Surah Al Maida (5:3) - Forbidden Meat

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Scientific and Archaeological Explanation of the Ayaats of the Holy Quran

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Sura: Al-Maaida Ayat 3

Forbidden to you is that which dies of itself, and blood, and flesh of swine, and that on which any other name than that of Allah has been invoked, and the strangled (animal) and that beaten to death, and that killed by a fall and that killed by being smitten with the horn, and that which wild beasts have eaten, except what you slaughter, and what is sacrificed on stones set up (for idols) and that you divide by the arrows; that is a transgression. This day have those who disbelieve despaired of your religion, so fear them not, and fear Me. This day have I perfected for you your religion and completed My favor on you and chosen for you Islam as a religion; but whoever is compelled by hunger, not inclining willfully to sin, then surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. M Shakir's Quran Translation

List of Forbidden things In this Ayat Allah forbids the intake of following things 1. Animal which dies of itself (Dead meat) 2. Blood 3. Flesh of Swine 4. Animals on which any one else’s name has been invoked other than Allah (not killed the Islamic way) 5. Strangled Animal 6. Animal beaten to Death 7. Animal killed by a fall 8. Animal killed by being smitten by the horn 9. Animals which wild beasts have eaten 10. Animals sacrificed on stones set up for idols (altars) 11. Meat divided by casting lots Allah says in the next verse, “The good things are allowed to you” (SURAH MAIDA 5:4), indicating that whatever is prohibited for us is harmful for us and this is what modern science is telling us now. First four points, of the above mentioned, have been discussed in detail earlier. See (SURAH BAQARAH 2:173). The types mentioned after the first four actually fall under the above four. Strangled Animal, Animal beaten to death, animal killed by being smitten by the horn, animals which wild beasts have eaten fall under two of the above: 1- It is Dead Meat 2-It is not killed the Islamic way. In all these we have the fear of improper flow of blood and hence all hormones and antibodies are retained in the blood, and all infective organisms including virus flourish in the blood media, therefore ingestion of such will be dangerous medically (as discussed earlier).

Animals sacrificed on stones set up for idols (altars) means those animals which have been killed for some one else beside Allah. They do not involve the Islamic method of sacrifice (zabeeha) and also they involve ‘shirk’ (polytheism). Shirk means to do something for anyone else besides Allah that is only worthy to be done for Allah. Meat divided by casting lots is also declared forbidden in this verse. System of casting lots for the sake of division of money or food is prohibited in Islam, it involves unjust distribution of money in the society and it is one of the financial involves which in the long run make the poor more poor and the rich further rich. According to Tafseer Ibn e Kathir in this verse by casting lots Allah is mentioning the acts of the people of ‘Quraish’ who used to cast lots to take decisions and they thought that the results came from their false lords and hence to end all polytheist acts this is forbidden in Islam. (See TAFSIR IBN E KATHIR 1/911) In the end of the Ayat Allah says,” whoever is compelled by hunger, not inclining willfully to sin, then surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful”. If a person is compelled by hunger and doesn’t find anything else to eat than in those circumstances even the prohibited becomes lawful for him. This is the mercy of Allah on mankind and very logical command which makes it vivid to us that the purpose of making the above mentioned things prohibited for us was the sole fact that they are harmful for us and when we don’t find anything else to eat and we are dying because of hunger than Allah allows us to eat those things; taking a small risk to avoid a bigger risk.

This document is based on my under process book. I plan to collect all the Ayaats of the Holy Quran with deal with scientific, historical and archaeological subjects. I am trying to provide explanation to those Ayaats in light of Previous commentaries (Tafaseer), established science, archaeological discoveries and Arabic lexicons. Send in your comments, queries and suggestion at [email protected] Please do not copy paste without permission, until my book is published, Insha’Allah.

For the complete work, visit our blog

Miraculousquran.blogspot.com