Talim-ul-Quran — Page 218
CHAPTER 5. AL-MA'IDAH (Revealed after Hijrah). Date of Revelation. According to Commentators of the Qur'an this Surah belongs to the Medinite period. Ä'ishah reported by Hākim and Imām Aḥmad to have said that this is the last. Surah which was revealed to the Holy Prophet. Taking into consideration all the revelation data one is inevitably led to the conclusion that the Surah was revealed in the last years of the Holy Prophet's ministry and some of its verses were actually among last to be revealed. Though Imam Ahmad says on the authority of ‘Asma', daughter of Yazid, that whole of this Sūrah was revealed together, it seems that because a major portion of it was revealed at one time, the whole of it came to be regarded as having been revealed at the same time. This is why perhaps Rodwell has assigned the Surah the last place in order of revelation. . Subject-Matter. The Surah, like Surah Al ‘Imrān and Al-Nisa', deals mainly with Christian doctrines and particularly denounces the doctrine that the Law is curse. It opens with the injunction that all covenants must be fulfilled and that it was necessary to lay down laws as to what is lawful and what is unlawful. It further claims that the Qur'an has laid down ordinances bearing upon man's complete moral and spiritual development, and it is in this respect that the Qur'an constitutes the final and irrevocable Divine Law for all mankind. This claim of the Qur'an is embodied in the fourth verse of the Surah, which also implies that because the Law is most essential for the spiritual guidance of man and his moral development, it is wrong to regard it as a curse. The verse further hints that when the eating of the meat offered to idols and of blood and of strangled animals was forbidden to Christians and this commandment constituted an ordinance of the Law (The Acts 15:20. 29), they could not take exception to the Law and condemn it as a curse. The Surah proceeds to lay down. Islamic commandments with regard to eatables and enjoins that they should be Ḥalal, i. e. , allowed by the Law and Tayyib (pure), i. e. , their use should in no way contravene or offend against medical or hygienic regulations. Islām, alone of all religions, while laying down ordinances regarding lawful and unlawful things, has pointed out the nice distinction between what is only lawful and what is both lawful and pure. Next, it is stated that the Jews and the Christians broke God's covenants and disregarded and defied Divine commandments which led to their moral and spiritual ruin and brought disgrace and humiliation on them. But they could now rehabilitate themselves into Divine favor by accepting the Holy Prophet. Christians are further warned that at first by deifying Jesus they caused the wrath of God to come down upon them and that now they have become jealous of the Holy Prophet because God has chosen him for His favors. This jealous 218