(5. Surat al-Ma'ida - The Table
ayah 49 - 87)
The Noble Qur'an
A New Rendering of its Meaning in English
by Abdalhaqq and Aisha Bewley
1999 Madinah Press, 664 Pages . Hardback. ISBN 1-874216-36-3
Ref:97bk Price: £ 20.00
In the Name of Allah, All-Merciful, Most Merciful
49 Judge between them by what Allah has sent
down
and do not
follow their whims and desires.
And beware of them lest they lure
you away
from some
of what Allah has sent down to you.
If they turn their backs, then know
that Allah
wants to
afflict them with some of their wrong actions.
Many of mankind are deviators.
50 Do they then seek the judgement of the Time of
Ignorance?
Who could be better at
giving judgement than Allah
for people with certainty?
51 You who have iman! do not take the Jews and
Christians
as your friends;
they are
the friends of one another.
Any of you who takes them as
friends is one of them.
Allah does
not guide wrongdoing people.
52 Yet you see those with sickness in their hearts
rushing to them,
saying, 'We fear the
wheel of fate may turn against us.'
But it may well be that Allah will
bring about victory
or some other
contingency from Him.
Then they will deeply regret their
secret thoughts.
53 Those who have iman say,
'Are these the people
who swore by Allah,
with their
most earnest oaths, that they were with you?'
Their actions have come to nothing and they now
are losers.
54 You who have iman! if any of you renounce your deen,
Allah will bring
forward a people
whom He loves and who love Him,
humble to the muminun,
fierce to the kafirun,
who strive in the Way of Allah
and do not fear the
blame of any censurer.
That is the unbounded favour of
Allah
which He gives to
whoever He wills.
Allah is Boundless, All-Knowing.
55 Your friend is only Allah and His Messenger
and those
who have iman:
those who establish salat
and pay
zakat, and bow.
56 As for those who make Allah their friend,
and His Messenger and
those who have iman:
it is the party of Allah who are
victorious!
57 You who have iman! do not take as friends
any of those given the
Book before you or the kuffar
who make a
mockery and a game out of your deen.
Have taqwa of Allah if
you are muminun.
58 When you call to salat they make a mockery and a
game of it.
That is because they
are people who do not use their intellect.
59 Say: 'People of the Book! do you resent us for any
other reason
than that we have iman
in Allah
and what was sent down to us,
and what was sent down before,
and because most of you are deviators?'
60 Say: 'Shall I tell you of a reward with Allah
far worse than that:
that of those whom
Allah has cursed
and with
whom He is angry –
turning some of them into monkeys
and into pigs –
and
who worshipped false gods?
Such people are in a worse
situation
and further from
the right way.'
61 When they come to you, they say, 'We have iman.'
But they
entered with kufr and left with it.
Allah knows best what they were
hiding.
62 You see many of them rushing to wrongdoing and
enmity
and acquiring
ill-gotten gains.
What an
evil thing they do!
63 Why do their scholars and rabbis not prohibit them
from evil speech and
acquiring ill-gotten gains?
What an
evil thing they invent!
64 The Jews say, 'Allah's hand is chained.'
Their hands are
chained
and they are cursed for what they say!
No! Both His hands are open wide
and He gives
however He wills.
What has been sent down to you from
your Lord
increases many of
them in insolence and kufr.
We have incited enmity and hatred
between them
until the
Day of Rising.
Each time they kindle the fire of
war,
Allah
extinguishes it.
They rush about the earth
corrupting it.
Allah does
not love corrupters.
65 If only the People of the Book had had iman and
taqwa,
We would have erased
their evil deeds from them
and admitted them into Gardens of Delight.
66 If only they had implemented the Torah and the
Injil
and what was sent down
to them from their Lord,
they would have been fed from above their
heads
and beneath their feet.
Among them there is a moderate group
but what most of them
do is evil.
67 O Messenger! transmit what has been sent down to
you
from your Lord.
If you do not do it you will not have
transmitted His Message.
Allah will protect you
from people.
Allah does not guide the people of the
kafirun.
68 Say: 'People of the Book! you have nothing to stand
on
until you implement the
Torah and the Injil
and what has been sent down to you from
your Lord.'
What has been sent down
to you from your Lord
increases many of them in insolence and kufr.
So do not waste your
grief on the people of the kafirun.
69 Those who have iman and those who are Jews
and the Sabaeans and
the Christians,
all who have iman in Allah and the Last
Day and act rightly
will feel no fear and
will know no sorrow.
70 We made a covenant with the tribe of Israel
and We sent Messengers
to them.
Each time a Messenger came to them
with something their
lower selves did not desire,
they denied some and they murdered
others.
71 They thought there would be no fitna.
They were blind and
deaf.
Then Allah turned towards them.
Then many of them
went blind and deaf again.
Allah sees what they do.
72 Those who say that the Messiah, son of Maryam, is
Allah
are kafirun.
The Messiah said, 'Tribe of Israel!
worship Allah,
my Lord and
your Lord.
If anyone associates anything with
Allah,
Allah has
forbidden him the Garden
and his refuge will be the Fire.'
The
wrongdoers will have no helpers.
73 Those who say that Allah is the third of
three
are kafirun.
There is no
god but One God.
If they do not stop saying what
they say,
a painful
punishment will afflict
those among them who are kafir.
74 Why do they not turn to Allah and ask for His
forgiveness?
Allah is
Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful.
75 The Messiah, the son of Maryam, was only a
Messenger,
before whom
other Messengers came and went.
His mother was a woman of truth.
Both of
them ate food.
See how We make the Signs clear to
them!
Then see
how they are perverted!
76 Say: 'Do you worship, besides Allah,
something which has no
power to harm or help you
when Allah
is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing?'
77 Say: 'People of the Book! do not go to extremes in
your deen,
asserting
other than the truth,
and do not follow the whims and
desires of people
who were
misguided previously
and have misguided many others,
and are far
from the right way.'
78 Those among the tribe of Israel who were kafir
were cursed on the
tongue of Dawud
and that of 'Isa, son of Maryam.
That is because they rebelled
and overstepped
the limits.
79 They would not restrain one another
from any of
the wrong things that they did.
How evil were the things they used
to do!
80 You see many of them taking those who are kafir as
their friends.
What their
lower selves have advanced for them is evil indeed,
bringing Allah's anger down upon them.
They will
suffer punishment timelessly, for ever.
81 If they had had iman in Allah and the Prophet
and what
has been sent down to him,
they would not have taken them as
friends.
But most of
them are deviators.
82 You will find that the people most hostile
to those who have iman
are the Jews and the mushrikun.
You will find the people most
affectionate
to those who have iman
are those who say, 'We are Christians.'
That is because some of them are
priests and monks
and because they are not arrogant.
83 When they listen to what has been sent down to the
Messenger,
you see
their eyes overflowing with tears
because of what they recognise of the truth.
They say, 'Our Lord, we have iman!
So write us
down among the witnesses.
84 How could we not have iman in Allah,
and the
truth that has come to us,
when we long for our Lord to
include us among the salihun?'
85 Allah will reward them for what they say
with Gardens with
rivers flowing under them,
remaining in them timelessly, for ever.
That is the recompense
of the good-doers.
86 As for those who are kafir and deny Our Signs,
they are the Companions
of the Blazing Fire.
87 You who have iman! do not make haram
the good things Allah
has made halal for you,
and do not overstep the limits.
Allah does not love people who overstep
the limits.
