CHAPTER V. INTITLED, THE TABLE; REVEALED AT MEDINA. IN THE NAME OF THE MOST MERCIFUL GOD. e O true believers, perform your contracts. Ye are allowed to eat the brute cattle, other than what ye are commanded to abstain from; except the game which ye are allowed at other times, but not while ye are on pilgrimage to Mecca; GOD ordaineth that which he pleaseth. O true believers, violate not the holy rites of God, nor the sacred month, nor the offering, nor the ornaments hung thereon, nor those who are travelling to the holy house, seeking favour from their LORD, and to please him. But when ye shall have finished your pilgrimage; then hunt. And let not the malice of some, in that they hindered you from entering the sacred temple, provoke you to transgress, by taking revenge on them in the sacred months. Assist one another according to justice and piety, but assist not one another in injustice and malice: therefore fear GOD; for GoD is severe in punishing. Ye are forbidden to eat that which dieth of itself, and blood, and swine's flesh, and that on which the name of any besides God hath been invocated; and that which hath been strangled, or killed by a blow, or by a fall, or by the horns of another beast, and that which hath been eaten by a wild beast, except what ye shall kill yourselves; and that which hath been sacrificed unto idols. It is likewise unlawful for you to make division by casting lots with arrows." This is an impiety. On this day, woe be unto those who have apostatized from their religion; therefore fear not them, but fear me. This day have I perfected your religion for you, and have m This title is taken from the Table, which, towards the end of the chapter, is fabled to have been let down from heaven to Jesus. It is sometimes also called the chapter of Contracts, which word occurs in the first verse. As camels, oxen, and sheep; and also wild cows, antelopes, &c: but not swine, nor what is taken in hunting during the pilgrimage. The ceremonies used in the pilgrimage of Mecca. See the Prelim. Disc. sect. vii. The offering here meant is the sheep led to Mecca, to be there sacrificed; about the neck of which they use to hang garlands, green boughs, or some other ornament, that it may be distinguished as a thing sacred." In the expedition of Al Hodeibiya." For the idolatrous Arabs used, in killing any animal for food, to consecrate it, as it were, to their idols, by saying, In the name of Allât, or al Uzza.' Or by a creature trained up to hunting." 1 That is, unless ye come up time enough to find life in the animal, and to cut its throat. The word also signifies certain stones, which the pagan Arabs used to set up near their houses, and on which they superstitiously slew animals in honour of their gods.' a See the Prelim. Disc. sect. v. This passage, it is said, was revealed on Friday evening, being the day of the pilgrims visiting mount Arafat, the last time Mohammed visited the temple of Mecca, therefore called the pilgrimage of valediction. And therefore the commentators say that after this time no positive or negative precept was given. 'Jallalo'ddin, Al Beidâwi. 'See ch. ii p. 20. Moham. p. 99. Ibid. sect. ii. 4 Idem. See Prid. of Lifo See the Prelim. Disc. sect. iv. completed my mercy upon you; and I have chosen for you Islam, to be your religion. But whosoever shall be driven by necessity through hunger, to eat of what we have forbidden, not designing to sin, surely God will be indulgent and merciful unto him. They will ask thee what is allowed them as lawful to eat? Answer, such things as are good are allowed you: and what ye shall teach animals of prey to catch, training them up for hunting after the manner of dogs, and teaching them according to the skill which God hath taught you. Eat therefore of that which they shall catch for you; and commemorate the name of GOD thereon; and fear GoD, for God is swift in taking an account. This day are ye allowed to eat such things as are good, and the food of those to whom the scriptures were given" is also allowed as lawful unto you; and your food is allowed as lawful unto them. And ye are also allowed to marry free women that are believers, and also free women of those who have received the scriptures before you, when ye shall have assigned them their dower; living chastely with them, neither committing fornication, nor taking them for concubines. Whoever shall renounce the faith, his work shall be vain, and in the next life he shall be of those who perish. O true believers, when ye prepare yourselves to pray, wash your faces, and your hands unto the elbows; and rub your heads, and 'your feet unto the ankles; and if ye be polluted by having lain with a woman, wash yourselves all over. But if ye be sick, or on a journey, or any of you cometh from the privy, or if ye have touched women, and ye find no water, take fine clean sand, and rub your faces and your hands therewith; GOD wou'd not put a difficulty upon you; but he desireth to purify you, and to complete his favour upon you, that ye may give thanks. Remember the favour of GOD towards you, and his covenant which he hath made with you, when ye said, We have heard, and will obey. Therefore fear GOD, for God knoweth the innermost parts of the breasts of men. O true believers, observe justice when ye appear as witness before GOD, and let not hatred towards any induce you to do wong: but act justly; this will approach nearer unto piety; and fear Gon, for God is fully acquainted with what ye do. God hath promised unto those who believe, and do that which is right, that they shall receive pardon and a great reward. But they who believe not, and accuse our signs of falsehood, they shall be the companions of hell. O true believers, remember God's favour towards you, when certain men designed to stretch forth their hands against By having given you a true and perfect religion; or, by the taking of Mecca, and the destruction of idolatry. Not such as are filthy, or unwholesome. Whether beasts or birds. Either when ye let go the hound, hawk, or other animal, after the game, or when ye kill it. Viz. Slain or dressed by Jews or Christians. These words are the form used at the inauguration of a prince; and Mcnammed here 'ntends the oath of fidelity which his followers had taken to him at al Akava. "Justice is the sister of piety."-Savary. • Vide Abulfed. Vit. Moham. p. 43, and the Prelim. Disc. sect i you, but he restrained their hands from hurting you; therefore fear God, and in God let the faithful trust. GOD formerly accepted the covenant of the children of Israel, and we appointed out of them twelve leaders: and God said, Verily I am with you: if ye observe prayer, and give alms, and believe in my apostles, and assist them, and lend unto God on good usury,* I will surely expiate your evil deeds from you, and I will lead you into gardens, wherein rivers flow: but he among you who disbelieveth after this, erreth from the straight path. Wherefore because they have broken their covenant, we have cursed them, and hardened their hearts; they dislocate the words of the Pentateuch from their places, and have forgotten part of what they were admonished; and thou wilt not cease to discover deceitful practices among them, except a few of them. But forgive them, and pardon them, for God loveth the beneficent. And from those who say, We are Christians, we have received their covenant; but they have forgotten part of what they were admonished; wherefore we have raised up enmity and hatred among them, till the day of resurrection; and GOD will then surely declare unto them what they have been doing. 0 ус who have received the scriptures, now is our apostle come unto you, to make manifest unto you many things which ye concealed in the scriptures ; and to pass over many things. Now is light and a perspicuous book of The commentators tell several stories as the occasion of this passage. One says, that Mohammed and some of his followers being at Osfân (a place not far from Mecca, in the way to Medina), and performing their noon devotions, a company of idolaters, who were in view, repented they had not taken that opportunity of attacking them, and therefore waited till the hour of evening prayer, intending to fall upon them then: but God defeated their design, by revealing the verse of fear. Another relates, that the prophet going to the tribe of Koreidha (who were Jews) to levy a fine for the blood of two Moslems, who had been killed by mistake, by Amru Ebn Ommeya al Dimri, they desired him to sit down and eat with them, and they would pay the fine; Mohammed complying with their request, while he was sitting, they laid a design against his life, one Amru Ebn Jahâsh undertaking to throw a mill-stone upon him; but God with held his hand, and Gabriel immediately descended to acquaint the prophet with their treachery, upon which he rose up and went his way. A third story is, that Mohammed having hung up his arms on a tree, under which he was resting himself, and his companions being dispersed some distance from him, an Arab of the desert came up to him, and drew his sword, saying, Who hindereth me from killing thee? to which Mohammed answered, God: and Gabriel beating the sword out of the Arab's hand, Mohammed took it up, and asked him the same question. Who hinders me from killing thee? the Arab replied, Nobody; and immediately professed Mohammedanism.' Abulfeda tells the same story, with some variation of circumstances. After the Israelites had escaped from Pharaoh, God ordered them to go against Jericho, which was then inhabited by giants, of the race of the Canaanites, promising to give it into their hands; and Moses, by the divine direction, appointed a prince or captain over each tribe, to lead them in that expedition, and when they came to the borders of the land of Canaan, sent the captains as spies to get information of the state of the coun try, enjoining them secresy; but they being terrified at the prodigious size and strength of the inhabitants, disheartened the people by publicly telling what they had seen, except only Caleb the son of Yufanna (Jephunneh) and Joshua the son of Nun.' By contributing towards this holy war. Employ your riches in the defence of the holy religion."-Savary. That is, if they repent and believe, or submit to pay tribute. Some, however, think these words are abrogated by the verse of the sword." Such as the verse of stoning adulterers,' the description of Mohammed, and Christ's prophecy of him by the name of Ahmed." i. e. Those which it was not necessary to restore. Al Beidâwi. Numb. xii. and xiv. Vit. Moh. p. 73. See Numb. i. 4, 5. 1 Al Beidâwi See 'Al Beidâwi. revelations come unto you from God. Thereby will God direct him who shall follow his good pleasure, into the paths of peace; and shall lead them out of darkness into light, by his will, and shall direct them in the right way. They are infidels, who say, Verily GoD is Christ the son of Mary. Say unto them, And who could obtain any thing from God to the contrary, if he pleased to destroy Christ the son of Mary, and his mother, and all those who are on the earth? For unto God belongeth the kingdom of heaven and earth, and whatsoever is contained between them; he createth what he pleaseth, and GoD is almighty. The Jews and the Christians say, We are the children of God, and his beloved. Answer, Why therefore doth he punish you for your sins? Nay, but ye are men, of those whom he hath created. He forgiveth whom he pleaseth, and punisheth whom he pleaseth; and unto God belongeth the kingdom of heaven and earth, and of what is contained between them both; and unto him shall all things return. O ye who have received the scriptures, now is our apostle come unto you, declaring unto you the true religion, during the cessation of apostles, lest ye should say, There came unto us no bearer of good tidings, nor any warner: but now is a bearer of good tidings, and a warner come unto you; for God is almighty. Call to mind when Moses said unto his people, O my people, remember the favour of GOD towards you, since he hath appointed prophets among you, and constituted you kings, and bestowed on you what he hath given to no other nation in the world. O my people, enter the holy land, which God hath decreed you, and turn not your backs, lest ye be subverted and perish. They answered, O Moses, verily there are a gigantic people in the land; and we will by no means enter it, until they depart thence; but if they depart thence, then will we enter therein. i h с And two men of those who feared GOD, unto whom God had been gracious, said, Enter ye upon them suddenly by the gate of the city; and when ye shall have entered the same, ye shall surely be victorious: therefore trust in GoD, if ye are true believers. They replied, O Moses, we will never enter the land, while they remain therein: go therefore thou, and thy Lord, and fight; for we will sit here. Moses said, O LORD, surely I am not master of any except myself, and my brother; therefore make a distinction The Arabic word al Fatra signifies the intermediate space of time between two prophets, during which no new revelation or dispensation was given; as the interval between Moses and Jesus, and between Jesus and Mohammed, at the expiration of which last, Mohammed pretended to be sent. This was fulfilled either by God's giving them a kingdom, and a long series of princes; or by his having made them kings or masters of themselves, by delivering them from the Egyptian bondage. Having divided the Red Sea for you, and guided you by a cloud, and fed you with quails and manna, &c.' The largest of these giants, the commentators say, was Og the son of Anak; concerning whose enormous stature, his escaping the flood, and the manner of his being slain by Moses, the Mohammedans relate several absurd fables." Namely. Caleb and Joshua. between us and the ungodly people. GoD answered, Verily the land shall be forbidden them forty years; during which time they shall wander like men astonished on the earth; therefore be not thou solicitous for the un godly people. Relate unto them also the history of the two sons of Adam, with truth. When they offered their offering," and it was accepted from one of them," and was not accepted from the other, Cain said to his brother, I will certainly kill thee. Abel answered, GoD only accepteth the offering of the pious; if thou stretchest forth thy hand against me, to slay me, I will not stretch forth my hand against thee, to slay thee; for I fear God, the LORD of all creatures. I choose that thou shouldest bear my iniquity and thine own iniquity; and that thou become a companion of hell fire; for that is the reward of the unjust. But his soul suffered him to slay his brother, and he slew him; wherefore he became of the number of those who perish. And God sent a raven, which scratched the earth, to show him how he should hide the shame of his brother, and he said, Woe is me! am The commentators pretend that the Israelites, while they thus wandered in the desert, were kept within the compass of about eighteen (or as some say twenty-seven) miles; and that though they travelled from morning to night, yet they constantly found themselves the next day at the place from whence they set out." 1 viz. Cain and Abel, whom the Mohammedans call Kâbîl and Hâbîl.-" Cain is de. nominated Cabel by all the Arabian authors. This word, which means the first, is probably his proper name. The surname of Cain, which signifies traitor, may have been subsequently given to him. It appears, in like manner, that Habel is only a surname. In fact it alludes to that melancholy event, which plunged the family of Adam into grief, and really signifies by his death he has left a mother in tears."-Savary. The occasion of their making this offering is thus related, according to the common tradition in the east. Each of them being born with a twin-sister, when they were grown up, Adam, by God's direction, ordered Cain to marry Abel's twin-sister, and that Abel should marry Cain's; for it being the common opinion that marriages ought not to be had in the nearest degrees of consanguinity, (since they must necessarily marry their sisters, it seemed reasonable to suppose they ought to take those of the remoter degree) but this Cain refusing to agree to, because his own sister was the handsomest, Adam ordered them to make their offerings to God, thereby referring the dispute to his determination.' The commentators say Cain's offering was a sheaf of the very worst of his corn, bu Abel's a fat lamb, of the best of his flock. Namely, from Abel; whose sacrifice God declared his acceptance of in a visible manner, by causing fire to descend from heaven and consume it, without touching that of Cain.' To enhance Abel's patience, Al Beidâwi tells us, that he was the stronger of the two, and could easily have prevailed against his brother. The conversation between the two brothers is related somewhat to the same purpose in the Jerusalem Targum and that of Jonathan ben Uzziel. Some say he knocked out his brains with a stone;2 and pretend that as Cain was con sidering which way he should effect the murder, the devil appeared to him in a humar shape, and showed him how to do it, by crushing the head of a bird between two stones." i. e. His dead corpse. For Cain having committed this fratricide, became exceedingly troubled in his mind, and carried the dead body about with him on his shoulders for a considerable time, not knowing where to conceal it, till it stank horribly; and then God taught him to bury it by the example of a raven, who having killed another raven in his presence, dug a pit with his claws and beak, and buried him therein. For this circumstance of the raven Mohammed was beholden to the Jews, who tell the same story, except only that they make the raven appear to Adam, and that he thereupon buried his son." 7 Al Beidâwi, Jallalo'ddin. Vide Abu'lfarag. p. 6, 7. Eutych. annal. p. 15, 16. and D'Herbelot, Bibl. Orient. Art. Cabil. • Al Beidâwi. Vide Eutych. ubi supra. a Vide D'Herbelot, ubi supra. Vide R. Eliezer, Pirke, c. 20. 1 Idem, Jallalo'ddin. Jallalo'ddin, Al Beidâwi. |