Al-Ma'idah · Madani · ayah 3 of 120

Al-Ma'idah 5:3

حُرِّمَتْ عَلَيْكُمُ ٱلْمَيْتَةُ وَٱلدَّمُ وَلَحْمُ ٱلْخِنزِيرِ وَمَآ أُهِلَّ لِغَيْرِ ٱللَّهِ بِهِۦ وَٱلْمُنْخَنِقَةُ وَٱلْمَوْقُوذَةُ وَٱلْمُتَرَدِّيَةُ وَٱلنَّطِيحَةُ وَمَآ أَكَلَ ٱلسَّبُعُ إِلَّا مَا ذَكَّيْتُمْ وَمَا ذُبِحَ عَلَى ٱلنُّصُبِ وَأَن تَسْتَقْسِمُوا۟ بِٱلْأَزْلَـٰمِ ۚ ذَٰلِكُمْ فِسْقٌ ۗ ٱلْيَوْمَ يَئِسَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ مِن دِينِكُمْ فَلَا تَخْشَوْهُمْ وَٱخْشَوْنِ ۚ ٱلْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِى وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ ٱلْإِسْلَـٰمَ دِينًا ۚ فَمَنِ ٱضْطُرَّ فِى مَخْمَصَةٍ غَيْرَ مُتَجَانِفٍ لِّإِثْمٍ ۙ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ

“Prohibited to you are dead animals,[241] blood, the flesh of swine, and that which has been dedicated to other than Allāh, and [those animals] killed by strangling or by a violent blow or by a head-long fall or by the goring of horns, and those from which a wild animal has eaten, except what you [are able to] slaughter [before its death], and those which are sacrificed on stone altars,[242] and [prohibited is] that you seek decision through divining arrows. That is grave disobedience. This day those who disbelieve have despaired of [defeating] your religion; so fear them not, but fear Me. This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have approved for you Islām as religion. But whoever is forced by severe hunger with no inclination to sin - then indeed, Allāh is Forgiving and Merciful.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The most famous sentence about a complete religion stands between a list of forbidden meat and a starving man, and both belong to its completeness.

A reflection

Only One can say 'complete'

Every human system ships with a version number. The phone asks each week to install the latest update. The style guide is revised every spring. The constitution gathers amendments. Nothing people make is ever declared finished, because the people who make it know better.

This ayah does what no human author can honestly do. It speaks in the first person and says: today I have perfected your religion for you. Akmaltu: I completed. Not 'it has been completed', with the maker hidden. The One who made it signs it off.

The ayah wraps that sentence in other first-person words: do not fear them, but fear Me. I have completed My favour upon you. I have approved for you Islam as religion. Every verb belongs to Him. The believers receive; they do not draft.

That is humbling in a precise way. Much religious anxiety, and much religious arrogance, comes from the urge to add. A stricter rule here, a cleverer reading there, a practice nobody was asked for. This ayah closes the drafting room. The work is not ours to improve, only ours to live.

The ego wants to contribute something original to everything it touches. Before this ayah, the most original thing a believer can do is to receive well.

Does Allah need to announce His own completed work? He needs nothing (35:15). We are the ones who need to be told it is finished. Otherwise we would never stop tinkering, and never start living it.

The full entry has 7 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.