Surah Al-Ma'idah 5:78-86 - Quran Translation Commentary

78. Curses were pronounced on those who disbelieved from among the children of Israil, by the tongue of Dawood and of Eesa, son of Maryam,²¹⁷ because they disobeyed and persisted in excesses.

79. They did not forbid one another from the evil that they committed. Vile was that which they were doing.²¹⁸

80. You will see many of them making friends with those who disbelieve.²¹⁹ Surely ill for them is that which they themselves sent forth for them, that Allah’s wrath they have incurred, and in torment will they abide.

81. And only if they had believed in Allah, in the’ prophet, and in what has been revealed to him, never would they have taken them for friends.²²⁰ But most of them are disobedient.

82. You will find the Jews and the polytheists the harshest of men in enmity to the believers; and you will find nearest among them to the believers those who call themselves ‘Nasara’ (Christians),²²¹ that is because there are among them worshipping men of learning and monks, and they are not proud.²²²

83. And when they listen to the revelation that has been sent down to the messenger, you will see their eyes overflowing with tears, because of their recognition of the Truth. They speak out: “Our Lord! We believe, so write us down among the witnesses.²²³

84. “And how can we not believe in Allah and the Truth that has come to us, when we are eager for our Lord to admit us to the company of the righteous.”²²⁴

85. So in reward for this saying of theirs Allah awarded them gardens, with rivers flowing underneath. They will abide therein for ever. That is the recompense of those who do good.

86. But those who rejected faith, and belied our revelations, they shall be companions of Hell-fire.²²⁵

Commentary

217. Those men of Bani Israil who had become rebellious and indulged in open contravention of the divine commandments were very severely taken to task by prophet Dawood( David). Such instances are found in Zabur ( Psalms ):

“Grant not, O Lord, the desires of the wicked, do not further his evil plot! Those who surround me lift up their head, let the mischief of their lips overwhelm them ! Let burning coals fall upon them ! Let them be cast into pits, no more to rise !” (psalms 140: 8 to 10)

“For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips, let them be trapped in their pride. For the cursing and lies which they utter, consume them in wrath, consume them till they are no more.” (psalms 59: 12, 13)

“He clothed himself with cursing as his coat, may it soak into his body like water, like oil into his bones!... May this be the reward of my accusers from the LORD,of those who speak evil against my life! (Psalms 109: 18 to 20)

And prophet Eesa reproached and cursed severely those learned men who were prominent in opposing him and who had ignored the principal reality of the religion and were concerned only with its external manifestations. Some extracts from the Injeel, in this connection, are as under:

‘But woe to you, scribes, pharisees, hypocrites because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither enter yourselves, nor allow those who would enter to go in... Woe to you, scribes and pharisee, hypocrites for you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and rapacity .You blind pharisee first cleanse the inside of the cup and of the plate, that the outside also may be clean...” Woe to you, scribes and pharisees, for you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, saying, “If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets... You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?...’O Jerusalem, Jerusalem killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you... Behold, your house is forsaken and desolate.” (Matt 23: 13 to 38)

218. This was the general conditon of the Bani Israil that they had given up restraining one another from committing evil or in other words they were practising laissez faire, which resulted in encouragement to the mischief-mongers, and corruption became wide spread. There is a great lesson in this for the Muslim Ummah.

219. That is: Their attitude to the Muslims is inimical, while to the infidels they are affectionate. Thus they were the enemies of the Muslims and friends of the infidels of Makkah. Same is the case of the hypocrite-Muslims of today; they are indifferent to the Muslims but are very eager to extend their hand of friendship towards infidels and polytheists.

220. That is: They are absolutely false in their claim that they believe in Allah, the Prophet and the Book,i.e. they believe in Moosa to be a prophet of Allah and the Torah to be a divine Book. If they were honest in their claim, they would not have become friendly to the enemies and the infidels, and antagonistic to the people of Faith (Muslims), for members of a species remain with the same species or as the saying goes: Birds of a feather flock together.

221. The Jews and the polytheists are the bitterest enemies of Muslims. However, the Christians are a bit nearer to the Muslims in friendship. The reason, as is explained in the next sentence is that one group of them proved to be friendly towards Muslims. This verse refers to that group only. It is not correct to consider’ the Christians of every era to be friendly towards Muslims. History shows that the Christians proved to be very bitter enemies of Muslims. The events of Spain and the wars of crusades are the open examples of their hostility towards the Muslims. Similarly the Christians of the present time, believing in secularism, can also not be counted as friendly, for they do not possess the qualities mentioned in the verse.

222. Monks are continent, God-fearing men. “They are not proud “ signifies that they are humble and have no self-conceit, therefore whenever they see the truth, they accept it.

223. This is a description of those who were among the group of Christians. But they were truth loving, that is why they recognised that Quran was the divine word, when they heard it. Because of their recognising the Truth, tears came to their eyes.

Much before the revelation of this Surah, that is at the time of the migration to Abyssinia (05 A.H.) this event had taken place. When Hazrat Ja’far (R) recited the earlier verses of Surah Maryam to Najjashi, king of Abyssinia, he was extremely impressed by the grandeur of the divine revelation, and he could not help shedding tears so much so that his beard was soaked with his tears. The bishops present in the court also wept. Then Najjashi said: “These words and the words revealed to Jesus are the two rays emanating from one and the same lamp.”-(Siratun Nabi by Ibn Hisham, VoI. I, page 359). The fact is that any person who is in search of Truth will definitely find it in the pages of the holy Quran, and in his frenzy of the pleasure for getting at the truth would not be able to restrain his tears. It is a characteristic of the divine word that it melts the heart.

224. That is: When we want that Allah should include us in the company of the righteous people, it is expected of us that we should rise above sectarianism and welcome the truth with open arms.

Satan only seeks to cast enmity and hatred among you by means of wine and gambling, and keep you away from the remembrance of Allah and from salat (prayer). Will you not then abstain? And obey Allah and obey the messenger, and beware ! If you turn away, then know that the duty of our messenger was to convey the message clearly. (Al-Quran)

225. Refers to those Christians who would persist in their disbelief and would not accept the Dawah of Quran.