Verse 1
O you who believe, fulfil your bonds, the covenants confirmed between you and God and [between you and other] people. Lawful to you is the beast of the flocks, camels, cattle, and sheep [and goats], to eat after slaughtering [them], except that which is now being recited to you, as forbidden in [the verse below] Forbidden to you are carrion…[Q. 5:3]; the exceptive clause here is a discontinuous one, but may also be continuous; the forbidding concerns that which has succumbed to death and the like; game not being lawful to you when you are on pilgrimage (hurum means muhrimūn; ghayra, ‘not’, is in the accusative as [it introduces] a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject of the pronoun lakum, ‘to you’). Verily, God decrees whatever He desires, in the way of making [things] lawful or otherwise, and there can be no objection thereto.
Verse 2
O you who believe, do not profane God’s sacraments (sha‘ā’ir is the plural of sha‘īra), that is, the [ritual] ceremonies of the religion, by hunting [game] while you are on pilgrimage, nor the sacred month, by fighting in it, nor the offering, that is, the boon offered in the [Meccan] Sanctuary, by interfering with it, nor the garlands (qalā’id, is the plural of qilāda, and these, made from the trees around the Sanctuary, were placed around it [the offering] to protect it), in other words, do not interfere with these [offerings] or with those who place them; nor, violate the sanctity of, those repairing, those heading, to the Sacred House, by fighting them [who are], seeking bounty, provision, from their Lord, through commerce, and, His, beatitude, by resorting to Him, as they [the Meccans pagans] falsely claimed (this was abrogated by the barā’a verse [of sūrat al-Tawba, Q. 9:4]). But when you are discharged, from pilgrimage inviolability, then hunt for game (a command denoting permission). And let not hatred (read shana’ānu or shan’ānu) of a people that, because [they], barred you from the Sacred Mosque cause you to commit aggression, against them by killing them or otherwise. Help one another to righteousness, by doing that to which you were enjoined, and piety, by refraining from what you have been forbidden; do not help one another (ta‘āwanū: one of the two original tā’ letters [in tata‘āwanū] has been omitted) to sin, acts of disobedience, and enmity, transgression of God’s bounds. And fear God, fear His punishment by being obedient to Him; surely God is severe in retribution, against those that oppose Him.
Verse 3
Forbidden to you is carrion, that is, the consumption of it, and blood, that is, what has been spilt, as mentioned in [sūrat] al-An‘ām [Q. 6:145], and the flesh of swine, and what has been hallowed to other than God, in that it was sacrificed in the name of something other than Him, and the beast strangled, to death, and the beast beaten down, to death, and the beast fallen, from a height to its death, and the beast gored, to death by another, and what beasts of prey have devoured, of such animals — except for what you have sacrificed duly, catching it while it still breathes life and then sacrificing it — and what has been sacrificed in, the name of, idols (nusub is the plural of nusāb) and that you apportion, that is, that you demand an oath or a ruling, through the divining of arrows (azlām: the plural of zalam or zulam, which is a qidh, ‘a small arrow’, without feathers or a head). There were seven of these [arrows], [marked] with flags, and they were retained by the keeper of the Ka‘ba. They would use them for abitrations and when they commanded them they obeyed, and if they prohibited them they would desist; that is wickedness, a rebellion against obedience. And on the Day of ‘Arafa in the year of the Farewell Pilgrimage, the following was revealed: Today the disbelievers have despaired of your religion, of you apostatising from it, having hoped for it [earlier], for now they perceived its strength; therefore do not fear them, but fear Me. Today I have perfected your religion for you, that is, its rulings and obligations (after this [verse] nothing about [what is] lawful or unlawful was revealed) and I have completed My favour upon you, by perfecting it [your religion], but it is also said by [effecting] their safe entry into Mecca; and I have approved, chosen, Islam for you as religion. But whoever is constrained by emptiness, by hunger, to consume some of what has been forbidden him and consumes it, not inclining purposely to sin, to an act of disobedience — then God is Forgiving, to him for what he has consumed, Merciful, to him by permitting it to him, in contrast to the one who [purposely] inclines to sin, that is, the one actively engaged in it, such as a waylayer or a criminal, for whom [such] consumption is forbidden.
Verse 4
They will ask you, O Muhammad (s), about what, food, is made lawful for them. Say: ‘The good, delicious, things are made lawful for you; and the, quarry of, hunting creatures, dogs, wildcats or birds that catch food, you have taught, training [them] as hounds (mukallibīn is a circumstantial qualifier, derived from kallabtu al-kalba, meaning, ‘I released the hound against the quarry’) teaching them (tu‘allimūnahunna is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject of mukallibīn, ‘training [them] as hounds’, in other words, ‘disciplining them’) of what God has taught you, of the art of hunting; so eat what they have caught for you, even if they have killed it, as long as they have not eaten any of it. This is in contrast to the untrained [hunting creatures], whose catch is not lawful [for consumption]: the mark of these [being trained hunting creatures] is that they should return after they have been sent out, that they can be curbed when cried at and that they can seize the quarry without eating of it; the minimum number of times by which this may be known is three. If they eat any of it, then it cannot be counted as ‘what they have caught’ for their trainers, and is consequently unlawful for consumption, as reported in hadīth in both of the Sahīhs [of Bukhārī and Muslim] — therein it is also mentioned that a catch made by an arrow over which God’s name is mentioned is equivalent [in lawfulness] to the catch of trained hunting creatures. And mention God’s name over it, when you unleash it. And fear God. Indeed, God is swift at the reckoning’.
Verse 5
Today the good, the delicious, things are permitted to you, and the food of those who were given the Scripture, that is, animals slaughtered by the Jews and Christians, is permitted to you, and permitted to them is your food. Likewise, the believing, free, married women, and the married women of those who were given the Scripture before you, are permitted to you for marriage, if you give them their wages, their dowries, in wedlock, in marriage, and not illicitly, fornicating overtly with them, or taking them as lovers, so as to fornicate with them secretly. Whoever disbelieves in faith, that is, [whose] apostatises, his, prior good, work has indeed failed, and so it counts for nothing and he will not be rewarded for it, and in the Hereafter he shall be among the losers, if he dies in this state [of unbelief].
Verse 6
O you who believe, when you stand up, that is, when you intend to go, to pray, and you are in [a state of] ritual impurity, wash your faces, and your hands up to the elbows, that is, including them [the elbows], as is clarified in the Sunna; and wipe your heads (the bā’ in bi-ru’ūsikum is for ‘adherence’), that is to say, wipe over [the head] adhering [the hand] closely, without [excessive] water pouring over; the noun [ra’s, ‘head’] is generic, and so the minimum required to fulfil [the stipulation] is acceptable, which is the wiping of some of the hair, as al-Shāfi‘ī asserts); and your feet (read wa-arjulakum in the accusative as a supplement to aydīyakum; or wa-arjulikum in the genitive because of its adjacency to [the genitive] bi-ru’ūsikum), up to the ankles, that is, including them [the ankles], as is clarified in the Sunna, and they are the two protruding bones at the juncture of the legs and the feet. The interposing of the wiping of the head between [the mention of] the hands and the feet, which are washed, is intended to show the requirement of [a specific] order during the purification of these limbs, as al-Shāfi‘ī asserts. In addition, the requirement of making intention (niyya) in this [ablution], as in the other rituals of worship, is taken from the Sunna. If you are defiled, purify, wash, yourselves; but if you are sick, with an illness made worse by water, or on a journey, travelling, or if any of you comes from the privy, that is, [if] he has defecated, or you have touched women (as mentioned already in the verse in [sūrat] al-Nisā’ [Q. 4:43]), and you cannot find water, having made the effort to look for it, then head for, seek, wholesome dust, that is, clean earth, and wipe your faces and your hands, including the elbows, with it, using two strikes (the bā’ of bi-wujūhikum, ‘your faces’, denotes ‘adherence’; it is explained in the Sunna that the requirement here is for the wiping to encompass the whole of these two parts. God does not desire to make any hardship for you, any constraint, in the obligations He has imposed on you with regard to ablution, washing and purification with dust; but He desires to purify you, of filth and sins, and that He may perfect His grace upon you, through Islam, by explaining the laws of the religion; so that you might give thanks, for His graces.
Verse 7
And remember God’s grace upon you, through Islam, and His covenant, His pledge, which He made, He bound, with you when you said, to the Prophet (s) upon pledging allegiance to him: ‘We hear and we obey’, all that you command and forbid, of what we love and what we despise. And fear God, in His covenant, lest you break it. Surely God knows what is in the breasts, that is, what is in the hearts [of people], all the more reason for [Him to have knowledge of] other things.
Verse 8
O you who believe, be upright before God, in [fulfilling] what is His due, witnesses in equity, in justice. Let not hatred of a people, namely, the disbelievers, cause you not to be just, and to harm them on account of their enmity; be just, towards both friend and foe, that, justice, is nearer to God-fearing. And fear God; surely God is aware of what you do, and will requite you for it.
Verse 9
God has promised those who believe and perform righteous deeds, an excellent promise: they shall have forgiveness and a great wage, that is, Paradise.
Verse 10
And they who disbelieve and deny Our signs — they shall be the inhabitants of Hell-fire.
Verse 11
O you who believe, remember God’s favour upon you, when a people, namely, Quraysh, purposed to extend their hands against you, in order to attack you, but He restrained their hands from you, and protected you from what they intended to do to you; and fear God; and in God let the believers put their trust.
Verse 12
God had made a covenant with the Children of Israel, for what will be mentioned shortly, and We raised up (there is a shift of address away from the third [to the first] person) from among them twelve leaders, from each tribe one leader, to be responsible for his people’s fulfilment of the covenant, as a way of binding them [to it]. And God said, to them: ‘I am with you, helping and assisting. Surely if (la-in, the lām is for oaths) you establish the prayer, and pay the alms, and believe in My messengers and succour them, help them, and lend to God a goodly loan, by expending in His way, I will absolve you of your evil deeds, and I will admit you to gardens underneath which rivers flow. So whoever of you disbelieves after that, covenant, surely he has strayed from the right way’, he has erred from the path to Paradise (al-sawā’ originally means ‘the middle way’). And they broke the covenant.
Verse 13
God says: So because (bi-mā, the mā is extra) of their breaking their covenant, We cursed them, We removed them from Our mercy, and made their hearts hard, unyielding to the acceptance of faith; they pervert words, pertaining to the descriptions of Muhammad (s) in the Torah and other things, from their contexts, those in which God has placed them, in other words, they substitute them; and they have forgotten, they have abandoned, a portion, a part, of what they were reminded of, [of what] they were enjoined to in the Torah, in the way of following Muhammad (s); and you — addressing the Prophet (s) now — will never cease to discover some treachery on their part, in the way of breaking a covenant or some other matter, except for a few of them, who have submitted themselves [to Islam]. Yet pardon them, and forgive; surely God loves the virtuous: this was abrogated by the ‘sword’ verse [Q. 9:5].
Verse 14
And with those who say ‘We are Christians’ (this is semantically connected to [what follows]) We made a covenant, just as We did with the Children of Israel, the Jews, and they have forgotten a portion of that they were reminded of, in the Gospel, pertaining to faith and other matters, and they [too] broke the covenant. So We have stirred up, We have caused, among them enmity and hatred until the Day of Resurrection, on account of their schisms and differing whims, each sect charging the other with unbelief; and God will assuredly tell them, in the Hereafter, of what they wrought, and requite them for this.
Verse 15
O People of the Scripture, Jews and Christians, now there has come to you Our Messenger, Muhammad (s), making clear to you much of what you used to conceal of the Scripture, the Torah and the Gospel, such as the ‘stoning’ verse and the description [of the Prophet Muhammad (s)], and pardoning much, of it, which he does not reveal, since this would not be of any benefit, serving only to disgrace you. There has verily come to you from God a light, namely, the Prophet (s), and a Book, a Qur’ān, lucid, plain and manifest,
Verse 16
whereby, that is, the Book by which, God guides whoever follows His good pleasure, by believing, to the ways of peace, the paths of safety, and brings them forth from the shadows, [from] unbelief, into the light, [into] belief, by His leave, by His will, and He guides them to a straight path, the religion of Islam.
Verse 17
They indeed are disbelievers those who say, ‘God is the Messiah, son of Mary’, insofar as they make him [Jesus] a god, and these were the Jacobites, a Christian sect. Say: ‘Who then can do anything, [who then can] defend, against, the chastisement of, God if He desires to destroy the Messiah, son of Mary, and his mother, and all those who are on earth?’, that is to say, none can do anything of the sort, since if Jesus were a god, he would be able to do so. And to God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, and all that is between them. He creates what He will. God has power over everything, which He wills.
Verse 18
The Jews and Christians, both of them, say: ‘We are the sons of God, that is, [we are] like his sons in terms of closeness and rank, and He is like a father to us in terms of compassion and care, and His beloved ones’. Say, to them, O Muhammad (s): ‘Why then does He chastise you for your sins?, if what you say is true. For, the father does not punish his son, nor the loving his beloved; but He has punished you, and therefore you are saying lies. Nay; you are mortals from among, all, those, mortals, He created, you shall be rewarded as they are rewarded and you shall be requited as they are requited. He forgives, him for, whom He wills, forgiveness, and He chastises, him for, whom He wills’, chastisement, and there can be no objection thereto. For to God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and of the earth, and all that is between them; to Him is the journey’s end, the [final] return.
Verse 19
O People of the Scripture, there has verily come to you Our Messenger, Muhammad (s), making clear to you, the laws of religion, after an interval between the messengers, for there was no messenger between him and Jesus, an interval of 569 years; lest you should say, if you are punished: ‘There has not come to us any bearer of good tidings (min bashīr, the min is extra) nor any warner’. Indeed, there has come to you a bearer of good tidings and a warner, and so you shall have no excuse. God has power over all things, including punishing you for not following him [the Messenger].
Verse 20
And, mention, when Moses said to his people, ‘O my people, remember God’s favour to you, when He established among you, that is, from among you, prophets, and established you as kings, possessing servants and retinues, and gave you such as He had not given to any in all the worlds, in the way of manna and quails, the parting of the sea and other things.
Verse 21
O my people, enter the Holy, the purified, Land which God has ordained for you, [which] He commanded you to enter, and this is Syria (al-shām), and do not turn back in flight, [do not] retreat in fear of the enemy, or you will end up as losers’, in your efforts.
Verse 22
They said, ‘O Moses, there are giants in it, those remaining of the people of ‘Ād, who were very tall and mighty; we will never enter it until they depart from it; if they depart from it then we will enter’, it.
Verse 23
There said, to them, two men of those who feared, contravening God’s command, and these were Joshua and Caleb — who were from among the leaders that Moses dispatched to bring back news of those giants — to whom God had been gracious, by making them virtuous, for they concealed what they had discovered about the giants, telling only Moses, unlike the other leaders, who divulged the news, and so the people became cowardly. ‘Enter against them by the gate!, the gate of the town, and have no fear of them, for they are bodies without hearts. For if you enter by it, you will be victorious: the two [Joshua and Caleb] said this because they were certain of God’s assistance and the fulfilment of His promise. Put your trust in God, if you are believers’.
Verse 24
They said, ‘O Moses, we will never enter it so long as they are in it. So go forth, you and your Lord, and fight, them, we will be sitting here’, away from the fighting.
Verse 25
He, Moses, thereupon, said, ‘My Lord, I control none but myself and my brother, and I control no one else to be able to force them to obedience. So separate, distinguish, us from the wicked folk’.
Verse 26
He, God, exalted be He, said, to him: ‘Then it, the Holy Land, shall be forbidden them, to enter, for forty years; they shall wander lost, bewildered, in the land — according to Ibn ‘Abbās this [land] was about nine parasangs [sc. 30 miles]; so do not grieve for the wicked folk’. It is reported that they would travel throughout the night earnestly, but in the morning would find themselves back where they had started. And they would travel all day, with the same result, until they all perished, except those under twenty years of age. It is said that they numbered 600,000. Moses and Aaron died in the wilderness, and this was a mercy for them, and a chastisement for those others. When Moses was on the verge of death, he asked his Lord to bring him close to the Holy Land, to within a stone’s throw, and He did, as related in hadīth. Joshua became a prophet sometime after his fortieth year and he was commanded to fight against the giants. So he sallied forth with those that remained by his side and he fought against them; it was a Friday and the sun stopped for him for an hour, until he had finished with fighting them. Ahmad [b. Hanbal] reported in his Musnad the [following] hadīth, ‘The sun was never detained for any human, except for Joshua during those days in which he marched towards the Holy House [of Jerusalem]’.
Verse 27
And recite, O Muhammad (s), to them, your people, the story, the tale, of the two sons of Adam, Abel and Cain, truthfully (bi’l-haqq is semantically connected to utlu, ‘recite’), how they each offered a sacrifice, to God, which in Abel’s case was a ram, and in Cain’s, some green crops, and it was accepted from one of them, namely, from Abel, when a fire came down from the heaven and consumed his offering, and not accepted from the other, that is, from Cain, and so he became furious and kept secret his envy until Adam left on pilgrimage. He said, to him, ‘I will surely slay you,’, and the other said, ‘Why?’, to which the first replied, ‘Because only your offering was accepted’. The other said, ‘God accepts only from the God-fearing’.
Verse 28
‘Yet if (la-in, the lām is for oaths) you extend your hand against me to slay me, I will not extend my hand against you to slay you; I fear God, the Lord of the Worlds, in slaying you.
Verse 29
I desire that you should end up with my sin, the sin of slaying me, and your own sin, the one that you had committed before, and so become an inhabitant of the Fire, whereas I do not want to end up with your sin if I were to slay you, and become one of them. God, exalted be He, says: that is the requital of the evildoers’.
Verse 30
Then his soul prompted him, it seduced him, to slay his brother, so he slew him and became one of the losers, by slaying him. And he did not know what to do with him, because he was the first of the Children of Adam to die on earth, and so he carried him on his back.
Verse 31
Then God sent forth a raven, scratching into the earth, digging up the soil with its beak and with its legs and throwing it up over a dead raven next to it until it completely hid it, to show him how he might hide the nakedness, the carcass, of his brother. He said, ‘Woe to me! Am I not able to be as this raven, and so hide my brother’s nakedness?’ And he became one of the remorseful, for having carried him; he then dug [a hole] for him and covered him up.
Verse 32
Because of that, which Cain did, We decreed for the Children of Israel that whoever slays a soul for other than a soul, slain, or for, other than, corruption, committed, in the land, in the way of unbelief, fornication or waylaying and the like, it shall be as if he had slain mankind altogether; and whoever saves the life of one, by refraining from slaying, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind — Ibn ‘Abbās said [that the above is meant] in the sense of violating and protecting its [a soul’s] sanctity [respectively]. Our messengers have already come to them, that is, to the Children of Israel, with clear proofs, miracles, but after that many of them still commit excesses in the land, overstepping the bounds through disbelief, killing and the like.
Verse 33
The following was revealed when the ‘Arniyyūn came to Medina suffering from some illness, and the Prophet (s) gave them permission to go and drink from the camels’ urine and milk. Once they felt well they slew the Prophet’s shepherd and stole the herd of camels: Truly the only requital of those who fight against God and His Messenger, by fighting against Muslims, and hasten about the earth to do corruption there, by waylaying, is that they shall be slaughtered, or crucified, or have their hands and feet cut off on opposite sides, that is, their right hands and left feet, or be banished from the land (the aw, ‘or’, is [used] to indicate the [separate] application of [each of] the cases [listed]; thus, death is for those that have only killed; crucifixion is for those that have killed and stolen property; the cutting off [of limbs on opposite sides] is for those that have stolen property but have not killed; while banishment is for those that pose a threat — this was stated by Ibn ‘Abbās and is the opinion of al-Shāfi‘ī; the more sound of his [al-Shāfi‘ī’s] two opinions is that crucifixion should be for three days after [the] death [of the killer], or, it is also said, shortly before [he is killed]; with banishment are included similar punishments, such as imprisonment and the like). That, mentioned requital, is a degradation, a humiliation, for them in this world; and in the Hereafter theirs will be a great chastisement, namely, the chastisement of the Fire.
Verse 34
Except for such, warmongers and waylayers, as repent before you overpower them; for know that God is Forgiving, to them of what they have done, Merciful, to them. This [proviso] is expressed without any statement to the effect ‘do not submit them to prescribed legal punishment’, to point out that when such a person repents only God’s prescribed punishments (hudūd) — and not those deriving from the rights of human beings — are waived. This is how I see it. I do not know of any that have tackled this [topic], and God knows best. If, then, a person has killed and stolen property, he should be killed and have his limbs cut off [on opposite sides], but not crucified — this is the more sound of two opinions held by al-Shāfi‘ī. However, his repentance is of no avail, once he has been overpowered [by the authorities] — this is also the more sound of two opinions held by him.
Verse 35
O you who believe, fear God, fear His chastisement, by being obedient to Him, and seek the means to Him, that obedience which brings you closer to Him, and struggle in His way, in order to elevate His religion; so that you might prosper, triumph.
Verse 36
Truly, as for the disbelievers, if they possessed, definitely, all that is in the earth, and the like of it with it, by which to ransom themselves from the chastisement of the Day of Resurrection, it would not be accepted from them; theirs shall be a painful chastisement.
Verse 37
They will desire, they will wish, to exit from the Fire, but they will not exit from it; theirs shall be a lasting, a perpetual, chastisement.
Verse 38
And the thieving male and the thieving female (the definite article in both [nouns] relates to the subject [sc. wa’lladhī saraqa wa’llatī saraqat, ‘And the male who thieves and the female who thieves’]; because this [clause] resembles a conditional statement [sc. ‘if he thieves, if she thieves’ etc.] the fā’ has been included in the predicate [fa’qta‘ū, ‘then cut off’]) cut off their hands, that is, the right hand of each of the two from the wristbone; it is explained in the Sunna that the amputation applies to [the stealing of] a quarter of a dinar and upwards, and if the person were to re-offend, the left foot should then be amputated from the ankle, and then [on subsequent re-offending] the left hand [is amputated], followed by the right foot, after which discretionary punishment is applied; as a requital (jazā’an is in the accusative because it is a verbal noun) for what they have earned, and an exemplary punishment, for both of them, from God; God is Mighty, His way will prevail, Wise, in His creation.
Verse 39
But whoever repents after his evildoing, refrains from theft, and amends, his actions, God will relent to him. God is indeed Forgiving, Merciful, in expressing what has been stated. However, the rights of the victim to have the penalty of amputation carried out and his property restored are not [automatically] forgone after repentance. In fact, as is clarified in the Sunna, only if he is pardoned before being taken to the Imam is the [punishment of] amputation waived, and al-Shāfi‘ī is of this opinion.
Verse 40
Do you not know (the interrogative here is meant as an affirmative) that to God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth? He chastises, him for, whom He wills, chastisement for, and forgives, him for, whom He wills, forgiveness, and God has power over all things, including chastising and forgiving.
Verse 41
O Messenger, let them not grieve you, the actions of, those who vie with one another in disbelief, falling headlong into it, in other words, they [who] manifest it at every opportunity, of (min here is explicative) such as say with their mouths, with their tongues (bi-alsinatihim is semantically connected to qālū, ‘[such] as say’), ‘We believe’ but their hearts do not believe, and these are the hypocrites; and from among those of Jewry, there is a folk, who listen to calumny, fabricated by their rabbis, listening acceptingly, listening to, you, on behalf of some, other folk, from among the Jews, who have not come to you: these were the inhabitants of Khaybar, among whom two married persons committed adultery, but whom they did not want to stone. And so they dispatched [men from] Qurayza to ask the Prophet (s) about the ruling concerning the two; perverting words, that are in the Torah, such as the ‘stoning’ verse, from their contexts, [the contexts] in which God had placed them, that is to say, substituting them, saying, to the ones they dispatched: ‘If you are given this, distorted ruling, that is, flogging, which Muhammad (s) has pronounced for you as a ruling, then take it, accept it; but if you are not given it, and he pronounces some other ruling for you, then beware!’, of accepting it! Whomever God desires to try, to lead astray, you cannot avail him anything against God, by preventing such [a trial]. Those are they whose hearts God did not desire to purify, of unbelief, for had He desired it, you would have [been able to do something for them]; theirs shall be degradation in this world, humiliation, by being disgraced and subjected to the jizya, and in the Hereafter theirs shall be a great chastisement.
Verse 42
They are, listeners to calumny and consumers of unlawful gain (read suhut or suht), that which is illicit, such as bribes. If they come to you, to judge between them, then judge between them or turn away from them: the [second] option given here was abrogated by His saying, So judge between them [to the end of] the verse [Q. 5:48]. Therefore, we [Muslims] are obliged to judge between them if they request arbitration before us — and this is the more sound of al-Shāfi‘ī’s two opinions. If their request for arbitration involves a Muslim, however, then we are obliged to judge according to the consensus [of legal scholars and not just al-Shāfi‘ī]); if you turn away from them, they cannot harm you at all; and if you judge, between them, then judge justly between them; God loves the just, those that judge fairly, meaning that He will reward them.
Verse 43
But how is it that they make you their judge when they have the Torah, wherein is God’s judgement, of stoning: the interrogative here is for [provoking] amazement, in other words, they were not seeking thereby [by making you their judge] to discover the truth but a lighter punishment for them; and then they turn away, [and then] they reject your ruling of stoning, which accords with what is in their Scripture, after that, request [to you] for arbitration? Such are not believers.
Verse 44
Surely We revealed the Torah, wherein is guidance, from error, and light, that is, an exposition of the rulings, by which the prophets, from the Children of Israel, who had submitted, [who] had been compliant before God, judged for those of Jewry, as did the rabbis, the scholars among them, and the priests, the jurists, according to, because of, that which they were bidden to observe, [that which] was entrusted to them, that is to say, [that which] God bid them to observe, of God’s Scripture, lest they change it, and were witnesses to, its truth. So do not fear men, O Jews, in disclosing what you have pertaining to the descriptions of Muhammad (s), the ‘stoning’ verse and otherwise; but fear Me, when you conceal it; and do not sell, do not exchange, My signs for a small price, of this world, which you take in return for concealing them. Whoever does not judge according to what God has revealed — such are the disbelievers, in it.
Verse 45
And therein, in the Torah, We prescribed, We made obligatory, for them that a life, be slain in return, for a life, if it has slain one; and an eye, should be gouged out, for an eye, and a nose, is to be cut off, for a nose, and an ear, is to be amputated, for an ear, and a tooth, should be pulled out, for a tooth (a variant reading has the last four [nouns] in the nominative); and for wounds (read wa’l-jurūhu or wa’l-jurūha) retaliation, that is, the person is entitled to retaliate if this is feasible, as in the case of a hand or a leg; but in cases where one is not able to [retaliate], this is left to arbitration. Although this stipulation was prescribed for them, it is established in our Law; but whoever forgoes it, that is, retaliation, out of charity, able to restrain himself, then that shall be an expiation for him, of what he has done [of other sins]. Whoever does not judge according to what God has revealed, in the matter of retaliation and otherwise, those are the evildoers.
Verse 46
And We caused Jesus son of Mary to follow in their, that is, the prophets’, footsteps, confirming the Torah before him; and We gave to him the Gospel, wherein is guidance, from error, and light, an exposition of the rulings, confirming (musaddiqan is a circumstantial qualifier) the Torah before it, the rulings contained therein, and as a guidance and an admonition to the God-fearing.
Verse 47
We said: So let the People of the Gospel judge according to what God has revealed therein, of rulings (a variant reading of wa’l-yahkum, ‘let [them] judge’, is wa-li-yahkuma, making it a supplement to that which is governed by the previous verb [ātaynāhu, ‘We gave to him’]). Whoever does not judge according to what God has revealed — those are the wicked.
Verse 48
And We have revealed to you, O Muhammad (s), the Book, the Qur’ān, with the truth (bi’l-haqq is semantically connected to anzalnā, ‘We have revealed’) confirming the Book that was before it and watching over it, testifying [to it] — the ‘Book’ means the Scriptures. So judge between them, between the People of the Scripture, if they take their cases before you, according to what God has revealed, to you, and do not follow their whims, deviating, away from the truth that has come to you. To every one of you, O communities, We have appointed a divine law and a way, a clear path in religion, for them to proceed along. If God had willed, He would have made you one community, following one Law, but, He separated you one from the other, that He may try you in what He has given to you, of the differing Laws, in order to see who among you is obedient and who is disobedient. So vie with one another in good works, strive hastily thereunto; to God you shall all return, through resurrection, and He will then inform you of that in which you differed, in the matter of religion, and requite each of you according to his deeds.
Verse 49
And judge between them according to what God has revealed, and do not follow their whims, and beware of them lest they seduce you, [lest] they lead you astray, from part of what God has revealed to you. But if they turn away, from the judgement revealed, and desire some other, then know that God desires to smite them, with punishment in this world, for some of their sins, [those] which they have committed, among them, their turning away, and [that He desires] to requite them for all of their sins in the Hereafter; surely, many of mankind are wicked.
Verse 50
Do they desire (yabghūn, is also read tabghūn, ‘[do] you desire?’), [do] they seek, the judgement of paganism, through their deceit and deviation when they turn away? (this is an interrogative meant as a disavowal). Yet who, that is, no one, is better in judgement than God for a people knowing, Him, with certainty? These [people] are singled out for mention because they are the ones who reflect.
Verse 51
O you who believe, do not take Jews and Christians as patrons, affiliating with them or showing them affection; they are patrons of each other, being united in disbelief. Whoever amongst you affiliates with them, he is one of them, counted with them. God does not guide the folk who do wrong, by affiliating with disbelievers.
Verse 52
And you see those in whose hearts is sickness, weakness of faith, the like of ‘Abd Allāh b. Ubayy the hypocrite; vying with one another for them, to affiliate with them, saying, as an excuse for this: ‘We fear lest we suffer a turn of fortune’, which time will bring round against us, such as drought or defeat, and that if Muhammad’s affair should come to nothing, they will cease to supply us with provisions. God, exalted be He, says: But it may be that God will bring victory, by assisting His Prophet and making His religion prevail; or some commandment from Him, that will reveal the secrets of the hypocrites, disgracing them; and then they will end up, for what they kept secret within themselves, in the way of doubt and affiliating with disbelievers, remorseful.
Verse 53
And they say (read wa-yaqūlu, or just yaqūlu, to indicate a new [independent] sentence; or wa-yaqūla as a supplement to what follows), those who believe, to one another in amazement, when their secrets are revealed: ‘Are these the ones who swore by God their most earnest oaths, making the utmost effort thereby [to swear], that they were surely with you?, in religion. God, exalted be He, says: Their, good, works have failed, are invalid; and they have become, they have ended up as, the losers’, in this world, through ignominy, and in the Hereafter, through their punishment.
Verse 54
O you who believe, whoever of you apostatises (read either yartadid, with separation [of the two dāl letters], or yartadd, with assimilation [of one of the dāl letters with the other]), turns back, from his religion, to disbelief — this is a notification of what God knew would happen, for some of them apostatised upon the death of the Prophet (s) — God will assuredly bring, in their place, a people whom He loves and who love Him: the Prophet (s) said, ‘They are people like him’, and he pointed to Abū Mūsā al-Ash‘arī, as reported by al-Hākim [al-Naysābūrī] in his Sahīh; humble, sympathetic, towards believers, stern, severe, towards disbelievers, struggling in the way of God, and fearing not the reproach of any reproacher, therein, in the way that the hypocrites fear the reproach of the disbelievers. That, description mentioned, is God’s bounty; He gives it to whom He will; and God is Embracing, of abundant bounty, Knowing, of those who deserve it.
Verse 55
When [‘Abd Allāh] Ibn Salām said, ‘O Messenger of God, our people have shunned us’, the following was revealed: Your patron is God only, and His Messenger, and the believers who establish prayer and pay the alms, bowing down, humble, or performing voluntary prayers.
Verse 56
Whoever affiliates to God and His Messenger and the believers, He will help them and assist them; for verily the party of God, they are the victors, because of His assistance to them (He has made this [hizb Allāh, ‘the party of God’] to fall in the place of [an implied] fa-innahum, ‘for verily they’, as an explication, since they belong to His party, that is, [they] His followers).
Verse 57
O you who believe, do not take as patrons those who take your religion in mockery, [as something] to be mocked, and as a game, from among (min is explicative) those who were given the Scripture before you and [from among] the disbelievers (read al-kuffāri or al-kuffāra), the idolaters — and fear God, by refraining from affiliating with them, if you are believers, [if you are] truthful in your faith.
Verse 58
And, those who, when you make the call to prayer, take it, that is, the prayer, in mockery and as a game, mocking it and laughing at it among themselves; that, [mocking] attitude, is because they are a people who do not understand.
Verse 59
The following was revealed when the Jews said to the Prophet (s), ‘Whom among the messengers do you believe in?’, and he replied: in God and in that which has been revealed to us [Q. 2:136], and when he mentioned Jesus they said, ‘We know of no religion worse than yours!’ Say: ‘O People of the Scripture, do you spite, [do] you repudiate, us for any other cause than that we believe in God, and what has been revealed to us, and what was revealed, to the prophets, before, and that most of you are wicked?’ (wa-anna aktharakum fāsiqūn is a supplement to an āmannā, ‘that we believe’), that is to say, ‘What you repudiate, in fact, is our faith and your opposition [to it], in refusing to accept it — [a refusal] which is described as ‘wickedness’, [this wickedness] itself being the necessary consequence of such [a refusal] — but in fact this [faith of ours] is not something to be repudiated’.
Verse 60
Say: ‘Shall I tell you, [shall] I inform you, of what is worse than, the followers of, that, about which you are spiteful, by way of reward, requital, from God? They are, those whom God has cursed, [whom] He has removed from His mercy, and with whom He is wroth, and some of whom He has turned into apes and swine, by transformation, and, those who, worship the false deity, Satan, by obeying him (the particle minhum, ‘some of whom’, takes into account the [potentially plural] import of the particle min, ‘[those] whom’, and in what precedes [minhum, ‘some of whom’], the [singular] form [of min is taken into account]; a variant reading has ‘abuda al-tāghūt as [the genitive of] an annexation, ‘abud being a [variant] plural of ‘abd; the accusative ending [of ‘abuda] is because the clause is a supplement to al-qirada, ‘apes’), and these were the Jews. They are worse situated (makānan is for specification), for their abode shall be the Fire, and further astray from the even way’, from the path of truth (al-sawā’ originally means al-wasat, ‘middle’); the use of sharrun, ‘worse’, and adallu, ‘further astray’, is intended to counter their saying, ‘We know of no religion worse [sharrun] than yours’.
Verse 61
When they, the hypocrites from among the Jews, come to you, they say, ‘We believe’; but they have entered, unto you ensconced, in disbelief, and so they have departed, from you ensconced, in it, and they have not believed. And God knows very well what they were hiding, of hypocrisy.
Verse 62
And you see many of them, namely, the Jews, vying, falling headlong, in sin, in calumny, and enmity, wrongdoing, and their consuming of unlawful gain, what is illicit, like bribes; evil is that, deed of theirs, which they have been committing.
Verse 63
Why do the rabbis and the priests, among them, not forbid them from uttering sin, calumny, and consuming unlawful gain? Evil is what they have been doing, in refraining from forbidding them.
Verse 64
The Jews said, when their circumstances became straitened, on account of their denial of the Prophet (s), after having been the wealthiest of people: ‘God’s hand is fettered’, withholding the sending forth of provision upon us — this was their metaphor for niggardliness — may God be exalted above this. God, exalted be He, says: Fettered be, withheld be, their hands, from the performance of good deeds, as an invocation against them; and they are cursed for what they have said. Nay, but His hands are extended out wide — a hyperbole for the attribute of generosity — the use of [yadā] the dual for yad, ‘hand’, is intended to imply abundance, since the utmost that an affluent person can give freely of his wealth is when he gives it with both hands. He expends how He will, in giving abundantly or straitening, and there can be no objection to this. And what has been revealed to you from your Lord, of the Qur’ān, will surely increase many of them in insolence and disbelief, because of their [very] disbelief in it; and We have cast between them enmity and hatred until the Day of Resurrection, and so every sect among them is opposed to the other. Every time they light the fires of war, that is, for war against the Prophet (s), God extinguishes them, that is, every time they desire it [war], He repels them. And they hasten about the earth in corruption, that is, [they hasten about] corrupting, through acts of disobedience, and God does not love corrupters, meaning that He will punish them.
Verse 65
But had the People of the Scripture believed, in Muhammad (s), and feared unbelief, We would have absolved them of their evil deeds and We would admitted them to Gardens of Bliss.
Verse 66
And had they observed the Torah and the Gospel, by implementing what is in them, including believing in the Prophet (s), and what was revealed to them, of scriptures, from their Lord, they would surely have received nourishment from above them and from beneath their feet, by their being given provision in abundance, with it pouring forth from every place. Some of them, a group [among them], are a just community, implementing it [the Torah], and they are the ones who believed in the Prophet (s), the likes of ‘Abd Allāh b. Salām and his companions; but many of them — evil is that, thing, which they do.
Verse 67
O Messenger, make known, all of, that which has been revealed to you from your Lord, and do not conceal any of it out of fear that you may suffer some harm; for if you do not, that is, if you do not make known all of what has been revealed to you, you will not have conveyed His Message (risālatahu, or read plural, risālātihi, ‘His Messages’) since to conceal some of it is to conceal it all. God will protect you from people, who may try to kill you. The Prophet (s) used to have guards up until [the time that] this [verse] was revealed, then he said, ‘Depart, for God protects me now’, as reported by al-Hākim. God does not guide the unbelieving folk.
Verse 68
Say: ‘O People of the Scripture, you have no basis, in religion, on which to rely, until you observe the Torah and the Gospel and what was revealed to you from your Lord’, by implementing what is therein, including believing in me [Muhammad (s)]. And what has been revealed to you from your Lord, of the Qur’ān, will surely increase many of them in insolence and disbelief, because of their disbelief in it; so do not grieve for the disbelieving folk, if they do not believe in you, in other words, do not be concerned with them.
Verse 69
Surely those who believe and those of Jewry ([this constitutes] the subject of the clause), namely, the Jews, and the Sabaeans, a sect among them, and the Christians (and [what follows] substitutes for the [above] subject): whoever, of them, believes in God and the Last Day and behaves righteously — no fear shall befall them, neither shall they grieve, in the Hereafter (this [fa-lā khawfun ‘alayhim wa-lā hum yahzanūn, ‘no fear shall befall them, neither shall they grieve’] is the predicate of the subject and also indicates the predicate of [the clause beginning with] inna, ‘surely’).
Verse 70
And We made a covenant with the Children of Israel, to believe in God and His messengers, and We sent messengers to them. Every time a messenger came to them, from among them, with what their souls did not desire, in the way of truth, they denied it; some, of them, they denied, and some, of them, they slay, such as Zachariah and John (the use of [the present tense] yaqtulūn, ‘they slay’, instead of [the perfect tense] qatalū is to narrate past events [as if in the present] and to conclude [in harmony with] the end-rhyme of the verses).
Verse 71
And they thought, they presumed that, there would be no (read as an lā takūnu, where an has been softened; or read an lā takūna, where it [an] requires a [following] subjunctive, that is to say, ‘that there would [not] befall [them]’) trial, a punishment against them, for their denial of the messengers and their slaying of them; and so they were wilfully blind, to the truth and could not see it, and deaf, [unable] to hear it. Then God relented to them, when they repented, then they were wilfully blind and deaf, a second time, many of them (kathīrun minhum substitutes for the [third] person [‘they’]); and God sees what they do, and will requite them for it.
Verse 72
They indeed are disbelievers those who say, ‘Indeed God is the Messiah, son of Mary’ (a similar verse has preceded [Q. 5:17]). For the Messiah said, to them, ‘O Children of Israel, worship God, my Lord and your Lord, for, I am a servant and not a god. Verily he who associates anything with God, in worship, for him God has made Paradise forbidden, He has forbidden him admittance to it, and his abode shall be the Fire; and for wrongdoers (wa-mā li’l-zālimīna min, the min is extra) there shall be no helpers’, to guard them against the chastisement of God.
Verse 73
They are indeed disbelievers those who say, ‘God is the third of three’, gods, that is, He is one of them, the other two being Jesus and his mother, and they [who claim this] are a Christian sect; when there is no god but the One God. If they do not desist from what they say, when they declare a trinity, and profess His Oneness, those of them who disbelieve, that is, [those] who are fixed upon unbelief, shall suffer a painful chastisement, namely, the Fire.
Verse 74
Will they not turn in repentance to God and seek His forgiveness?, for what they say (the interrogative is intended as a rebuke); God is Forgiving, to the one who repents, Merciful, to him.
Verse 75
The Messiah, son of Mary, was only a messenger; messengers passed away before him, and so he passed away like them, for he is not a god as they claim, otherwise he would not have passed away; his mother was a truthful woman, [siddīqa means] extremely truthful; they both used to eat food, like all other human beings, and one who is such cannot be a god because of his compound being and fallible nature, and because of the [impurities such as] urine and excrement that he produces. Behold, in amazement, how We make the signs, of Our Oneness, clear to them, then behold, how they are turned away!, [how] they are turned away from the truth despite the proof being established.
Verse 76
Say: ‘Do you worship besides God, that is, other than Him, what cannot hurt or profit you? God is the Hearer, of your sayings, the Knower’, of your circumstances (the interrogative is meant as a disavowal).
Verse 77
Say: ‘O People of the Scripture, Jews and Christians, do not go to extremes, do [not] overstep the bounds, in your religion, other than those, extremes, of truth, neither lowering nor elevating Jesus above his proper place, and do not follow the whims of a people who went astray formerly, on account of their extremism — these were their forefathers — and have led many, [other] people, astray, and strayed from the even way’, from the path of truth (al-sawā’ originally means ‘middle’).
Verse 78
Cursed were the disbelievers of the Children of Israel by the tongue of David, when he invoked God against them and they were transformed into apes — these were the people of Eilat — and by Jesus, son of Mary, when he invoked God against them and they were transformed into pigs — they were the ones [who ate] at the Table [cf. Q. 5:115, below] — that, cursing, was because of their disobedience and their transgression.
Verse 79
They did not prevent one another, that is, one would not forbid the other from committing again, any indecency that they committed; verily evil was what they used to do, [verily evil] was this deed of theirs.
Verse 80
You, O Muhammad (s), see many of them affiliating with those who disbelieve, from among the Meccans, out of spite for you. Evil is that, in the way of deeds, which their souls have offered on their behalf, for [the day of] their inevitable return, such that God is wroth with them and in the chastisement they shall abide.
Verse 81
Yet had they believed in God and the Prophet, Muhammad (s), and what has been revealed to him, they would not have affiliated with them, namely, [with] the disbelievers; but many of them are wicked, rebellious against faith.
Verse 82
You, O Muhammad (s), will truly find the most hostile of people to those who believe to be the Jews and the idolaters, of Mecca, because of the intensity of their disbelief, ignorance and utter preoccupation with following whims; and you will truly find the nearest of them in love to those who believe to be those who say ‘Verily, we are Christians’; that, nearness of theirs in love to the believers is, because some of them are priests, scholars, and monks, devout worshippers, and because they are not disdainful, of following the truth, as the Jews and the Meccans are.
Verse 83
This [verse] was revealed when the Negus’s delegation from Abyssinia came to him (s): when the Prophet (s) recited sūrat Yā Sīn, they cried and submitted [to Islam], saying, ‘How similar this is to what used to be revealed to Jesus!’ God, exalted be He, says: And when they hear what has been revealed to the Messenger, of the Qur’ān, you see their eyes overflow with tears because of what they recognise of the truth. They say, ‘Our Lord, we believe, we accept the truth of your Prophet and your Book, so inscribe us among the witnesses, those who affirm their acceptance of the truth.
Verse 84
And, in response to those Jews who reviled them for their Islam, they would say: why should we not believe in God and what has come to us of the truth, the Qur’ān, that is to say, there is nothing to prevent us from faith when its prerequisites are present; and hope (natma‘u is a supplement to nu’minu, ‘we believe’) that our Lord should admit us with the righteous people?’, the believers, into Paradise?
Verse 85
God, exalted be He, says: So God has rewarded them for what they have said with Gardens underneath which rivers flow, wherein they will abide; that is the requital of those who are virtuous, by believing.
Verse 86
But those who disbelieve and deny Our signs — they are the inhabitants of Hell-fire.
Verse 87
When a number of Companions resolved to practise fasting and night vigil continuously, and to abstain from women, perfume, consumption of meat, and sleeping on beds, the following was revealed: O you who believe, do not forbid the good things that God has made lawful for you and do not transgress, do [not] exceed God’s command; God does not love transgressors.
Verse 88
And eat of the lawful and good food which God has provided you (halālan tayyiban, ‘lawful and good food’, is the direct object and the preceding genitive construction [mimmā, ‘of … which’] is a circumstantial qualifier connected to the former); and fear God, in Whom you are believers.
Verse 89
God will not take you to task for a slip, contained, in your oaths, which is what the tongue utters spontaneously, without intending to swear an oath, such as when one says, ‘No, by God’, or ‘Yes, by God’; but He will take you to task for that to which you have pledged (read ‘aqadtum, ‘aqqadttum or ‘āqadttum) oaths, where you have sworn an oath intentionally; the expiation thereof, of the oath if you break it, is the feeding of ten of the needy, for each needy person one mudd measure, of the midmost food, from which, you feed your families, that is, the closest or the principal [food you consume], neither better, nor worse; or the clothing of them, with what may be [properly] called clothes, such as a shirt, a turban, or a loin cloth — it is not sufficient that these [items] mentioned be given only to one needy person, according to al-Shāfi‘ī; or the setting free of a, believing, slave, as applies in the expiation for slaying or repudiation through zihār, interpreting the general [stipulation] in a restricted sense; and whoever does not find the means, for any one of the [expiations] mentioned, then the fasting of three days, as an expiation for him — as it appears [in this verse], it is not obligatory to follow the [above] sequence [of alternatives when making an expiation], and this is the opinion of al-Shāfi‘ī. That, which is mentioned, is the expiation of your oaths if you have sworn, and have broken them; but keep your oaths, do not break them, unless it be for a righteous deed or setting right between people, as stated in the verse of sūrat al-Baqara [Q. 2:225]. So, in the same way that He has explained to you what has been mentioned, God makes clear to you His signs, so that you might be thankful, to Him for this.
Verse 90
O you who believe, verily wine, that intoxicates and overcomes the mind, and games of chance, gambling, and idols, and divinatory arrows are an abomination, an evil deemed vile, of Satan’s work, which he adorns; so avoid it, this abomination consisting of the things mentioned, do not do it; so that you might prosper.
Verse 91
Satan desires only to precipitate enmity and hatred between you through wine and games of chance, when you partake of them, because of the evil and discord that result therefrom; and to bar you, by your being preoccupied with them, from the remembrance of God and from prayer — He has specifically mentioned it [prayer] so as to magnify it. So will you then desist?, from partaking of them? In other words: Desist!
Verse 92
And obey God and obey the Messenger, and beware, of disobedient acts; but if you turn away, from obedience, then know that Our Messenger’s duty is only to proclaim plainly, to convey clearly [the Message] — your requital falls on Us.
Verse 93
Those who believe and perform righteous deeds are not at fault in what they may have consumed, of wine and [indulged in] of gambling before the prohibition, so long as they fear, the forbidden things, and believed and performed righteous deeds, and then were God-fearing and believed, [and then] adhered to fear of God and belief, and then were God-fearing and virtuous, in deeds; God loves the virtuous, meaning that He will reward them.
Verse 94
O you who believe, God will surely try you, He will surely test you, with some game, which He releases to you, the smaller of, which will be caught by your hands and, the larger of which by, your lances: this was in [the plain of] al-Hudaybiyya; while they were in [the state of] pilgrimage inviolability, beasts and birds would flock to their caravans; so that God may know, through knowledge outwardly manifested, who fears Him in the Unseen (bi’l-ghayb is a circumstantial qualifier), in other words, while He is absent [to the eyes], one who does not see Him but nonetheless avoids hunting game. Whoever transgresses thereafter, after that prohibition against it, and hunts, his shall be a painful chastisement.
Verse 95
O you who believe, do not slay game while you are in the state of pilgrimage inviolability, for the hajj or the ‘umra; whoever of you slays it wilfully, then the compensation shall be (read fa-jazā’un, ‘then the compensation [shall be]’, followed by a nominative [mithlu, ‘the like of’]) that is to say, a compensation is incumbent on him, and that is, the equivalent of what he has slain, of flocks, in other words, a similar creature (a variant reading has an annexation construction for jazā’, ‘compensation’, [sc. fa-jazā’u mithli, ‘then the compensation of’]), to be judged, that is, the equivalent [is to be judged], by two just men among you, both possessing astuteness, with which they are able to identify the nearest [animal] in equivalence to it [the slain animal]. Ibn ‘Abbās, ‘Umar and ‘Alī, may God be pleased with them, all adjudged a beast of sacrifice [as redemption] for an ostrich [slain]; Ibn ‘Abbās and Abū ‘Ubayda adjudged a cow [as redemption] for wildebeest or wild ass; [‘Abd Allāh] Ibn ‘Umar and [‘Abd al-Rahmān] Ibn ‘Awf, a sheep for a gazelle, and, as Ibn ‘Abbās, ‘Umar and others did, [a sheep] also [as a redemption] for [slaying] pigeons, because they [pigeons] resemble these [sheep] in taking scoops of water [when drinking]; an offering (hadyan is a circumstantial qualifier referring to jazā’, ‘compensation’) to reach the Ka‘ba, that is, to be taken into the Sanctuary, sacrificed there and given as a voluntary offering to its needy [residents], and it cannot be sacrificed wherever [else] it may be (bāligha l-ka‘ba, ‘to reach the Ka‘ba’, is in the accusative because it is an adjectival qualification of what precedes, even if it stands as an annexation, since such an annexation is only morphological and not [valid] as a [grammatical] characterisation); if there is no equivalent beast of flock for the game slain, as in the case of a small bird or locusts, then the person is obliged [to compensate] with [equivalent] value. Or, it is incumbent on him [to make], an expiation: other than compensation, and if he should find the means then this [expiation] is, food for the poor, [food] to be taken from the principal food of the town, equivalent to the value of the compensation, being one mudd measure for each poor person (a variant reading has kaffāra, ‘expiation’, in an annexation with the following noun [sc. kaffāratu ta‘āmin, ‘the expiation of food’] as an explication [of kaffāra, ‘expiation’]); or, it is incumbent on him [to compensate with], the equivalent of that, food, in fasting, so that he fasts one day for every mudd measure [that he is unable to provide]; but if he has the means to [provide the food] then it is incumbent on him to do so, so that he may taste the evil consequence, the burden of the compensation, of his deed, the one he has perpetrated. God has pardoned what is past, of game slain before it was prohibited; but whoever offends again, God will take vengeance on him; God is Mighty, His way will prevail, Lord of Retribution, against those who disobey Him. Unintentional slaying [of game] is also included with intentional slaying in what has been mentioned [of required compensation or expiation].
Verse 96
Permitted to you, O people, be you in pilgrimage inviolability or not, is the game of the sea, for consumption, and it is what can only live in the sea, such as fish, but not what is able to live both in the sea and on land, such as crabs; and food from it, what it casts out that is dead, is a provision for you, for you to consume, and for the wayfarers, the travellers among you, to take as their provisions; but forbidden to you is the hunting of game on the land, and this consists of those edible beasts that live on it; do not hunt them, so long as you remain in pilgrimage inviolability: if it is caught by one not in pilgrimage inviolability, then it is permissible for a person in pilgrimage inviolability to consume it, as is clarified in the Sunna; and fear God, to whom you shall be gathered.
Verse 97
God has appointed the Ka‘ba, the Sacred, inviolable, House as an [enduring] institution for mankind, [an institution] by which their religious affair is sustained, through pilgrimage to it, as is their this-worldly [affair], on account of the security [guaranteed] for those who enter it and the fact that they are not interfered with, and because all manner of fruits are brought to it (a variant reading [for qiyāman] has qiyaman, ‘[always] standing’, as the verbal noun from [1st form] qāma, ‘to remain standing’, without defectiveness [of the middle radical]); and the sacred month, meaning the sacred months of Dhū’l-Qa‘da, Dhū’l-Hijja, Muharram and Rajab, instituted for them to be secure from fighting during them; the offering and the garlands, instituted for their owner so that he does not suffer any interference; that, mentioned appointment, is so that you may know that God knows all that is in the heavens and in the earth, and that God has knowledge of all things: thus that appointing of His in order to secure benefits for you and to ward off harm from you, before such things came to pass, testifies to His knowledge of all that is in existence and all that will be.
Verse 98
Know that God is severe in punishment, of His enemies, and that God is Forgiving, to His friends, Merciful, to them.
Verse 99
The duty of the Messenger is only to convey [the Message], to you; and God knows what you reveal, what deeds you manifest, and what you hide, and what of these you conceal, and He will requite you for it.
Verse 100
Say: ‘The evil, the unlawful, and the good, the lawful, are not equal, even though the abundance of the evil attract you.’ So fear God, in avoiding it, O people of pith, so that you might prosper, triumph.
Verse 101
The following was revealed when they began to ask the Prophet (s) too many questions: O you who believe, do not ask about things which, if disclosed to you, [if] revealed, would trouble you, because of the hardship that would ensue from them; yet if you ask about them while the Qur’ān is being revealed, during the time of the Prophet (s), they will be disclosed to you: meaning that if you ask about certain things during his lifetime, the Qur’ān will reveal them, but once these things are disclosed, it will grieve you. So do not ask about them; indeed: God has pardoned those things, you asked about, so do not ask again; for God is Forgiving, Forbearing.
Verse 102
Verily a people before you asked about them, that is, [they asked] their prophets about such things and they received the response in the form of [revealed] explications of the rules concerning them; and then they disbelieved in them, by neglecting to implement them.
Verse 103
God has not ordained, He has not stipulated [in His Law], anything such as a Bahīra, a Sā’iba, a Wasīla or a Hām, in the way that people did at the time of paganism. Al-Bukhārī reported [in a hadīth] from Sa‘īd b. al-Musayyab, who said: ‘The bahīra is that [camel] whose milk is consecrated to idols and whom no human may milk; the sā’iba is the one they would leave to roam freely for their gods and was forbidden to bear any load; the wasīla is the young she-camel that would give birth to a young female, as its first offspring, followed by another female, bearing one after the other without a male in between: she would then be left to roam freely for their idols; the hām is the mature male camel, which after completing a certain number of copulations with a female, would then be consigned to their idols and be exempt from bearing any load, and they would call it hāmī; but the disbelievers invent lies against God, in this matter, by attributing [the sanctioning of] such [practices] to Him; and most of them do not understand, that this is mendacity, for in this they have [merely] followed the example of their forefathers.
Verse 104
And when it is said to them, ‘Come to what God has revealed and to the Messenger’, that is, to His ruling concerning the permitting of what you have forbidden, they say, ‘What we have found our fathers following suffices us’, in the way of religion and laws. God, exalted be He, says: What, does that suffice them, even if their fathers knew nothing and were not guided?, to any truth (the interrogative is meant as a disavowal).
Verse 105
O you who believe, you are responsible for your own souls, in other words, preserve them and do what is in their best interest; he who is astray cannot hurt you, if you are rightly guided: it is said that this means, ‘None of those misguided ones from among the People of the Scripture can hurt you’; it is also said to mean others, on the basis of the [following] hadīth of Abū Tha‘laba al-Khushanī: ‘I asked the Messenger of God (s) about it [this verse] and he said, “Enjoin one other to decency and forbid one another indecency, and then if you see niggardliness being obeyed, whims being followed, this present world being preferred, and every intelligent person proud of his own opinions, then you are [still] responsible for [looking after] your own soul”,’ as reported by al-Hākim and others. Unto God you shall return, all together, and He will inform you of what you used to do, and requite you for it.
Verse 106
O you who believe, let testimony between you, when death, that is, [one of] its causes, draws near to one of you, at the time of a bequest, be that of two men of justice among you (ithnāni dhawā ‘adlin minkum, ‘two men of justice among you’, is the predicate expressed with the sense of an imperative, in other words, ‘let [two men] bear witness … [etc.]’; the genitive annexation of shahāda, ‘testimony’, and bayn, ‘between’, is meant to allow for a range [of alternatives]; hīn, ‘at the time of’, is a substitute for idhā, ‘when’, or an adverbial qualifier of time for [the verb] hadara, ‘draws near’); or of two others from another folk, that is, [from] other than your own religious community, if you are travelling in the land and the affliction of death befalls you. Then you shall empanel them, you shall detain them (tahbisūnahumā, ‘you shall empanel them’, is an adjectival qualification of ākharān, ‘two others’) after the, mid-afternoon, prayer and, if you are in doubt, [if] you are uncertain about it [their testimony], they shall swear by God, both of them saying: ‘We will not sell it, [our testimony] in [swearing by] God, for any price, [for] any compensation that we might take in exchange for it from this world, neither by swearing by Him [falsely], nor by testifying falsely for the sake of that [price]; even if he, the person before whom it is being sworn or the one for whose sake testimony is being given, be a near kinsman, a close relative of ours, nor will we hide testimony to God, which He has commanded us [to give], for then, if we were to hide it, we would surely be among the sinful’.
Verse 107
But if it be discovered, [if] it be ascertained after they have sworn their oaths, that both of them have merited [the suspicion of] sin, that is, that they have done something to incur it, in the way of a breach of faith or perjury in the testimony; for example, if what they are accused of is found with them and then they claim that they had bought it from the deceased or that he had bequeathed it to them, then two others shall take their place, so that the oaths are to be taken from them, being the nearest (al-awlayān is a substitution for ākharān, ‘two others’; a variant reading has al-awwalīn, plural of awwal, as an adjectival qualification of, or a substitution for, alladhīna, ‘of those’), in kinship to the deceased, of those most concerned, with the bequest, namely, the inheritors, and they shall swear by God, to the breach of faith of the two witnesses, and they shall both say, ‘Verily, our testimony, our oath, is truer, is more faithful, than their testimony, their oath, and we have not transgressed, we have [not] overstepped the [bounds of] truth in our oaths, for then we would assuredly be among the evildoers’: meaning, let the one about to die call two men as witnesses to his bequest, or let him instruct in his bequest that the two be from among his co-religionists or from among others, if he cannot find any [from among the former] because he is travelling or for some similar reason. If the inheritors have doubts about the two men and claim a breach of faith on the part of the two for having taken something or given it to some other person — alleging that the deceased bequeathed it to him — then let the two men swear in full [in the way mentioned above]. If then some indication surfaces that the two men have been lying and these two then claim some motivation for this action [of theirs], the nearest of the inheritors in kinship [to the deceased] shall swear to the perjury of the two men and to the truth of what they [the inheritors] suspected. This stipulation holds for the two trustees, but is abrogated in the case of the two witnesses. Likewise, the testimony of non co-religionists is abrogated. The reason for [stipulating] the mid-afternoon prayer is to consecrate the oaths. The specification in this verse that the oath be from the two inheritors nearest in kinship concerns the incident regarding which it was revealed. This [incident], as reported by al-Bukhārī, involved a man from the Banū Sahm who had set out on a journey with Tamīm al-Dārī and ‘Adiyy b. Baddā’, when they were both [still] Christians. The man from the Banū Sahm died in a place where there were no Muslims. When the two came back with his bequest, they [his relatives] found that a silver bowl plated with gold was missing and so the two were brought before the Prophet (s); thereupon this verse was revealed. The Prophet (s) made the two swear oaths. The bowl was later discovered in Mecca, where the owners said that they had bought it from Tamīm and ‘Udayy. The next verse was then revealed, after which two of the Sahmī man’s close kin came to swear their oaths; in al-Tirmidhī’s version, ‘Amr b. al-‘Ās, who was closer to the deceased man, stood up with one other from among the kin, and they swore an oath; in yet another version, the [Sahmī] man fell ill and instructed them as to his bequest and asked them to deliver what he had left to his family, but when he died, they took the bowl [and sold it] and then gave what remained [of that money] to his family.
Verse 108
That, ruling mentioned, where the oath devolves to the inheritors, [makes it] likelier, brings closer [the eventuality], that they, the witnesses or the trustees, will bear the testimony in its true form, [the form] in which they have been charged to bear it, without distortion or breach of faith, or, it is likelier, that they will be afraid that after their oaths other oaths may be taken, from the inheritors, the plaintiffs, who would swear to the two men’s breach of faith or perjury, in which case they would be disgraced and would incur penalties, and so [because of this] they will not lie. Fear God, by refraining from betrayal and perjury, and listen, to what you have been commanded, listening in acceptance. God does not guide the wicked people, those rebelling against obedience to Him; [He does not guide the wicked] to the way of goodness.
Verse 109
Mention, the day when God shall gather the messengers, which is the Day of Resurrection, and He will say, to them, as a rebuke for their peoples: ‘What answer were you given?’, when you summoned [them] to proclaim God’s Oneness; they shall say, ‘We have no knowledge, of this; You, only You, are the Knower of things unseen’, those things which are hidden from [God’s] servants and that which they [the messengers] have forgotten all knowledge of on account of the great terror of the Day of Resurrection and their fright; but when they have calmed down, they [proceed to] bear witness against their communities.
Verse 110
Mention, when God said, ‘O Jesus, son of Mary, remember My favour to you and to your mother, be thankful for it; when I strengthened you with the Holy Spirit, Gabriel, to speak to people (tukallimu’l-nāsa is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the [suffixed pronoun] kāf in ayyadtu-ka) in the cradle, that is, as a child, and in maturity — this implies that he will descend before the Hour, since he was raised up [to God] before middle age, as has already been mentioned in [sūrat] Āl ‘Imrān [Q. 3:55], and when I taught you the Scripture, and wisdom, and the Torah, and the Gospel; and how you create out of clay the likeness (ka-hay’at: the kāf here functions like a noun and is a direct object), the image, of a bird by My permission, and you breathe into it and it becomes a bird by My permission, by My will, and you heal the blind and the leper by My permission, and you raise the dead, from their graves back to life, by My permission; and how I restrained the Children of Israel from you, when they intended to kill you, when you brought them clear proofs, miracles, and the disbelievers among them said, “This, what you have done, is nothing but manifest sorcery” (a variant reading [for sihrun, ‘sorcery’] has sāhirun, ‘sorcerer’, in other words, [he] Jesus [is nothing but a manifest sorcerer]).
Verse 111
And when I revealed to the disciples, [when] I commanded them by the tongue of Jesus: “Believe in Me and in My Messenger”, Jesus; they said, “We believe, in both; bear witness that we have submitted”.’
Verse 112
Mention, when the disciples said, ‘O Jesus, son of Mary, is your Lord able, that is, would He (a variant reading has hal tastatī‘a rabbaka, ‘Are you able to ask of Him?’) to send down on us a Table from the heaven?’ He, Jesus, said, to them: ‘Fear God, when you request signs, if you are believers’.
Verse 113
They said, ‘We desire, to request this in order, to eat of it and that our hearts be reassured, through increased certainty, and that we may know, that we may acquire more awareness [of the fact], that you (annaka is softened to an) have spoken truthfully to us, in your claim to prophethood, and that we may be among the witnesses thereof’.
Verse 114
Jesus, son of Mary, said: ‘O God, our Lord, send down upon us a Table from the heaven, that it shall be, that is, the day of its sending down [shall be], a celebration for us, which we shall consecrate and honour, for the first (li-awwalinā is an inclusive substitution for lanā, ‘for us’, with the repetition of the [oblique] preposition [li-]) and the last of us, those who will come after us, and a sign from You, of Your power and my prophethood. And provide, it, for us; You are the Best of Providers’.
Verse 115
God said, granting his supplication: ‘Verily I shall send it down (read munziluhā or munazziluhā) to you; but whoever of you disbelieves afterward, after it has been sent down, I shall surely chastise him with a chastisement wherewith I chastise no other being from among all the worlds’: and so the angels descended with it from heaven, on it were seven loaves and seven large fish, and so they ate of it until they were full, as related by Ibn ‘Abbās. In one hadīth it is said that the Table sent down from heaven consisted of bread and meat, and they were commanded not to be treacherous and nor to store anything for the next day: but they were and they stored some of it, and were [consequently] transformed into apes and swine.
Verse 116
And, mention, when God says, that is, when God will say, to Jesus at the Resurrection in rebuke of his followers: ‘O Jesus, son of Mary, did you say to mankind, “Take me and my mother as gods, besides God”?’ He, Jesus, says, shuddering: ‘Glory be to You!, exalted be You above all that does not befit You, such as [having] a partner and so on. It is not mine, it is unjustified [for me], to say what I have no right to (bi-haqq, ‘right to’, is the predicate of laysa, ‘not’; lī, ‘mine’, is explicative). If I indeed had said it, You would have known it. You know what is, hidden by me, in my self, but I do not know what is within Your Self, that is, what You keep hidden of Your knowledge: You are the Knower of things unseen.
Verse 117
I only said to them that which You commanded me, to [say], and that is: “Worship God, my Lord and your Lord.” And I was a witness, a watcher, over them, preventing them from [saying] what they used to say, whilst I was amongst them; but when You took me [to You], [when] You raised me up to the heaven, You were Yourself the Watcher over them, the Observer of their deeds, and You Yourself are Witness over all things, Aware and knowing them, including what I said to them and what they said after me, and whatever else.
Verse 118
If you chastise them, that is, those among them who are fixed upon disbelief, verily they are Your servants, and You are their Master, disposing of them as You will: there can be no objection to [what] You [do]; and if You forgive them, that is, those of them who are believers, You, only You, are the Mighty, in His affair, the Wise’, in His actions.
Verse 119
God says, ‘This, namely, the Day of Resurrection, is the day those who were truthful, in the world, like Jesus, shall profit by their truthfulness, because this is the Day of Requital. Theirs will be Gardens underneath which rivers flow, wherein they shall abide forever. God is well-pleased with them, because of their obedience to Him, and they are well-pleased with Him, with His reward — that is the great triumph’. The sincerity of those who were liars in this world shall not avail them on that Day, just as [it shall not avail] the disbelievers when they believe upon seeing the chastisement.
Verse 120
To God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and of the earth, the storehouses of rain, vegetation, sustenance and everything else, and all that is in them (wa-mā fīhinna: the use of mā, ‘that’, indicates the predominance of all those non-rational creations); and He has power over all things, including the rewarding of the truthful and the punishing of the liar — He is specifically addressing rational beings, for there is none among them with power over all things.