Riqaq', 38; Muwatta', 'Kalam',
20; Ahmad b. Hanbal, Musnad, vol. 2, pp.
327, 360, 367; vol. 4, pp. 246, 249,
250, 251, 255 - Ed.)
The Prophet (peace be on him)
discouraged people from being
over-inquisitive and unnecessarily
curious about every question. We find in
the Hadith the following saying from the
Prophet (peace be on him): 'The worst
criminal among the Muslims is the one
who inquired about something which had
not been made unlawful, and then it was
declared so, because of his inquiry.'
(Bukhari, I'tisam', 3; Muslim, Fada'il',
132, 133; Abu Da'ud, 'Sunnah', 6 - Ed.)
According to another tradition the
Prophet (peace be on him) said: 'God has
imposed upon you certain obligations, do
not neglect them; He has imposed certain
prohibitions, do not violate them; He
has imposed certain limits, do not even
approach them; and He has remained
silent about certain matters - and has
not done so out of forgetfulness - do
not pursue them.' (See Towards
Understanding the Qur'an, vol. I, Surah
2, n. 110 - Ed.)
In both these traditions an important
fact has been called to our attention.
In matters where the Law-giver has
chosen to lay down certain injunctions
only broadly, without any elaborate
details, or quantitative specifications,
He has done so not because of neglect or
forgetfulness. Such seeming omissions
are deliberate, and the reason thereof
is that He does not desire to place
limitations upon people, but prefers to
allow them latitude and ease in
following His commandments. Now there
are some people who make unnecessary
inquiries, cause elaborately prescribed,
inflexibly determined and restrictive
regulations to be added to the Law. Some
others, in cases where such details are
in no way deducible from the text,
resort to analogical reasoning, thereby
turning a broad general rule into an
elaborate law full of restrictive
details, and an unspecified into a
specified rule. Both sorts of people put
Muslims in great danger. For, in the
area of belief, the more detailed the
doctrines to which people are required
to subscribe, the more problematic it
becomes to do so. Likewise, in legal
matters, the greater the restriction,
the greater the likelihood of violation.
قَدْ سَأَلَهَا قَوْمٌ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ
ثُمَّ أَصْبَحُوا بِهَا كَافِرِينَ
﴿5:102﴾
(5:102) Indeed some people before you
had asked such questions and in
consequence fell into unbelief. *117
*117. Some people first indulged in
hair-splitting arguments about their
laws and dogma, and thereby wove a great
web of credal elaborations and legal
minutiae. Then they became enmeshed in
this same web and thus became guilty of
dogmatic errors and the violation of
their own religious laws. The people
referred to here are the Jews, and the
Muslims who followed in their footsteps
and left no stone unturned, despite the
warnings contained in the Qur'an and in
the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad
(peace be on him).
مَا جَعَلَ اللَّهُ مِنْ بَحِيرَةٍ وَلَا
سَائِبَةٍ وَلَا وَصِيلَةٍ وَلَا حَامٍ
وَلَكِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا يَفْتَرُونَ
عَلَى اللَّهِ الْكَذِبَ وَأَكْثَرُهُمْ
لَا يَعْقِلُونَ
﴿5:103﴾
(5:103) Allah has neither appointed
(cattle devoted to idols such as)
Bahirah, Sa'ibah, Wasilah nor Ham; *118but
those who disbelieve forge lies against
Allah and of them most have no
understanding (and therefore succumb to
such superstitions).
*118. Just as, in the Indian
subcontinent, cows, oxen and goats are
set free after being consecrated either
to God or to some idol or shrine or to
some saintly person, and just as people
consider it prohibited either to put
them to work, to slaughter them or to
derive any other kind of benefit from
them, so the Arabs of the Jahiliyah
period also let loose certain animals
after consecrating them. Such animals
were variously named.
Bahirah was the name of a female camel
which had already borne five young, the
last of which was a male. The practice
was to slit the ear of such a camel and
then let her loose. Thereafter no one
could ride her, use her milk, slaughter
her or shear her hair. She was entitled
to graze and drink water wherever she
liked.
Sa'ibah was the name of either a male or
female camel which had been let loose
after consecration as a mark of
gratitude in fulfilment of a vow taken
for either the recovery from some
ailment or delivery from some danger. In
the same way the female camel which had
borne ten times, and each time a female,
was also let loose.
Wasilah. If the first kid born to a goat
was a male, it was slaughtered in the
name of the deities; but if it was a
female, it was kept by the owners for
themselves. If twins were born and one
of them was a male and the other a
female goat, the male was not
slaughtered but rather let loose in the
name of the deities. This male goat was
called wasilah.
Ham. If the young of camels in the
second degree of descent had become
worthy of riding they were let loose.
Likewise, if ten offspring had been
borne by a female camel she was also let
loose, and called ham.
وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ تَعَالَوْا إِلَى
مَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ وَإِلَى الرَّسُولِ
قَالُوا حَسْبُنَا مَا وَجَدْنَا عَلَيْهِ
آَبَاءَنَا أَوَلَوْ كَانَ آَبَاؤُهُمْ
لَا يَعْلَمُونَ شَيْئًا وَلَا
يَهْتَدُونَ
﴿5:104﴾
(5:104) When they are asked: 'Come to
what Allah has revealed, and come to the
Messenger', they reply: 'The way of our
refathers suffices us.' (Will they
continue to follow their forefathers)
even though their forefathers might have
known nothing, and might have been on
the wrong way?
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا
عَلَيْكُمْ أَنْفُسَكُمْ لَا يَضُرُّكُمْ
مَنْ ضَلَّ إِذَا اهْتَدَيْتُمْ إِلَى
اللَّهِ مَرْجِعُكُمْ جَمِيعًا
فَيُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِمَا كُنْتُمْ
تَعْمَلُونَ
﴿5:105﴾
(5:105) Believers! Take heed of your own
selves. If you are rightly guided, the
error of he who strays will not harm
you. *119
To Allah will all of you return; then He
will let all of you know what you did.
*119. What is stressed here is that
rather than occupying himself unduly
with examining faults in the belief and
conduct of others, a man should pay
greater attention to a critical
examination of his own conduct. His
primary concern should be with his own
faith and conduct. If a man is himself
obedient to God, observes his duties to
Him and to His creatures including his
duty to promote what is good and forbid
what is evil, and lives according to the
dictates of righteousness and honesty,
he has fulfilled his obligation and if
others persist either in false beliefs
or in moral corruption their errors
cannot harm him.
This verse in no way means that a man
should care only for his own salvation
and should remain unconcerned with the
reform of others. Abu Bakr removed this
misconception in one of his sermons when
he remarked: 'You recite this verse but
interpret it erroneously. I have heard
the Messenger of Allah (peace be on him)
say that when people see corruption but
do not try to change it; and when they
see a wrong-doer commit wrong but do not
prevent him from doing so, it is not
unlikely that God's chastisement will
seize them all. By God, it is incumbent
upon you that you bid what is good and
forbid what is evil or else God will
grant domination upon you to those who
are the worst among you. They will
greatly chastise you and then when your
righteous ones pray to God, their
prayers will not be answered.'
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا
شَهَادَةُ بَيْنِكُمْ إِذَا حَضَرَ
أَحَدَكُمُ الْمَوْتُ حِينَ الْوَصِيَّةِ
اثْنَانِ ذَوَا عَدْلٍ مِنْكُمْ أَوْ
آَخَرَانِ مِنْ غَيْرِكُمْ إِنْ أَنْتُمْ
ضَرَبْتُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ فَأَصَابَتْكُمْ
مُصِيبَةُ الْمَوْتِ تَحْبِسُونَهُمَا
مِنْ بَعْدِ الصَّلَاةِ فَيُقْسِمَانِ
بِاللَّهِ إِنِ ارْتَبْتُمْ لَا نَشْتَرِي
بِهِ ثَمَنًا وَلَوْ كَانَ ذَا قُرْبَى
وَلَا نَكْتُمُ شَهَادَةَ اللَّهِ إِنَّا
إِذًا لَمِنَ الْآَثِمِينَ
﴿5:106﴾
(5:106) Believers! When death approaches
you, let two men of equity among you act
as witnesses when you make your bequest; *120
or let two of those from others than
yourselves act as witnesses if you are
on a journey when the affliction of
death befalls you. *121
Then if any doubt occurs you shall
detain both of them (in the mosque)
after the Prayer, and they shall swear
by Allah: 'We shall neither sell our
testimony in return for any gain even
though it concerns any near of kin nor
shall we conceal our testimony which we
owe to Allah, for then we should become
among sinners.' .
*120. That is, pious, straightforward
and trustworthy Muslims.
*That is, non-Muslims - Ed.
*121. This shows that the testimony of
non-Muslim witnesses in cases involving
Muslims is appropriate only when no
Muslim is available as a witness.
فَإِنْ عُثِرَ عَلَى أَنَّهُمَا
اسْتَحَقَّا إِثْمًا فَآَخَرَانِ
يَقُومَانِ مَقَامَهُمَا مِنَ الَّذِينَ
اسْتَحَقَّ عَلَيْهِمُ الْأَوْلَيَانِ
فَيُقْسِمَانِ بِاللَّهِ لَشَهَادَتُنَا
أَحَقُّ مِنْ شَهَادَتِهِمَا وَمَا
اعْتَدَيْنَا إِنَّا إِذًا لَمِنَ
الظَّالِمِينَ
﴿5:107﴾
(5:107) Then if it is discovered later
that the two are guilty of such sin,
then two others shall stand in their
place from among those against whom the
two had sinfully deposed, and swear by
Allah: 'Our testimony is truer than the
testimony of the other two, and we have
not transgressed in our statement; for
then indeed we would become
wrong-doers.'
ذَلِكَ أَدْنَى أَنْ يَأْتُوا
بِالشَّهَادَةِ عَلَى وَجْهِهَا أَوْ
يَخَافُوا أَنْ تُرَدَّ أَيْمَانٌ بَعْدَ
أَيْمَانِهِمْ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ
وَاسْمَعُوا وَاللَّهُ لَا يَهْدِي
الْقَوْمَ الْفَاسِقِينَ
﴿5:108﴾
(5:108) Thus it is more likely that they
will either bear the right testimony or
else they will at least fear that their
oaths may be rebutted by other oaths.
Have fear of Allah and pay heed. Allah
does not direct the disobedient to the
right way.
يَوْمَ يَجْمَعُ اللَّهُ الرُّسُلَ
فَيَقُولُ مَاذَا أُجِبْتُمْ قَالُوا لَا
عِلْمَ لَنَا إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ عَلَّامُ
الْغُيُوبِ
﴿5:109﴾
(5:109) The Day *122
when Allah will gather together the
Messengers *123
and say: 'What answer were you given?'
They will reply: 'We have no real
knowledge of it. *124
You alone fully know all that lies
beyond the reach of human perception.
*122. This refers to the Day of
Judgement.
*123. The reference here is to the
response of the world to the call of the
Prophets.
*124. This reply indicates that the
Prophets would say that their knowledge
was confined to that limited, outward
response which they had encountered
during their lifetimes. The true
reaction to their call at various places
and in different forms would only be
known completely to God Himself.
إِذْ قَالَ اللَّهُ يَا عِيسَى ابْنَ
مَرْيَمَ اذْكُرْ نِعْمَتِي عَلَيْكَ
وَعَلى وَالِدَتِكَ إِذْ أَيَّدْتُكَ
بِرُوحِ الْقُدُسِ تُكَلِّمُ النَّاسَ فِي
الْمَهْدِ وَكَهْلًا وَإِذْ عَلَّمْتُكَ
الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَالتَّوْرَاةَ
وَالْإِنْجِيلَ وَإِذْ تَخْلُقُ مِنَ
الطِّينِ كَهَيْئَةِ الطَّيْرِ بِإِذْنِي
فَتَنْفُخُ فِيهَا فَتَكُونُ طَيْرًا
بِإِذْنِي وَتُبْرِئُ الْأَكْمَهَ
وَالْأَبْرَصَ بِإِذْنِي وَإِذْ تُخْرِجُ
الْمَوْتَى بِإِذْنِي وَإِذْ كَفَفْتُ
بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ عَنْكَ إِذْ
جِئْتَهُمْ بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ فَقَالَ
الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنْهُمْ إِنْ هَذَا
إِلَّا سِحْرٌ مُبِينٌ
﴿5:110﴾
(5:110) Imagine, then, when Allah will
say: *125
'Jesus, son of Mary, recall My favour
upon you and your mother, and when I
strengthened you with the spirit of
holiness so that you talked to men in
the cradle and also when you became of
age; and when I taught you the Book and
Wisdom, and the Torah and the Gospel;
and when, by My leave, you fashioned
from clay the likeness of a bird and you
breathed into it, and by My leave it
became a bird; you healed, by My leave,
the blind from birth and the leprous;
and when, by My leave, you caused the
dead to come to life. *126
And recall when I restrained the
Israelites from you when you came to
them with clear proofs whereupon those
of them who disbelieved said: "This is
nothing but clear magic."
*125. The initial question would be
addressed to all Prophets as such. Then
each of them would be called upon to
bear witness separately, as stated in
several places in the Qur'an. In this
connection the question that will be
addressed to Jesus is specifically
mentioned here.
*126. That is, with God's command Jesus
brought people to life from the state of
death.
وَإِذْ أَوْحَيْتُ إِلَى الْحَوَارِيِّينَ
أَنْ آَمِنُوا بِي وَبِرَسُولِي قَالُوا
آَمَنَّا وَاشْهَدْ بِأَنَّنَا
مُسْلِمُونَ
﴿5:111﴾
(5:111) And recall when I revealed to
the disciples to believe in Me and in My
Mes-senger, they said: "We do believe,
and we bear witness that we indeed are
the ones who submit to Allah" *127
*127. Jesus is being told that the faith
of the disciples in him was also the
result of God's grace and succour, for
he, himself, did not have the power to
produce even one man of faith in that
land of disbelief. It is also made clear
that the true religion of the disciples
of Jesus was Islam.
إِذْ قَالَ الْحَوَارِيُّونَ يَا عِيسَى
ابْنَ مَرْيَمَ هَلْ يَسْتَطِيعُ رَبُّكَ
أَنْ يُنَزِّلَ عَلَيْنَا مَائِدَةً مِنَ
السَّمَاءِ قَالَ اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ إِنْ
كُنْتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ
﴿5:112﴾
(5:112) Also recall when the disciples
asked Jesus, *128
son of Mary: 'Jesus, son of Mary, has
your Lord the power to send down to us a
repast from the heaven?' There- upon
Jesus said: 'Fear Allah if you do indeed
have faith.'
*128. Since the disciples have been
mentioned here, the continuity of the
subject is interrupted momentarily in
order to introduce another incident
connected with the disciples. This
clearly shows that those who had been
directly instructed by Jesus considered
him merely a human being and a slave of
God; they had no conception of their
master either being God or a partner of
God or the son of God. Jesus had,
rather, presented himself to them as a
slave of God with no claims to divine
authority.
One might feel inclined here to raise
the question: What is the occasion for
this parenthetical interjection in a
conversation that is to take place on
the Day of Judgement? This parenthesis,
in my opinion, is not in fact part of
such a conversation, but rather forms
part of a discussion in this world
regarding a conversation that will take
place on the Day of Judgement. The
conversation that will take place on the
Day of Judgement is mentioned here
precisely in order that the Christians
may derive a lesson from it and direct
themselves to the right way. Hence, the
mention of this incident regarding the
disciples - even though it seems to
interrupt the continuity of narration -
is in no sense out of place.*That is,
are Muslims - Ed.
قَالُوا نُرِيدُ أَنْ نَأْكُلَ مِنْهَا
وَتَطْمَئِنَّ قُلُوبُنَا وَنَعْلَمَ أَنْ
قَدْ صَدَقْتَنَا وَنَكُونَ عَلَيْهَا
مِنَ الشَّاهِدِينَ
﴿5:113﴾
(5:113) They said: 'We desire to partake
of it that our hearts be satisfied and
we know that you did speak the truth to
us, and that we are its witnesses.'
قَالَ عِيسَى ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ اللَّهُمَّ
رَبَّنَا أَنْزِلْ عَلَيْنَا مَائِدَةً
مِنَ السَّمَاءِ تَكُونُ لَنَا عِيدًا
لِأَوَّلِنَا وَآَخِرِنَا وَآَيَةً مِنْكَ
وَارْزُقْنَا وَأَنْتَ خَيرُ
الرَّازِقِينَ
﴿5:114﴾
(5:114) Jesus, son of Mary, then prayed:
'O Allah, our Lord, send down to us a
repast from the heavens that shall be a
festival for the first of us and for the
last of us, and a sign from You. And
provide us with sustenance, for You are
the best Provider of sustenance.'
قَالَ اللَّهُ إِنِّي مُنَزِّلُهَا
عَلَيْكُمْ فَمَنْ يَكْفُرْ بَعْدُ
مِنْكُمْ فَإِنِّي أُعَذِّبُهُ عَذَابًا
لَا أُعَذِّبُهُ أَحَدًا مِنَ
الْعَالَمِينَ
﴿5:115﴾
(5:115) Allah said: 'I shall indeed send
it down to you; *129
then, I shall afflict whoever among you
who disbelieves with a chastisement
wherewith I will afflict none in the
worlds.'
*129. The Qur'an is silent on the
question of whether this meal was sent
down in response to this prayer. There
is also no other authoritative basis to
help us arrive at a clear conclusion. It
is possible that the repast was actually
sent down. It is also possible that the
disciples withdrew their prayer after
hearing the stern warning in response to
it.
وَإِذْ قَالَ اللَّهُ يَا عِيسَى ابْنَ
مَرْيَمَ أَأَنْتَ قُلْتَ لِلنَّاسِ
اتَّخِذُونِي وَأُمِّيَ إِلَهَيْنِ مِنْ
دُونِ اللَّهِ قَالَ سُبْحَانَكَ مَا
يَكُونُ لِي أَنْ أَقُولَ مَا لَيْسَ لِي
بِحَقٍّ إِنْ كُنْتُ قُلْتُهُ فَقَدْ
عَلِمْتَهُ تَعْلَمُ مَا فِي نَفْسِي
وَلَا أَعْلَمُ مَا فِي نَفْسِكَ إِنَّكَ
أَنْتَ عَلَّامُ الْغُيُوبِ
﴿5:116﴾
(5:116) And imagine when thereafter
Allah will say: 'Jesus, son of Mary, did
you say to people: "Take me and my
mother for gods beside Allah?" *130
and he will answer: "Glory to You! It
was not for me to say what I had no
right to. Had I said so, You would
surely have known it. You know all what
is within my mind whereas I do not know
what is within Yours. You, indeed You,
know fully all that is beyond the reach
of human perception.
*130. The Christians were not content
merely with deifying Jesus and the Holy
Spirit. They even turned Mary, the
mother of Jesus, into a full-fledged
object of worship. The Bible does not
contain even the remotest suggestion
that Mary was in any way either divine
or superhuman. During the first three
centuries after the Messiah, such a
concept was totally alien to Christian
thinking. Towards the end of the third
century of the Christian era, however,
some theologians of Alexandria employed,
for the first time, the expression
'Mother of God' in connection with Mary.
Subsequently, belief in Mary's divinity
and the practice of Mariolatry began to
spread among Christians. Even then,
however, the Church was not prepared to
accord official approval to this belief
and denounced the Mariolaters as
heretics. It was not until the Council
of Ephesus in 431 that the Church
officially used the expression 'Mother
of God' for Mary. The result was that
Mariolatry began to spread fast within
the Church itself, so much so that, by
the time of the revelation of the
Qur'an, Mary had become so important a
deity that she obscured even the Father,
the Son and the Holy Ghost. Statues of
Mary adorned the cathedrals. She became
the object of rites and worship. People
addressed their prayers to her. She was
regarded as the one who responded to
people's supplications, who heeded
people's grievances and complaints, who
relieved them in distress, who provided
support and succour to the helpless. For
a devout Christian there could be no
greater source of comfort and inner
strength than the belief that he enjoyed
the support and patronage of the 'Mother
of God'. In the preamble of his code,
Justinian had declared Mary to be the
defender and supporter of his empire,
and his general, Marses, sought Mary's
guidance on the battlefield. Heraclius,
a contemporary of the Prophet (peace be
on him), had a picture of Mary on his
standard and he was confident that by
her grace the standard would never be
lowered. Several centuries later the
Protestants argued strongly against
Mariolatry during the movement which led
to the Reformation. The Roman Catholic
Church has, nevertheless, managed so far
to cling to Mariolatry in one form or
another.
مَا قُلْتُ لَهُمْ إِلَّا مَا أَمَرْتَنِي
بِهِ أَنِ اعْبُدُوا اللَّهَ رَبِّي
وَرَبَّكُمْ وَكُنْتُ عَلَيْهِمْ شَهِيدًا
مَا دُمْتُ فِيهِمْ فَلَمَّا
تَوَفَّيْتَنِي كُنْتَ أَنْتَ الرَّقِيبَ
عَلَيْهِمْ وَأَنْتَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ
شَهِيدٌ
﴿5:117﴾
(5:117) I said to them nothing except
what You commanded me, that is: 'Serve
Allah, my Lord and your Lord.' I watched
over them as long as I remained among
them; and when You did recall me, then
You Yourself became the Watcher over
them. Indeed, You are Witness over
everything.
إِنْ تُعَذِّبْهُمْ فَإِنَّهُمْ عِبَادُكَ
وَإِنْ تَغْفِرْ لَهُمْ فَإِنَّكَ أَنْتَ
الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ
﴿5:118﴾
(5:118) If You chastise them, they are
Your servants; and if You forgive them,
You are the All-Mighty, the All-Wise."'
قَالَ اللَّهُ هَذَا يَوْمُ يَنْفَعُ
الصَّادِقِينَ صِدْقُهُمْ لَهُمْ جَنَّاتٌ
تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ
خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا أَبَدًا رَضِيَ اللَّهُ
عَنْهُمْ وَرَضُوا عَنْهُ ذَلِكَ
الْفَوْزُ الْعَظِيمُ
﴿5:119﴾
(5:119) Thereupon Allah will say: 'This
day truthfulness shall profit the
truthful. For them are Gardens beneath
which rivers flow. There they will abide
for ever. Allah is well- pleased with
them, and they well-pleased with Allah.
That indeed is the mighty triumph.'
لِلَّهِ مُلْكُ السَّمَوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ
وَمَا فِيهِنَّ وَهُوَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ
قَدِيرٌ
﴿5:120﴾
(5:120) To Allah belongs the dominion of
the heavens and the earth and all that
is in them and He has full power over
everything.
