Al-Ma'idah ( ar, ٱلمائدة, ; "The Table" or "The Table Spread with Food") is the fifth chapter (''
sūrah
A ''surah'' (; ar, سورة, sūrah, , ), is the equivalent of "chapter" in the Qur'an. There are 114 ''surahs'' in the Quran, each divided into '' ayats'' (verses). The chapters or ''surahs'' are of unequal length; the shortest surah (''Al-Ka ...
'') of the
Quran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...
, with 120 verses (''
āyāt''). Regarding the timing and contextual background of the revelation (''
asbāb al-nuzūl
Occasions or circumstances of revelation ( ''al-nuzūl'', ) names the historical context in which Quranic verses were revealed from the perspective of traditional Islam. Though of some use in reconstructing the Qur'an's historicity, ''asbāb'' is ...
''), it is a "
Medinan surah
The Madni Surahs (Surah Madaniyah) or Madani chapters of the Quran are the latest 28 Surahs that, according to Islamic tradition, were revealed at Medina after Muhammad's hijrat from Mecca. The community was larger and more developed, as opposed ...
", which means it is believed to have been revealed in Medina, instead of Mecca.
The chapter's topics include animals which are
forbidden, and
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...
' and
Moses' missions. Verse 90 prohibits "The intoxicant" (alcohol). Verse 8 Contains the passage: "Do not let the hatred of a people lead you to injustice".
Al-Tabligh Verse 67 is relevant to the
Farewell Pilgrimage
The Farewell Pilgrimage ( ar, حِجَّة ٱلْوَدَاع, Ḥijjatu Al-Wadāʿ) refers to the one Hajj pilgrimage that Muhammad performed in the Islamic year 10 AH, following the Conquest of Mecca. Muslims believe that verse 22:27 of the Quran ...
and
Ghadir Khumm
The Ghadīr Khumm ( ar, غَدِير خُم) refers to a gathering of Muslims to attend a sermon delivered by the Islamic prophet Muhammad on 16 March 632 CE (18 Dhu al-Hijjah 10 AH). The gathering is said to have taken place at the Ghadir K ...
.
![A_folio_from_the_codex_TIEM_ŞE_12995](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/A_folio_from_the_codex_TIEM_%C5%9EE_12995.jpg)
Verses (Q5:32-33) have been quoted to denounce killing, by using an abbreviated form such as, "If anyone kills a person, it would be as if he killed the whole people: and if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people". This verse is similar to that of one from the
Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...
.
Summary
![1879-Ottoman Court-from-NYL](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/1879-Ottoman_Court-from-NYL.png)
*1
Covenants are to be fulfilled
*2
Lawful meats
*
3 Heathen pilgrims not to be molested
*4 Islam completed—last revelation of the Quran , Certain kinds of food,
gambling, and lotteries forbidden
*5 Muslims permitted to eat the food of
Jews and Christians, and to marry their women
*'
6'' The law of
purifications
*7-8 Believers reminded of the
covenant of Aqabah
The second pledge at al-Aqabah was an important event in the mission of the Islamic prophet Muhammad where 75 residents of the city of Medina pledged their loyalty to Muhammad as their leader in an agreement known as a ''bay'ah''. It preceded the ...
, Muslims should bear true testimony and not let the hatred of a people prevent them from being just
*9-11 Muslims should
forget old quarrels with brethren
*12 God’s favour to
Muslims
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
*13-15 Disobedience of Jews and Christians exposed
*16-18 Jews and Christians are exhorted to accept Islam
*19-20
The divinity of Christ denied
*'
21'' Jews and Christians not the children of God
*22
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mo ...
sent as a warner
*23-29 Israel’s rebellion at
Kadesh Barnea
Kadesh or Qadesh or Cades (in classical Hebrew he, קָדֵשׁ, from the root "holy") is a place-name that occurs several times in the Hebrew Bible, describing a site or sites located south of, or at the southern border of, Canaan and the Ki ...
*30-34 The story of
Cain and Abel 35-36 The
sin
In a religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered immoral, selfish, s ...
of
homicide
*37-38 The punishment of theft accompanied by apostasy
*39
The faithful exhorted to fight for religion
*40-41 The punishment of infidels
*42-44 The penalty of
theft
Theft is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal shorthand term for som ...
*45-
55 Muhammad to judge the Jews and Christians by the
law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
,
gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...
, and the Quran
*56 Muslims forbidden to fraternise with Jews and Christians
*57-58 Hypocrites threatened
*59-61 Believers warned and instructed. The fate of the
People of the Book
People of the Book or Ahl al-kitāb ( ar, أهل الكتاب) is an Islamic term referring to those religions which Muslims regard as having been guided by previous revelations, generally in the form of a scripture. In the Quran they are ident ...
*62-63 Muslims not to associate with infidels
*64-65 The Jews exhorted and warned
*66-69 The hypocrisy and unbelief of the Jews rebuked
*70 Promises to believing Jews and Christians
*71 Muhammad required to preach
*72 He attests Jewish and Christian Scriptures
*73 Believing Jews, Sabians, and Christians to be saved
*74-75 The Jews rejected and killed the prophets of God
*76-81 The doctrines of the Trinity and Christ’s Sonship rejected
*82-84 Disobedient Jews cursed by their prophets
*85-88 Jewish hatred and Christian friendship compared
*89-90 Muslims to use
lawful food etc
*91
Expiation
Propitiation is the act of appeasing or making well-disposed a deity, thus incurring divine favor or avoiding divine retribution. While some use the term interchangeably with expiation, others draw a sharp distinction between the two. The discus ...
for
perjury
Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...
*92-94 Wine and lots forbidden
*95-97 Law concerning hunting and gambling during pilgrimage
*98-100
Pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...
and its
rites enjoined
An injunction is a legal remedy, legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party (law), party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The United States courts of appeals, court of appeals ... has exclusive ju ...
*101-102 The Prophet not to be pestered with questions
*102-104 Heathen Arab customs denounced
*105-107 Wills to be attested by witnesses
*108 The prophets ignorant of the characters of their followers
*109-110 Jesus—
his miracles—God’s favour to him
*111 The apostles of Jesus were Muslims
*112-114 A table provided by Jesus for the apostles
*115-118 Jesus did not teach his followers to worship him and his mother
*119 The reward of the true believer
*120 God is sovereign
Placement and coherence with other surahs
The idea of textual relation between the verses of a chapter has been discussed under various titles such as ''nazm'' and ''munasabah'' in non-English literature and ''coherence'', ''text relations'', ''intertextuality'', and ''unity'' in English literature.
Hamiduddin Farahi
Hamiduddin Farahi (18 November 1863 – 11 November 1930) was an Indian Islamic scholar known for his work on the concept of ''nazm'', or coherence, in the Quran.
He was instrumental in producing scholarly work on the theory that the verse ...
, an
Islamic scholar of the
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
, is known for his work on the concept of nazm, or coherence, in the Quran.
Fakhruddin al-Razi (died 1209 CE), Zarkashi (died 1392) and several other classical as well as contemporary Quranic scholars have contributed to the studies.
The entire Qur'an thus emerges as a well-connected and systematic book. Each division has a distinct theme. Topics within a division are more or less in the order of revelation. Within each division, each member of the pair complements the other in various ways. The seven divisions are as follows:
Exegesis
3 Verse of Ikmal al-Din
This verse has a
Parenthetical Sentence: "This day have those who disbelieve despaired of your religion, so fear them not, and fear Me. This day have I perfected for you your religion and completed My favor on you and chosen for you Islam as a religion.." This verse was revealed at Arafat as reported in the authentic hadith:
27-31 Cain and Abel
The story appears in the
Quran 5:27-31:
33 Hirabah verse
This verse from
Qur'anic chapter ''al-ma'idah'' (Q5:33) is known as the ''
Hirabah
In Islamic law, ''hirabah'' is a legal category that comprises highway robbery (traditionally understood as aggravated robbery or grand larceny, unlike theft, which has a different punishment), rape, and terrorism. Ḥirābah ( ar, حرابة) is ...
'' verse (''ayat al-hiraba''), It specifies punishment for "those who wage war against God and His Messenger and strive to spread disorder in the land":
Javed Ahmad Ghamidi
Javed Ahmad Ghamidi ( ur, , translit=Jāvēd Aḥmad Ghāmidī; April 7, 1952) is a Pakistani philosopher, educationist, and scholar of Islam. He is also the founding President of Al-Mawrid Institute of Islamic Sciences and its sister organisat ...
, Mizan
Mizan ( ar, ميزان, lit=balance) is a concept in Quran, which has been described as "the principle of the middle path" and "the overarching divine principle for organizing our universe". Azizah Y. al-Hibri argues that ''Mizan'', as the "divine ...
,
The Penal Law of Islam
', Al-Mawrid The verbal noun form (i.e. ''ḥirabah'') is frequently used in classical and modern books of Islamic jurisprudence, but neither the word ḥirabah nor the root verb ḥaraba occurs in the Quran.
(''Yuḥāribūna'' is the form used in Quran 5:33-4.)
According to early Islamic sources, the verse was revealed after some members of the Urayna tribe feigned conversion to Islam in order to steal Muslims' possessions and killed a young shepherd sent to teach them about the faith. In view of the broad and strong language of the verse, however, various state representatives beginning with the Umayyads have asserted that it applied to rebels in general.
The original meanings of the
triliteral root
The roots of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages are characterized as a sequence of consonants or " radicals" (hence the term consonantal root). Such abstract consonantal roots are used in the formation of actual words by adding the vowe ...
''ḥrb'' are to despoil someones wealth or property, and also fighting or committing sinful act. The
Quran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...
"refers to both meanings" in
verses 2:279 and
5:33-34.
51 Do not take Jews and Christians as allies
:O true believers, take not the Jews, or Christians for your friends; they are friends the one to the other; but whoso among you taketh them for his friends, he is surely one of them: Verily God directeth not unjust people
Some Muslim hard liners have used verses such as this one to denounce close relationships with non-Muslims and forbidding non-Muslims from becoming leaders in Muslim countries. However, other Muslim scholars such as
Shafi Usmani see this as forbidding only "indiscriminating intimacy" which might confuse the "distinctive hallmarks of Islam", while all other equitable relations as being allowed.
Ghamidi in the context of his ''
Itmam al-Hujjah'' interpretation of Islam, restricts the subjects of this verse to only the Jews and Christians of the Muslim Prophet's time. Others argue that only belligerent non-Muslims are being referenced here.
Verse 51 is preserved in the
Ṣan‘ā’1 lower text.
Verse 54
:O true believers, whoever of you apostatizeth from his religion, GOD will certainly bring ''other'' people ''to supply his place'', whom he will love, and who will love him; who shall be humble towards the believers; but severe to the unbelievers: they shall fight for the religion of GOD, and shall not fear the obloquy of the detractor. This is the bounty of GOD, he bestoweth it on whom he pleaseth: GOD is extensive and wise.
Verse 54 is also interesting in relation to who the "beloved" are; some hadith view it as being
Abu Musa al-Ashari. Verse 54 is preserved in the
Ṣan‘ā’1 lower text.
Shia' view
On the
Shia
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, mo ...
interpretation of this verse, God used the singular form "waliyyukum" implying the "wilayah" (Guardianship of the believers) is a single project. In other words, the "wilayah" of the messenger and that of the
Ali
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam ...
springs from the of
God's wilayah. The word "wali" in the context of this verse cannot mean "friend" because there is not a single verse in the Quran where
God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
says that any one of his messengers is a friend or helper of their followers. Further if the verse implied "wilayah" in the sense of friend or helper, then the singular form "waliyyukum" would not have been used but the plural form "awliya'ukum" would be appropriate because the "friendship" of
God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
is unique.
Tahir ul Qadri
Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri ( ur, ; born 19 February 1951) is a Pakistani–Canadian Islamic scholar and former politician who founded Minhaj-ul-Quran International and Pakistan Awami Tehreek.
He was also a professor of international co ...
writes regarding this verse:
Verses 72 and 73
''The Quran: An Encyclopedia'' says, "The Quran’s objection to Christian practice is Christianity’s
shirk, its worship of Jesus, Mary and the saints ‘in derogation of Allah’. There is no justification in believing in the Trinity, for Jesus never would have condoned such a concept".
In Sahih International: "(72) They have certainly disbelieved who say, " Allah is the Messiah, the son of Mary" while the Messiah has said, "O Children of Israel, worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord." Indeed, he who associates others with Allah - Allah has forbidden him Paradise, and his refuge is the Fire And there are not for the wrongdoers any helpers. (73) They have certainly disbelieved who say, Allah is the third of three. And there is no god except one God. And if they do not desist from what they are saying, there will surely afflict the disbelievers among them a painful punishment."
[Sahih International](_blank)
/ref>
Verse 90
In Verse 90 it says, "O you who have believed, indeed, intoxicants, gambling, acrificing onstone altars o other than Allah and divining arrows
Belomancy, also bolomancy, is the ancient art of divination by use of arrows. The word is built upon , and , , 'divination'. Belomancy was anciently practised at least by Babylonians, Greeks, Arabs and Scythians.
The arrows were typically marke ...
are but defilement from the work of Satan, so avoid it that you may be successful." This is a clear ruling in The Quran for Muslims to avoid alcohol and gambling.
See also
* Islamic view of the Trinity
In Christianity, the doctrine of the Trinity states that God is a single essence who exists, consubstantiality and co-eternally, as a perichoresis of three distinct hypostases ("persons"): the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Islam conside ...
* Shirk (Islam)
References
External links
*
Quran 5
Clear Quran translation
Mustafa Khattab is a Canadian–Egyptian Muslim scholar, author, youth mentor, public speaker, imam, and university chaplain. He holds a professional ijâzah in the Ḥafṣ style of recitation. He is known for his translation of the Quran in ...
Q5:51
50+ translations, islamawakened.com
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Ma'ida
Islam articles needing attention