The Feast (Al-Maa 'edah)
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace
۞ O YOU who have attained to faith! Be true to your covenants! Lawful to you is the [flesh of every] beast that feeds on plants, save what is mentioned to you [hereinafter]: but you are not allowed to hunt while you are in the state of pilgrimage. Behold, God ordains in accordance with His will. 1 O believers, profane not God's waymarks nor the holy month, neither the offering, nor the necklaces, nor those repairing to the Holy House seeking from their Lord bounty and good pleasure. But when you have quit your pilgrim sanctity, then hunt for game. Let not detestation for a people who barred you from the Holy Mosque move you to commit aggression. Help one another to piety and godfearing; do not help each other to sin and enmity. And fear God; surely God is terrible in retribution. 2 You are forbidden carrion, blood and pork; and any flesh over which the name of any other than God is invoked; and any creature which has been strangled, or killed by a blow or in a fall, or has been gored to death or half-eaten by a wild animal, saving that which you make lawful [by slaughtering properly while it was still alive] and what has been slaughtered at an altar. You are forbidden to make the division of [meat] by means of divining arrows: that is sinful conduct. Those who deny the truth have this day despaired of ever harming your religion. So do not fear them. Fear Me. Today I have completed your religion for you and completed My blessing upon you. I have chosen for you Islam as your religion. But if anyone is forced by hunger to eat something which is forbidden, not intending to commit a sin, he will find God forgiving and 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 Today, all the good things of life have been made lawful to you. And the food of those who have been vouchsafed revelation aforetime is lawful to you, and your food is lawful to them. And [lawful to you are,] in wedlock, women from among those who believe [in this divine writ,] and in wedlock, women from among those who have been vouchsafed revelation before your time - provided that you give them their dowers, taking them in honest wedlock, not in fornication, nor as secret love-companions. But as for him who rejects belief [in God] - in vain will be all his works: for in the life to come he shall be among the lost. 5