[CXIV.]
SURA Ⅴ.—THE TABLE
Medina.—120 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
O Believers ! be faithful to your engagements. You are allowed the flesh of cattle other than what is hereinafter recited, except game, which is not allowed you while ye are on pilgrimage. Verily, God ordaineth what he pleaseth.
O Believers ! violate neither the rites of God, nor the sacred month Muharram, nor the offering, nor its ornaments,[1] nor those who press on to the sacred house seeking favour from their Lord and his good pleasure in them.
But when all is over,[2] then take to the chase: and let not ill will at those[3] who would have kept you from the sacred mosque lead you to transgress,[4] but rather be helpful to one another according to goodness and piety, but be not helpful for evil and malice: and fear ye God. Verily, God is severe in punishing !
That which dieth of itself, and blood, and swine's flesh, and all that hath been sacrificed under the invocation of any other name than that of God, and the strangled, and the killed by a blow, or by a fall, or by goring,[5] and that which hath been eaten by beasts of prey, unless ye make it clean by giving the death-stroke yourselves, and that which hath been sacrificed on the blocks of stone,[6] is forbidden you: and to make division
- ↑ The garlands, etc., attached to the victims, offered at Mecca.
- ↑ When you have again returned to your common and everyday life by laying aside the ihram, or pilgrim's robe. This generally consists of two pieces of cotton, or linen, or woollen cloth, without seam or ornament, one of which is wrapped round the loins, and the other thrown over the shoulders. The instep, heel, and head must be bare.
- ↑ The Koreisch sent to meet Muhammad, who was on his way to visit the Caaba with 1400 men, at Hudaibiya (An. Hej. 6) to prohibit his nearer approach. A truce for ten years was ultimately concluded
- ↑ By making war in the holy month.
- ↑ Comp. Tract Cholin, c. 3.
- ↑ Lit. on blocks or shafts of stone. These were set up by the pagan Arabs in front of their houses for the purpose of sacrificing thereon. See Freytag's Einl. p. 462, and Tr. Cholin, p. 39, 40, 41.
