The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 2) — Page 301
CHAPTER 5 AL-MA'IDAH (Revealed after Hijrah) Title and Date of Revelation This Surah derives its title from the prayer which, at the request of his "helpers", Jesus offered about the material progress and prosperity for the Christian Faith, and which is referred to in the verses 113-116 of this chapter. According to different commentators, the whole of this chapter belongs to the Medinite period. ‘Ā'ishah is reported by Ḥākim and Imām Aḥmad to have related that this is the last Sūrah which was revealed to the Holy Prophet. This may not be strictly true but, considering together all the different traditions, one is led to the conclusion that the chapter was certainly revealed in the last years of the Prophet's ministry and some of its verses are among the latest to be revealed. Though Imām Aḥmad says on the authority of Asmā', daughter of Yazid, that the whole of this Surah was revealed together, it seems that as the 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. Subject Matter This Surah, like its predecessors, Sūrahs Āl-e-‘Imrān and An-Nisā', deals mainly with Christianity and particularly denounces the Christian doctrine that the Law is a curse. It opens with the injunction that all covenants must be kept and fulfilled and that it is necessary to lay down laws as to what is lawful and what unlawful. The chapter proceeds to claim that the Quran has laid down final commandments bearing upon man's complete development and that it is in this respect that the Quran constitutes the final revealed Law of God. This claim of the Quran is embodied in the 4th verse of this Surah wherein God says, This day have I perfected your religion for you and completed My favour upon you and have chosen for you Islam as religion. This verse epitomizes the above-mentioned claim and constitutes a general proclamation to the effect that Islam as a religion is perfect in all respects and is the complete manifestation of God's favour and, as a code of laws, is beyond reproach and above criticism. This claim of Islam also implies the inference that it is wrong to regard the Law as a curse because the Law is meant to help man in his moral and spiritual development and only that Law can be condemned as a curse which, instead of fulfilling this purpose, leads to bad morals and the degradation of man. The verse also hints that when the eating of meats offered to idols and of blood and of strangled animals was forbidden to Christians and this commandment constituted an ordinance of the 741