Surah Al-An'am 6:145-150 - Quran Translation Commentary

145. Say: “I do find nothing in what has been revealed to me that forbids men to eat what they eat, except carrion, or blood poured forth, or the flesh of swine–which indeed is filthy– or transgression that is the animal on slaughtering which the name of a being other than Allah has been pronounced.”²⁶⁴ But if a person is forced by necessity, without wilful disobedience, not transgressing due limits then indeed your Lord is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.²⁶⁵

146. And for those who became Jews, we forbade every (animal) with nails (undivided hoofs) and the fat of the oxen and the sheep, except what adheres to their backs and intestines or is mixed with their bones. That is the punishment we gave them for their rebellion.²⁶⁶ And indeed we are true.²⁶⁷

147. So if they give the lie to you, say; “Your Lord is a Lord of vast mercy,²⁶⁸ but from the guilty people His punishment cannot be warded off.

148. These polytheists (idolaters) will say: “Had Allah wished, neither we nor our fathers. would have ascribed partners to Allah, nor would we have forbidden anything (unauthorized).” In the same way those who have gone before them had denied (the truth) until they tasted our scourge. Say: “Have you any knowledge²⁶⁹ that you can adduce for us? You follow in nothing but conjecture²⁷⁰, and you do nothing but guess.”

149. Say: “Allah alone has the convincing argument. If it had been His will, He could indeed, have guided you all.”²⁷¹

150. Say: “Bring forward your witnesses who can testify that Allah has forbidden this.” If they testify, do not testify with them, nor follow the wishes of those who deny our revelations, and of those who do not believe in the Hereafter, and those who hold (others) as equal with their Lord.

Commentary

264. To understand the meaning of this verse it is necessary to keep in view what has been stated in the foregoing verses. The Arabs ate as food the flesh of the animals mentioned in verses Nos. 143 and 144, but in certain circumstances the flesh of these things and it is stated that in the commands given to the prophet not a single thing declared as lawful, which were carrion, blood that was poured forth, flesh of the swine and the flesh of the animal on whom the name of some one else was pronounced while slaughtering. Here a reference is made to these things and stated that in the commands given to the prophet not a single thing declared as forbidden by you is included, except these four things, carrion, etc. etc. Therefore, it would not be correct to interpret. That in Islam besides these four things nothing is forbidden. This principle has been made clear by Quran at another place:

“This prophet declares clean things as lawful for them and filthy things as forbidden.” —(Al-A’raf-157).

Its details are given in the hadith, for example in a hadith of Sahih Muslim, the prophet (Sallal lahu Alaihi wasallam) has said:

“Forbidden is the flesh of any carnivore having canine tooth.”

“The Prophet has forbidden to eat the flesh of every carnivore which has canine tooth and every bird which has claws.” – (Sahih Muslim-Kitabus Said waz-zabaih.)

During the period when Quran was being revealed no queries were raised as to what would happen if the flesh of the carnivores is eaten by man, or whether the flesh of rats, snakes, scorpions and insects should be eaten by man or not, because human nature considers these animals and their flesh as filthy and temperamentally man hates to eat the flesh of these animals. Then none of these creatures were among the animals whose sacrifice was offered to the idols. Therefore, it was not necessary to include the mention of their being forbidden with such elaboration as has been done in the case of forbidding the eating of blood, or the flesh of the animal on whom Allah’s name has not been pronounced, etc. This is the reason why Quran has stated the forbidding of these four things laying such great emphasis, and besides it has repeated it several times so that there should be an intellectual and practical reform of the people. As regards other filthy animals, the mention of forbidding their flesh was left to the prophet (P.b.u.h.) as is mentioned in Surah Al-A’raf: ‘This prophet declares clean things as lawful and filthy things as forbidden. “Accordingly we find details of the things that are forbidden for Muslims in the authentic traditions” of the prophet.

265. Its explanation, and also that of carrion, etc. has been given in Surah Baqarah, Notes Nos.209 to 214.

266. The point which was to be brought to the fore by mentioning that except the four things, the flesh of all other animals was lawful, that was in the religion of prophet Ibrahim only these four things were forbidden. Whatever changes that have been brought into these are the innovations of the Arabs themselves. The divine Shariah has nothing to do with it. From this statement of Quran, the question that comes up is When these four things were forbidden from the beginning, then how come they were decreed as forbidden for the jews, who were the people of the Book? The answer is given in this verse that besides these four things, some other things were also decreed forbidden for the Jews, not because these things in themselves were filthy, (they were quite clean)–but because of the transgression and rebellion of the Jews the laws of the Shariah were made stricter for them, as a punishment. This was a temporary command, which was given in view of their corrupt nature, in the same way in which a physician restricts a sick person from eating even the clean and healthy food in view of the seriousness of the illness. Therefore, now that a permanent Shariah is being revealed, in the form of the holy Quran, all these temporary restrictions are being withdrawn. Therefore, in this Shariah all clean things are lawful and only filthy things are forbidden.

The Jews were forbidden, as has been stated, two clean things, one: all animals and birds, having claws (nails), and the fat of the cow and goat except which adheres to the back, entrails and the bones, as it cannot be separated easily.

It is also learnt from this verse that these two things were decreed to be haram for the Bani Israil, when they had rebelled against God and had adopted Judaism as their religion, otherwise these things were not taboo for them.

267. It signifies that if anything contrary to this is found in the existing Torah, then it is wrong and attributing it to God is not correct.

268. That is why He is not sending His punishment to you immediately, but granting you respite and chance to improve and reform yourselves.

269. To declare a thing haram (forbidden, means that it is not liked by Allah and therefore He has forbidden to use it. If a person or a nation entertains a belief that a particular thing is forbidden for mankind or for a certain group of people, then that person or that nation should show what is the basis of their contention, that is how did they come to know that this particular thing is forbidden. If there is no authority ‘or no’sound argument behind this contention, then what is it, if not superstition or mere conjecture? If anything is to be stated concerning God, it must be based on sound knowledge, otherwise it will be an extremely irresponsible statement.

270. That is: Your beliefs are not based on knowledge or facts, but are based on conjecture, because there is no means by which you can ascertain the will of God.

271. That is: If God wanted, He would have caused every one to follow the right path. But He willed otherwise. He gave a chance to man to choose either the path of guidance or the path which led him astray. And for clearly pointing to man what is the right path, He has revealed such sound arguments that appeal directly to the heart. As opposed to this clear-cut and sound argument; your reasoning that had Allah wanted, you would not have become idolaters and all such arguments are quite useless, ineffective and unfruitful.