Surah Al-Ma'idah 5:12-19 - Quran Translation Commentary

12. And Allah had taken a covenant from Bani Israil⁶⁰; and we appointed twelve supervisors from among them⁶¹; and Allah had said: “I am with you⁶², if you establish salat (prayer), pay zakat ⁶³, believe in My messengers and support them⁶⁴, and loan to Allah a hasan (beautiful) loan⁶⁵, surely I will wipe out form you your evils⁶⁶, and admit you to Gardens with rivers flowing beneath⁶⁷. But if any of you, after this, denies faith, he has truly strayed from the right path⁶⁸.”

13. And because of their breaking their covenant, we cursed them and made their hearts hard⁶⁹. They change the words from their context⁷⁰, and they forgot a part of that (book) by which they were admonished⁷¹. And you will not cease to find them indulging in dishonesty⁷², save a few of them⁷³, so forgive them and bear with them ⁷⁴, verily Allah loves the righteous.

14. And from those too, who say: “we are ‘Nasara’ (Christians)⁷⁵,”we took a covenant⁷⁶, but they forgot a part of that (book) by which they were admonished⁷⁷. So we stirred up enmity and hatred among them till the Day of Resurrection⁷⁸,and soon Allah will show them their handiwork.

15. O people of the Book! There has come to you our messenger, revealing to you much that you used to hide in the Book, and overlooking much⁷⁹. Surely, there has come to you light⁸⁰ from Allah and a clear Book ⁸¹.

16. Whereby Allah guides him who seeks His good pleasure to paths of peace⁸². He brings them out of darkness to light⁸³ by His will, and leads them to a straight path⁸⁴.

17. Indeed they blasphemed who said that Allah is the Messiah son of Maryam⁸⁵. Say (to them): “ Who then can do aught against Allah, if He intended to destroy the Messiah, son of Mary, and his mother and everyone on earth⁸⁶? And to Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and all that is between. He creates what He pleases⁸⁷, and Allah has power over all things.”

18. And the Jews and the Christians say: “we are sons of Allah and His favourites⁸⁸.” Say: “why then does He punish you for sins⁸⁹? Nay, you are but men,– of those whom He has created⁹⁰; He forgives whom He pleases, and punishes whom He pleases⁹¹; and to Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens ‘and the earth, and all that is between; and to Him is the final journeying.

19. O people of the Book ! Now has our messenger come to you making clear to you (the true religion) after an interval (cessation) of the messengers⁹², lest you should say: there did not come to us any bringer of glad tidings and any warner. Now has come to you a bringer of glad tidings and a warner⁹³, and Allah has power over all things⁹⁴.

Commentary

60. Means covenant of obedience and worship. It is stated in the Torah that when prophet Moosa preached them to obey the commands of God and to follow the covenant made with Him, they said: “ All that the Lord has spoken we will do.”- (Exodus -19:8). At another place it is stated:

“You have declared this day concerning the LORD that he is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his ordinances, and will obey his voice: ! ” (Deuteronomy 26:17)

61. There were twelve tribes of Bani Israil. Therefore,for every tribe a chief was appointed so that he may watch over the people of that particular tribe in respect of their observing the commands of the shariah, and preventing corrupt practices. The mention of twelve chiefs also occurs in the Bible.(Refer to Numbers, Chapter II, Deuteronomy l :23).

62. And with whatever nation or people God is, His support and assistance will be naturally with that nation or the people.

63. It shows that in the Shariah which was given to the Bani Israil, prayer (salat) and zakat enjoyed basic importance. But so far as the existing Torah is concerned, a mention of zakat is found in that but a reference to salat (prayer) has been totally removed from it .

64. That is: You will believe in the prophets that come from God and you will support them. In this is included believing in the last prophet, Muhammad (Peace be upon him) and supporting him. The hint is particularly to believing in and supporting the last prophet.

65. This spending for Allah is apart from the zakat, a reference to which has already been made in the foregoing “Ayaat”. Beside zakat there may arise need for spending for the sake of Allah for jihad or for propagation of religion. For further explanation, note no.381, Surah Baqarah may be seen.

66. If a man develops in himself the basic qualities, mentioncd above, then his weaknesses and evils can be wiped out:

“Virtues remove evils”.–(Hud -114).

And the mistakes and faults committed by him are forgiven by Allah.

67. Means the ever green gardens of the Paradise.

68. That is: If even after these clear directions a person adopts the line of rejection of Islam and refuses to accept Muhammad(Sallal Lahu Alaihi wa sallam) as the Last prophet of Allah, he loses the right path which is the only path that leads to Allah, and the name of this path is Islam.

69. The nation or the people that break the covenant made with Allah deserve only curses. After this the quality of the heart to absorb good preachings and counsels is lost and admonitions become ineffective.

In the Bible–Book of Zachariah the picture of the hard–heartedness of Bani Israil drawn in these words:

“They made their hearts like adamant lest they should hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets, Therefore great wrath came from the LORD of hosts.” (Zechariah 7:12)

70. That is: The matter is something, but they refer to something else. When the hearts become hard, the ability to absorb or accept truth is gone. When such people are made to hear truth which is not palatable to them they give their own meaning to it, which neither corresponds to the context nor to the purpose of the speech.

The unauthorized changes that the Jews were effecting in the words of God has been explained in Surah Baqarah note no.96.

71. They did not preserve or kept safe the Torah through which they were preached guidance, but they forgot one part of the Book. Accordingly in the existing Torah (Bible) the narration about the destruction that will be caused on the Doomsday and the mention of the reward and punishment on the Day of Judgment can hardly be found. However. the description of the wordly rewards and punishment is found in detail, and the promise of the greatest reward repeatedly made on following the Shariah is getting that country where the rivers of milk and honey flow, that is Palestine. It is obvious that the manner and style of promoting and encouraging virtue, in any Divine book, cannot be such as found in the Torah, which is the proof of the fact that portion of the Torah which dealt with the description concerning the Hereafter has been forgotten by the Jews.

72. Making changes unauthorizedly in the Divine Books is dishonesty and misappropriation of the trust.

73. That is: Among the Jews people who do not. indulge in this kind of mischief are few, and there are also such people who were blessed with embracing the religion of Truth, Islam.

74. That is: It is not unusual, for such people that they may cause harm or they may hurt, but you should, as a gesture of kindness, forgive them and overlook their evil acts.

O people of the Book! There has come to you our messenger, revealing to you much that you used to hide in the Book, and overlooking much. Surely, there has come to you light from Allah and a clear Book. (Al-Quran)

75. Refers to the fact that the name ‘Nasara’ (‘Christians’) for the followers of the Christ is adopted by themselves, while Allah had given to the followers of his religion the name ‘Muslimeen’, as is evident from the last verse of the Surah Hajj. So far the word ‘Nasara’ (Christians) is concerned, it is the plural of the word ‘Nasran’, like Nadama which is the plural of Nadman, -(As-Sihah lil Jauhari, Vol. II page 829), and it is related to Nasirah, which is a city in Syria, where Prophet Eesa had settled. Accordingly, the Bible has it: “And he went and dwelt in a city called Nazareth (Nasirah), that what was spoken by the Prophets might be fulfilled, He shall be called a Nazarene (Nasiri)’. –(Matthew 2 : 23).

76. Means covenant of obedience.

77. Means Injeel, a big part of which they had forgotten.

78. That is: The inevitable consequences of forgetting the guidance of Allah are the differences and sectarianism. Since this result follows according to Divine Law, it is mentioned as stirring up enmity and hatred among them. And the only way of deliverance from this is to believe in the Quran and prophet Muhammad (Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wasallam) and to follow the path of Islam. But when they did not accept this guidance on account of their prejudices, Allah left them to their plight that they might continue quarrelling and disputing among themselves till the last day, and the history of Christianity bears evidence that the Christians indulged in countless religious disputes and quarrels.

By referring to this event the purpose is not only to warn the Christians but also to admonish the Muslim ummah that they may take a lesson from it or else by forgetting the teachings of Quran they would also suffer from disruption and sectarianism.

79. That is: This prophet is disclosing those things which were concealed by the people of the Book, and which were required to be revealed with a view to the revival of religion. Besides these, there are many ‘distortions’ in religion, which do not need to be tackled directly, as their reality automatically comes to light by following the guiding principles of the Quran, therefore the prophet overlooks many such things.

80. Noor (Light) is the attribute of the prophet, meaning prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him), whose appearance in the world caused the light to spread all over the world.

81. Means Quran, whose teachings are quite clear and plain. The people of the Book had made the teachings of the Divine Scriptures so complicated that it was not possible for anyone to make their meanings clear. But the clear teachings of the Quran put an end to all these complications. Therefore, the dawah of the Quran is that the only way to come out of the intricacies and the complications in which the people of other religions are lost is to accept the clear teachings of the Quran.

82. Whoever would make the good pleasure of Allah as his objective in life and would sincerely follow the religion of truth will have all his doubts and misgivings removed, and he will be secure and safe from every kind of evil. He will be guided at every turn of the road and thus will be saved from following the wrong path and will be placed on the path of peace.

83. By darkness is meant the darkness of ignorance, and by light is meant the light of knowledge.

84. By straight path is meant the religion of Islam.

85. That is: Allah is dissolved in Eesa (Jesus) or Messiah, son of Maryam (Mary), and the reality of divinity is found in him only. In other words, Eesa is the physical manifestation of God.

It is written in the Bible:

“Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified”: (Acts 2:36)

86. That is: If Allah desired to destory Christ, his mother and all the creatures, none had the power to stop Him. And when the Christ himself cannot guard himself against being destroyed, then how can he be god? Such an uncomplicated and simple fact is not understood by the followers of the Christ !

87. That is: Allah can create in any manner He may please. A person’s being born without a father does not mean that he is god or he is associated with godhood.

88. In order to prove this claim of theirs, they made changes in and distorted the writings in the Torah and Injeel. Accordingly where Bani Israil were mentioned as servants or slaves God, it was changed to sons of God.

You are the sons of the LORD your God; (Deuteronomy 14:1)

“See what love the father has given us, that we should be called children of God.” (1 John 3:1)

89. That is: This claim of theirs is refuted by their own history, how they had to suffer severe punishment in the world on account of their transgression and rebellion: the victory and the rule of their enemies over them, enslavement of the entire community, their general massacre, and the destruction of Baitul Maqdis, Such eye-opening events are clear proof of the fact that no community is a favourite of God nor has any community been given any permit for their salvation, but that God decides the matter of reward and punishment on the basis of the actual deeds; then how can we not believe that in the Hereafter the decision of men’s fate will not be on the basis of their performance in this world?

90. No community or nation deserves to receive salvation merely on the basis of their being the descendents of the prophets. The salvation of the people depends on their faith and their own acts and deeds.

91. To forgive or to punish is entirely within the power that only Allah has. He will forgive whom He may be pleased to consider deserving of forgiveness and He may punish whom He may be pleased to consider deserving of punishment. As for the question: whom He would consider deserving of forgiveness and deserving of punishment? In this connection He has made His law of reward and punishment clear in the holy Quran, and this law does not make any distinction between man and man on the basis of race and birth.

92. No prophet was sent after prophet Eesa (Jesus) till at last Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) was sent down by Allah. The Last prophet was sent down in the year 610 A.D., that is after five and three quarters of a century of the raising up of Christ.

During this long period, the people of the Book had made so many distortions in the Divine Scriptures and had introduced so many wrong practices through their own innovations that it had become difficult for the people to know what was the real religion of Allah. These conditions demanded that Allah should send His Messenger, who should show the path of guidance against these wrong and misleading paths, and who should show to the people what the real religion of Allah is. Prophet Muhammad (Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) came for this purpose only.

93. Now there is no excuse for you to adhere to your wrong practices and false beliefs.

94 That is: Now you should understand perfectly that if you still persisted in your transgression, Allah has full power to punish you severely.

And (recall) when Moosa said to his people: “O my people! Remember Allah’s favour to you when He raised from among you prophets, made you rulers and gave you what He had not given to any other among the peoples. (Al-Quran)