The Feast (Al-Maa 'edah)
In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
۞ O ye who believe! Fulfil your indentures. The beast of cattle is made lawful unto you (for food) except that which is announced unto you (herein), game being unlawful when ye are on the pilgrimage. Lo! Allah ordaineth that which pleaseth Him. 1 O you who believe, do not violate the (sanctity of) offerings to God, nor the rites of the holy month, nor sacrificial cattle with garlands (that are brought to the Ka'bah), nor of the people who flock to the Holy House seeking the bounties of their Lord, and His pleasure. Hunt when you have laid aside the robe of the pilgrim. And do not let your hatred of a people who had barred you from the Holy Mosque lead you to aggression. But help one another in goodness and piety, and do not assist in crime and rebellion, and fear God. Surely God is severe in punishment. 2 Forbidden to you are carrion, blood, the flesh of swine, what has been hallowed to other than God, the beast strangled; the beast beaten down, the beast fallen to death, the beast gored, and that devoured by beasts of prey - excepting that you have sacrificed duly -- as also things sacrificed to idols, and partition by the divining arrows; that is ungodliness. Today the unbelievers have despaired of your religion; therefore fear them not, but fear you Me. Today I have perfected your religion for you, and I have completed My blessing upon you, and I have approved Islam for your religion. But whosoever is constrained in emptiness and not inclining purposely to sin -- God is All-forgiving, All-compassionate. 3 They ask you what has been made lawful to them. Say: 'All clean things have been made lawful to you, and such hunting animals as you teach, training them to hunt, teaching them the knowledge Allah has given you - you may eat what they catch for you - but invoke the name of Allah on it. Have fear of Allah (in violating His Law). Allah is swift in His reckoning.' 4 Today are allowed unto you all clean foods, and the meat of those vouchsafed the Book is allowable for you, and your meat is allowable for them as also are the wedded believing women and the wedded women of those vouchsafed the Book before you, when ye have given them their dowers, taking them in wedlock, neither fornicating, nor taking them as secret paramours. And who soever rejecteth the faith, his work will surely come to naught, and in the Hereafter he shall be of the losers. 5