Surah 5

Al-Ma'idah

(Madinan Period)

Title

The title of this surah is derived from verse 112 in which the word 'repast' occurs: 'Jesus, son of Mary, has your Lord the power to send down unto us a repast (mā'idah) from the heaven?' Like the titles of the other surahs it does not indicate the subject matter discussed but serves to distinguish this surah from the others.

Period of Revelation

The surah has considerable internal evidence to show that it was revealed either about the end of 6 A.H. or in the early part of 7 A.H., after the conclusion of the Treaty of Hudaybiyah. This view is also corroborated by traditions.

In the month of Dhu al-Qa'dah 6 A.H., the Prophet (peace be on him), together with about 1,400 Muslims, set out for Makka with the intention of performing 'Umrah (Minor Pilgrimage). In the spirit of petty revenge, the pagans of the Quraysh barred them from performing this rite despite the fact that this was one of the most time-honoured religious customs of Arabia. After considerable negotiation the Quraysh agreed to permit the Muslims to go to Makka the following year to visit the Ka'bah. It seemed necessary at this stage, therefore, to teach the Muslims the rules and regulations of the Pilgrimage so that they could perform it in a truly Islamic manner. It was also felt necessary to direct the Muslims not to commit excesses against the hostile pagans of Makka in retaliation for wrongfully preventing them from performing the 'Umrah; the Muslims could easily have prevented many pagan tribes from visiting Makka. This was possible since the Domain of Islam (Dār al-Islām) lay along their routes to that city. The Muslims are being directed, however, not to do so.

This is the context of the opening discourse. The same question is taken up later (see verses 56 ff.), illustrating that a single theme runs throughout the first fourteen sections of the surah (i.e. verses 1-108). The other subjects discussed also seem to have been revealed during the same period.

The unbroken continuity of the narration suggests that the entire surah is one single discourse, revealed at the same time and in an integrated form. This cannot be altogether ruled out. It is also possible, however, that certain verses were revealed at another period, and were then knitted into the narrative so well that there is no indication that the surah comprises two or three distinct discourses.

Historical Context

A great many changes had occurred during the period separating the present revelation from that of Surahs 3 and 4. A few years earlier, after the Muslims had suffered a setback at the Battle of Uḥud, the tribes living around Madina had assumed a menacing posture. Islam, by this time, however, had become an apparently indestructible force and the Islamic state had come to occupy large tracts of land: up to Najd, as far as the borders of Syria and the coasts of the Red Sea, and the environs of Makka. The wounds inflicted upon the Muslims during the Battle of Uḥud, far from demoralizing them, had in fact proved a spur. Within three years the entire situation had changed. Thanks to the continuous struggle and bravery of the Muslims the strength of the hostile tribes within a radius of about 150 to 200 miles of Madina was broken. The Jewish menace, which had always loomed large over Madina, had been ended once and for all. The Quraysh had made their last desperate effort to crush Islam at the Battle of the Ditch (5 A.H.), and this had ended in a fiasco. As a result there was no doubt in the minds of the people of Arabia that the Islamic movement had become too strong to be crushed. Islam was no longer just a creed and a way of life which ruled over the hearts and minds of people: it had come to possess a State and this State governed the lives of the people living in its domain. The Muslims now had the power to live according to their convictions without hindrance and without it being possible for extraneous creeds, norms and laws to encroach upon their lives.

Moreover, during these few years the Muslims had developed their own particular cultural entity so that their morality, their family life and their social order distinguished them from others. In all parts of the Islamic state mosques were erected, people began to pray regularly in congregation, and leaders of congregational Prayers were appointed for different tribes and regions. The Islamic civil and criminal laws were expounded in considerable detail and were enforced by Muslim judges. Many old forms of business transactions were prohibited and new, reformed ones introduced. A new code of inheritance was promulgated. Marriage and divorce laws, regula- tions prescribing modesty of dress and appearance and forbidding promiscuity, and other rules relating to decency, for example, the necessity of obtaining permission to enter another person's house, and laws laying down punishments for extra-marital sexual inter- course, and for accusing innocent women of unchastity, were enforced. As a result the entire lifestyle of the Muslims - their food and dress, the manner of their speech and conversation, the way they met and dispersed - had become distinct. Once the non-Muslims of the time observed this distinctive way of life they became despondent of the fact that the Muslims might lose their identity and be re-assimilated into the former body-politic. Before the conclusion of the Treaty of Ḥudaybiyah, however, a major obstacle barred the spreading of the message of Islam - the continuous conflict between the Muslims and the Quraysh. This obstacle was removed by the Treaty of Ḥudaybiyah which, on the face of it, implied the Muslims' acknowledgement of their inferior status.

In point of fact, this treaty amounted to a significant victory for the Muslims because it not only secured them against aggression within the borders of their own state, but enabled them to freely carry the message of Islam to the neighbouring areas. This phase was inaugurated by the Prophet (peace be on him) who despatched letters to the rulers of Persia, Rome and Egypt, and to the tribal chiefs of the Arabs, and who sent missionaries in all directions to summon people to God's true religion.

Subject Matter

It is in this historical context that the surah addressed the following three major themes:

1. The first theme comprises additional injunctions and directives relating to the religious, social and political life of the Muslims. In this connection the rules of the Pilgrimage (Hajj) are elucidated and the Muslims are directed not to desecrate the symbols of (devotion to) Allah (sha'a'ir Allah); orders are given not to molest Pilgrims to the Ka'bah; in matters of eating and drinking the true distinction between the lawful and the unlawful is laid down and the supersti- tions and man-made restrictions of pre-Islamic times are swept aside; permission is granted to eat the food of the People of the Book and to marry their women; regulations concerning wudu' (ablution) and tayammum (a symbolic ablution attained by wiping parts of the body with earth) are promulgated; the penalties for rebellion, public mischief and theft are fixed; games of chance and the drinking of intoxicants are categorically prohibited; the expiation for breach of vows is enunciated and a few more provisions are added to the law of evidence.
2. The second theme is an admonition to the Muslims. The Muslims had by now achieved political power, and this often intoxicates people and thereby misleads them. Although their period of subjection to injustice was almost over they, nevertheless, were to be put to a more severe test. The Muslims are repeatedly urged, therefore, to remain committed to justice; to avoid the pitfalls of their predecessors, the People of the Book; to observe their commitment to obey God and follow His commandments, and thus avoid the catastrophic end which overtook the Jews and Christians who had thrown overboard their covenant with God. They are required to remain scrupulously bound by the ordinances of the Book of God and to shun hypocrisy in all their affairs.
3. The third theme of the surah is an admonition to the Jews and Christians. The strength of the Jews was by now shattered and all the Jewish settlements of Northern Arabia had come under the hegemony of the Muslims. Here they are once again warned about their evil conduct and asked to follow the Right Way. Moreover, since the Treaty of Ḥudaybiyah made it possible to propagate Islam in Arabia and in the neighbouring countries, the opportunity to address the Christians in detail and to bring home to them the falsity of their beliefs and to ask them to believe in the Prophet (peace be on him), is also seized. However, although those neighbouring nations that followed either idolatrous or Magian cults are not addressed directly there is enough for their guidance in what was said to their fellow travellers, the idolatrous people of Arabia, in the surahs revealed during the Prophet's stay in Makka.