5. Surah Al-Ma'idah
5. Surah Al-Ma'idahسورة المائدة
In the name of God, the Almighty, the Merciful.
O you who heed warning: fulfil contracts. Made lawful for you is grazing livestock save what is recited to you, hunting not being permitted when you are forbidden; God ordains what He wills.
O you who heed warning: violate not the tokens of God, nor the inviolable month, nor the offering, nor the necklaces, nor the visitors to the inviolable house seeking the favour of their Lord and approval. And when you are permitted, then you may hunt. And let not hatred of a people who turned you away from the inviolable place of worship move you to commit injustice. And assist one another to virtue and prudent fear; and assist not one another in sin and enmity. And be in prudent fear of God; God is severe in retribution.
Forbidden to you is carrion, and blood, and the flesh of swine, and that dedicated to other than God, and the strangled, and the beaten, and the fallen, and the gored, and that eaten by the beast of prey save what you slaughter, and that sacrificed upon the altar, and that you seek apportionment by divining arrows — that is perfidy — (this day have those who ignore warning despaired of your doctrine, so fear them not, but fear Me; this day have I perfected for you your doctrine and completed My favour upon you, and approved for you submission as doctrine) but whoso is compelled by hunger, without inclination to sin — God is forgiving and merciful.
They ask thee what is made lawful for them. Say thou: “Made lawful for you are good things; and what you have trained of animals of prey as trainers teaching them of what God taught you — eat of what they catch for you, and remember the name of God over it. And be in prudent fear of God; God is swift in reckoning.”
This day are good things made lawful for you; and the food of those given the Writ is lawful for you, and your food is lawful for them, as are chaste women among the believing women and chaste women among those given the Writ before you, when you have given them their dowries, being chaste and not fornicators, nor taking secret friends. And whoso denies the faith: his work has been in vain, and he in the Hereafter is among the losers.
O you who heed warning: when you rise up for the duty: wash your faces, and your hands to the elbows, and wipe your heads, and your feet to the ankles. And if you are unclean, purify yourselves. And if you were ill, or on a journey, or one of you came from the privy, or you have lain with women, then find not water: resort to clean soil, and wipe your faces and your hands with it. God wishes not to place any distress upon you; but He wishes to purify you and to complete His favour upon you, that you might be grateful.
And remember the favour of God upon you, and His agreement which He agreed with you, when you said: “We hear and we obey.” And be in prudent fear of God; God knows what is in the breasts.
O you who heed warning: stand firm for God, witnesses with equity, and let not hatred of a people move you, that you act not equitably; do justice — that is nearer to prudent fear. And be in prudent fear of God; God is aware of what you do.
And God has promised those who heed warning and do righteous deeds: for them is forgiveness and a great reward.
And those who ignore warning and deny Our proofs: those are the companions of Hell.
O you who heed warning: remember the favour of God upon you when a people purposed to stretch out their hands against you, and He restrained their hands from you; and be in prudent fear of God; and in God then let the believers place their trust.
And God took an agreement of the children of Israel; and We raised up among them twelve leaders. And God said: “I am with you if you uphold the duty, and render the purity, and believe in My messengers, and support them, and lend to God a goodly loan. I will remove from you your evil deeds, and make you enter gardens beneath which rivers flow. But whoso among you denies after that has strayed from the right path.”
So for their violation of their agreement We cursed them and made their hearts hard. They twist words from their places, and have forgotten a portion of that they were reminded of. And thou wilt not cease to find treachery among them save a few among them; but pardon thou them, and forbear thou; God loves the doers of good.
And among those who say: “We are Christians,” We took their agreement; then they forgot a portion of that they were reminded of. And We brought about among them enmity and hatred until the Day of Resurrection; and God will inform them of what they wrought.
O doctors of the Law: Our messenger has come to you, making clear to you much of what you hid of the Writ, and pardoning much. There has come to you light from God, and a clear Writ
Whereby God guides him who seeks His approval to the ways of peace, and brings them out of darkness into the light by His leave; and He guides them to a straight path.
They have denied who say: “God is the Messiah, son of Mary.” Say thou: “Who would have power over God for anything if He wished to destroy the Messiah, son of Mary, and his mother and everyone upon the earth altogether?” And to God belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth and what is between them. He creates what He wills; and God is over all things powerful.
And the Rabbinic Jews and the Christians say: “We are the sons of God and His beloved.” Say thou: “Why then does He punish you for your transgressions?” Nay, you are but mortals among those He created; He forgives whom He wills, and He punishes whom He wills. And to God belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth and what is between them, and to Him is the journey’s end.
O doctors of the Law: Our messenger has come to you making clear to you, upon an interval between the messengers lest you say: “There came not to us any bearer of glad tidings or warner.” But there has come to you a bearer of glad tidings and warner; and God is over all things powerful.
And when Moses said to his people: “O my people: remember the favour of God upon you, when He made among you prophets, and made you kings, and gave you what He had not given to any among all mankind.
“O my people: enter the holy land which God has prescribed for you; and turn not back, for you will turn back as losers.”
They said: “O Moses: therein is a people of giants, and we will not enter it until they go out therefrom; and if they go out therefrom, then will we enter.”
Said two men of those who feared, whom God had favoured: “Enter upon them by the gate; for when you have entered by it, then will you be victorious; and in God place your trust, if you be believers.”
They said: “O Moses: we will not enter it ever, so long as they remain therein. So go thou, thou and thy Lord, and fight; we will sit here.”
Said he: “My Lord, I have no power save over myself and my brother; so make Thou a division between us and the perfidious people.”
He said: “Then shall it be forbidden them forty years; they shall wander in the earth; and grieve thou not over the perfidious people.”
And recite thou to them the report of the two sons of Adam with the truth, when they offered an offering, and it was accepted from the one of them and not accepted from the other: — he said: “I will kill thee.” Said he: “God only accepts from those of prudent fear.
“If thou stretch out against me thy hand to kill me, I will not stretch out my hand against thee to kill thee; I fear God, the Lord of All Creation.
“I wish thee to bear my sin and thy sin, and to become of the companions of the Fire; and that is the reward of the wrongdoers.”
And his soul allowed him the killing of his brother; and he killed him, and became of the losers.
Then God raised up a raven, scratching in the earth, to show him how to hide the shame of his brother. He said: “Woe is me! Am I not able to be as this raven, and hide the shame of my brother?” And he became of the remorseful.
For that cause We prescribed for the children of Israel that whoso takes a life other than for a life or corruption in the land, it will be as if he killed mankind altogether; (and whoso gives life, it will be as if he gave life to mankind altogether — and Our messengers came to them with clear signs, then many of them after that are committers of excess in the earth — )
The reward but of those who war against God and His messenger, and strive to work corruption in the land, that they be killed, or they be crucified, or their hands and feet be cut off on opposite sides, or they be banished from the land. That. They have disgrace in the World; and they have in the Hereafter a great punishment
Save those who repent before you have power over them; and know that God is forgiving and merciful.
O you who heed warning: be in prudent fear of God, and seek to Him the means of approach; and strive in His cause, that you might be successful.
Those who ignore warning: were they to have all that is in the earth and the like thereof with it to seek to ransom themselves thereby from the punishment on the Day of Resurrection, it would not be accepted from them; and they have a painful punishment.
They will wish to come forth from the Fire, but they will not come forth from it; and they have a lasting punishment.
And the male thief and the female thief: cut off their hand as a reward for what they have earned, as an exemplary punishment from God; and God is exalted in might and wise.
Then whoso repents after his injustice and makes right, God will relent towards him; God is forgiving and merciful.
Knowest thou not that God, to Him belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth? He punishes whom He wills and forgives whom He wills; and God is over all things powerful.
O Messenger: let there not grieve thee those who compete in denial among those who say: “We believe,” with their mouths, when their hearts have not believed. And among those who hold to Judaism are eager listeners to lies, eager listeners to another people who have not come to thee (they twist words from their places, saying “If this be given you, receive it; but if it be not given you, beware!” And whom God wishes to try: thou wilt not have power for him against God in anything. Those are they whose hearts God desires not to purify; they have in the World disgrace, and they have in the Hereafter a great punishment)
Eager listeners to lies; hearty consumers of illicit gain. And if they come to thee, judge thou between them, or turn thou away from them; if thou turnest away from them, they will not harm thee at all; but if thou judgest, judge thou between them with equity; God loves the equitable.
And how come they to thee for judgment when they have the Torah wherein is the judgment of God, then turn away after that? And those are not believers.
We sent down the Torah wherein is guidance and light. The prophets who submitted judged thereby those who hold to Judaism as did the rabbis and the religious scholars with what they were given charge of the Writ of God and were thereto witnesses: “So fear not mankind but fear Me; and sell not My proofs at a cheap price.” And whoso judges not by what God has sent down, it is they who are the false claimers of guidance.
And We prescribed for them therein a life for a life, and an eye for an eye, and a nose for a nose, and an ear for an ear, and a tooth for a tooth, and for wounds just requital; but whoso forgives it by way of charity, it is an expiation for him. And whoso judges not by what God has sent down: it is they who are the wrongdoers.
And We sent Jesus, son of Mary in their footsteps confirming what was before him of the Torah; and We gave him the Gospel wherein was guidance and light, both confirming what was before him of the Torah and as guidance and admonition for those of prudent fear.
And let the people of the Gospel judge by what God sent down therein; and whoso judges not by what God has sent down: it is they who are the perfidious.
And We sent down to thee the Writ with the truth, confirming what is before it of the Writ, and as a control over it. So judge thou between them by what God has sent down; and follow thou not their vain desires away from what has come to thee of the truth. For each of you We appointed an ordinance and a procedure. And had God willed, He could have made you one community; but that He might try you in what He gave you. — So vie in good deeds; unto God will you return all together, and He will inform you of that wherein you differed —
And judge thou between them by what God has sent down; and follow thou not their vain desires, and beware thou of them lest they seduce thee away from some of what God has sent down to thee. And if they turn away, know thou that God but intends to afflict them for some of their transgressions; and many among men are perfidious.
Is it the judgment of ignorance they seek? And who is better than God in judgment for people who are certain?
O you who heed warning: take not the Rabbinic Jews and the Christians as allies; they are allies of one another. And whoso takes them as allies among you, he is of them; God guides not the wrongdoing people.
And thou seest those in whose hearts is disease competing among them, saying: “We fear lest a reversal befall us.” But it may be that God will bring victory or a command from Him and they will become of what they concealed within their souls, remorseful.
And those who heed warning will say: “Are these they who swore by God their strongest oaths that they were with you?” Their works have become vain; and they have become losers.
O you who heed warning: whoso among you renounces his doctrine: God will bring a people whom He will love, and who will love Him: humble towards the believers; stern towards the false claimers of guidance; striving in the cause of God, and fearing not the reproach of a critic. That is the bounty of God He gives to whom He wills; and God is encompassing and knowing.
Your ally is but God and His messenger, and those who heed warning — those who uphold the duty, and render the purity; and they are lowly —
And whoso takes God and His messenger and those who heed warning as ally: the party of God, they will be the victors.
O you who heed warning: take not those who take your doctrine in mockery and fun among those given the Writ before you and the atheists as allies; and be in prudent fear of God if you be believers.
And when you call to the duty they take it in mockery and fun, for it is that they are people who do not reason!
Say thou: “O doctors of the Law: do you resent us save that we believe in God and what was sent down to us and what was sent down before, and that most of you are perfidious?”
Say thou: “Shall I inform you of worse than that as a recompense with God? He whom God cursed and with whom He was wroth and made of them apes and swine and servants of idols: those are worse in standing and further astray from the right path.”
And when they come to you, they say: “We believe”; but they entered in denial, and they left in it; and God best knows what they were concealing.
And thou seest many of them competing in sin and enmity and their consumption of illicit gain; evil is what they do.
Oh, that the rabbis and the religious scholars had but forbidden their speaking sin and their consumption of illicit gain! Evil is what they were working.
And the Rabbinic Jews say: “The hand of God is fettered.” Fettered are their hands! And cursed are they for what they say! Nay, His hands are spread wide; He spends how He wills. And there increases many of them in inordinacy and denial what was sent down to thee from thy Lord. And We have cast among them enmity and hatred until the Day of Resurrection; whenever they lit the fire of war, God extinguished it; and they strive in the land for corruption; and God loves not the workers of corruption.
And had the doctors of the Law believed and been in prudent fear, We would have removed their evil deeds from them and made them enter the Gardens of Bliss.
And had they upheld the Torah and the Gospel and what was sent down to them from their Lord, they would have eaten from above them and from under their feet. Among them is a moderate community; but many of them, evil is what they do.
O Messenger: convey thou what has been sent down to thee from thy Lord; and if thou do it not, then thou wilt not have conveyed His message. And God will protect thee from men. God guides not the people of the false claimers of guidance.
Say thou: “O doctors of the Law: you have nothing to stand upon until you uphold the Torah and the Gospel and what was sent down to you from your Lord.” And there increases many of them in inordinacy and denial what was sent down to thee from thy Lord; so grieve thou not over the people of the false claimers of guidance.
Those who heed warning, and those who hold to Judaism, and the Sabaeans, and the Christians — whoso believes in God and the Last Day and works righteousness — no fear will be upon them, nor will they grieve.
We took an agreement of the children of Israel and sent to them messengers. Whenever a messenger came to them with what their souls desired not, a faction they denied, and a faction they killed,
And considered there would be no means of denial, so they became blind and deaf. Then turned God towards them; then became many among them blind and deaf; and God sees what they do.
They have denied who say: “God is the Messiah, son of Mary.” And the Messiah said: “O children of Israel: serve God, my Lord and your Lord; whoso ascribes a partnership to God, him has God forbidden the Garden, and his shelter is the Fire; and for the wrongdoers there are no helpers.”
They have denied who say: “God is the third of three.” And there is no god save One God. And if they desist not from so saying, there will touch those who ignore warningamong them a painful punishment.
Will they then not turn to God and seek His forgiveness? And God is forgiving and merciful.
The Messiah, son of Mary, was but a messenger; messengers had passed away before him; and his mother was a woman of truth; they both ate food. See thou how We make plain the proofs to them; then see thou how they are deluded.
Say thou: “Serve you, besides God, what has power over you for neither harm nor benefit?” And God, He is the Hearing, the Knowing.
Say thou: “O doctors of the Law: exceed not bounds in your doctrine beyond the truth; and follow not the vain desires of a people who strayed before, and led many astray; and they strayed from the right path.”
Those among the children of Israel who ignored warning were cursed by the tongue of David, and of Jesus, son of Mary, for it is that they opposed and exceeded all bounds!
They forbade not one another what is perverse, but they did it; evil was what they did.
Thou seest many of them taking allies of those who ignore warning; evil is what their souls have sent ahead for them, that God is wroth with them; and in the punishment will they abide eternally.
And had they believed in God and the Prophet and what has been sent down to him, they would not have taken them as allies; but many among them are perfidious.
Thou wilt find the strongest of men in enmity to those who heed warning the Rabbinic Jews and the idolaters; and thou wilt find the nearest of them in love to those who heed warning those who say: “We are Christians”; for it is that among them are priests and monks, and that they wax not proud!
And when they listen to what has been sent down to the Messenger, thou seest their eyes overflow with tears because of what they recognise of the truth. They say: “Our Lord: we believe, so write Thou us down among the witnesses;
“And why should we not believe in God and what has come to us of the truth, and hope that our Lord will make us enter with the righteous people?”
So God rewarded them for what they said with gardens beneath which rivers flow, they abiding eternally therein; and that is the reward of the doers of good.
And those who ignore warning and deny Our proofs: those are the companions of Hell.
O you who heed warning: forbid not the good things that God has made lawful for you; and transgress not; God loves not the transgressors.
And eat of what God has provided you, lawful and good; and be in prudent fear of God in whom you are believers.
God will not take you to task for the vain speech in your oaths; but He will take you to task for what you have contracted by oath, whereof the expiation is the feeding of ten needy persons with the average of that you feed your families, or the clothing of them, or the manumission of a slave; but whoso has not the means, then a fast of three days. That is the expiation of your oaths when you have sworn. But keep your oaths; thus does God make plain to you His proofs, that you might be grateful.
O you who heed warning: wine, and games of chance, and altars, and divining arrows are an abomination of the work of the satan; so avoid it, that you might be successful.
The satan but wishes to cause between you enmity and hatred in wine and the games of chance, and to turn you away from the remembrance of God and from the duty; so will you not desist?
And obey God and obey the Messenger, and beware; but if you turn away, then know that upon Our messenger is only the clear notification.
Those who heed warning and do righteous deeds do no wrong in what they eat when they are in prudent fear and believe and do righteous deeds. Then be in prudent fear and believe! Then be in prudent fear and do righteous deeds! And God loves the doers of good.
O you who heed warning: God will try you with something of the game that your hands and your spears reach, that God might know him who fears Him unseen. Then whoso transgresses after that, for him is a painful punishment.
O you who heed warning: kill no game when you are forbidden; and whoso of you kills it intentionally: the payment is the like of what he killed from grazing livestock. Let judge it two just men from among you by an offering reaching the kaʿba, or expiation: feeding needy persons or the equivalent of that in fasting, that he might taste the evil consequence of his deed. God has pardoned what is past; but whoso returns, God will take vengeance on him; and God is exalted in might and vengeful.
Made lawful for you is the game of the sea and the food thereof, as a provision for you and for those who travel; but forbidden to you is the game of the land so long as you are forbidden; and be in prudent fear of God to whom you will be gathered.
God made the kaʿba, the inviolable house, standing for the people, the inviolable month, the offering, and the necklaces — that is so that you might know that God knows what is in the heavens and what is in the earth, and that God knows all things.
Know that God is severe in retribution, and that God is forgiving and merciful.
Upon the Messenger is only the notification; and God knows what you reveal and what you conceal.
Say thou: “Not the same are the bad and the good, although there impress thee the abundance of the bad.” So be in prudent fear of God, O you men of understanding, that you might be successful.
O you who heed warning: ask not about things which, if made clear to you, would distress you; but if you ask about them while the Qur’an is being sent down, they will be made clear to you. God has pardoned that; and God is forgiving and clement.
There did ask a people before you, then became deniers thereof.
God appointed not any baḥīrah or sā’ibah or waṣīlah or ḥām — but those who ignore warning invent lies about God; and most of them do not reason.
And when it is said to them: “Come to what God has sent down, and to the Messenger,” they say: “Sufficient for us is that upon which we found our fathers.” Even though their fathers knew not anything and were not guided?
O you who heed warning: upon you are your souls; whoso has gone astray cannot harm you when you are guided. To God is your return all together; then He will inform you of what you did.
O you who heed warning: a witness between you when death approaches one of you at the time of bequest is two just men among you; or two others from other than yourselves if you are travelling in the earth when the calamity of death befalls you. Detain them after the duty, and they shall swear by God, if you doubt: “We would not sell it for a price, though he were a relative, nor will we conceal the witness of God; then would we be among the sinners.”
But if it be found that they have laid claim in sin, then two others shall stand in their place — the two foremost from those that lay claim — and let them swear by God: “Our witness is worthier than their witness; and we have not transgressed: then would we be among the wrongdoers.”
That will tend to them bearing witness properly, or fearing that oaths will be taken after their oaths. And be in prudent fear of God, and listen; and God guides not the perfidious people.
The day God gathers the messengers, He will say: “What was the response to you?” They will say: “We have no knowledge; Thou art the Knower of the Unseen Realms.”
(When God will say: “O Jesus, son of Mary: remember thou My favour to thee and to thy mother: when I strengthened thee with the Spirit of Holiness, thou speaking to men in the cradle and in maturity; and when I taught thee the Writ and wisdom, and the Torah and the Gospel; and when thou didst create of clay the likeness of a bird by My leave, and blewest into it and it became a bird by My leave, and thou didst heal the blind and the leper by My leave; and when thou broughtest forth the dead by My leave; and when I restrained the children of Israel from thee when thou camest to them with clear signs”; then those who ignored warning among them said: “This is only obvious sorcery”;
And when I revealed to the disciples: “Believe in Me and My messenger”; they said: “We believe; and bear thou witness that we are submitting”;
When the disciples said: “O Jesus, son of Mary: is thy Lord able to send down upon us a table spread from the sky?” he said: “Be in prudent fear of God, if you be believers.”
They said: “We wish to eat thereof and our hearts to be at rest, and to know that thou hast spoken truth to us, and to be among the witnesses thereto.”
Jesus, son of Mary said: “O God, our Lord: send Thou down upon us a table spread from the sky to be a feast for us — for the first of us and the last of us — and a proof from Thee; and give Thou us provision; and Thou art the best of providers.”
God said: “I will send it down upon you; then whoso denies thereafter among you: him will I punish with a punishment wherewith I will not punish any among all mankind.”
And when God will say: “O Jesus, son of Mary: didst thou say to men: ‘Take me and my mother as two gods besides God?’” he will say: “Glory be to Thee! It was not for me to say that to which I had no right! If I had said it, then Thou wouldst have known it. Thou knowest what is in my soul, and I know not what is in Thy soul; Thou art the Knower of the Unseen Realms.
“I said not to them but what Thou commandedst me: ‘Serve God, my Lord and your Lord.’ And I was a witness to them while I was among them; but when Thou tookest me, Thou wast the watcher over them; and Thou art witness to all things.
“If Thou punish them, they are Thy servants; and if Thou forgive them, Thou art the Exalted in Might, the Wise.”)
God will say: “This is the day in which their truthfulness benefits the truthful.” They have gardens beneath which rivers flow, they abiding eternally therein forever; God is pleased with them, and they pleased with Him; that is the Great Achievement.
To God belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth and what is in them; and He is over all things powerful.