The Feast (Al-Maa 'edah)
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Most Merciful
۞ Believers! Honour your bonds! All grazing beasts of the flock are permitted to you except those which are recited to you hereinafter, but you are not allowed to hunt in the state of Ihram (a state of pilgrim sanctity). Indeed Allah decrees as He wills. 1 Believers! Neither desecrate the symbols of (devotion to) Allah, nor the holy month, nor the animals of offering, nor the animals wearing collars indicating they are for sacrifice, nor ill-treat those who have set out for the Holy House seeking from their Lord His bounty and good pleasure. But once you are free from Pilgrimage obligations, you are free to hunt. Do not let your wrath against the people who have barred you from the Holy Mosque move you to commit undue transgressions; rather, help one another in acts of righteousness and piety, and do not help one another in sin and transgression. Fear Allah. Surely Allah is severe in retribution. 2 Forbidden to you (for food) are: dead meat, blood, the flesh of swine, and that on which hath been invoked the name of other than Allah; that which hath been killed by strangling, or by a violent blow, or by a headlong fall, or by being gored to death; that which hath been (partly) eaten by a wild animal; unless ye are able to slaughter it (in due form); that which is sacrificed on stone (altars); (forbidden) also is the division (of meat) by raffling with arrows: that is impiety. This day have those who reject faith given up all hope of your religion: yet fear them not but fear Me. This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion. But if any is forced by hunger, with no inclination to transgression, Allah is indeed Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful. 3 They ask you (O dear Prophet Mohammed – peace and blessings be upon him) what is made lawful for them; say, “Pure things are made lawful for you, and the beasts (and birds) of prey which you have trained and use for hunting, (and) you teach them what Allah has taught you; so eat what they kill and leave for you, and mention Allah’s name upon it – and keep fearing Allah; indeed Allah is Swift At Taking Account.” 4 The good things have this day been made lawful to you. The food of those to whom the Book was given is lawful to you, and your food is lawful to them. Lawful to you (in marriage) are the free believing women and the free women from among those who were given the Book before you, provided that you give them their dowries in marriage, neither committing fornication nor taking them as mistresses. Whosoever denies the belief, his labors will be annulled. In the Everlasting Life he is of the losers. 5