The Feast (Al-Maa 'edah)
In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
۞ O ye who believe! fulfil the compacts. Allowed unto you is the beast of the flock except that which is rehearsed unto you, not allowing the chase while ye are in a state of sanctity. Verily Allah ordaineth whatsoever He will. 1 O ye who believe! Profane not Allah's monuments nor the Sacred Month nor the offerings nor the garlands, nor those repairing to the Sacred House, seeking the grace and pleasure of their Lord. But when ye have left the sacred territory, then go hunting (if ye will). And let not your hatred of a folk who (once) stopped your going to the inviolable place of worship seduce you to transgress; but help ye one another unto righteousness and pious duty. Help not one another unto sin and transgression, but keep your duty to Allah. Lo! Allah is severe in punishment. 2 Prohibited to you are dead animals, blood, the flesh of swine, and that which has been dedicated to other than Allah, and [those animals] killed by strangling or by a violent blow or by a head-long fall or by the goring of horns, and those from which a wild animal has eaten, except what you [are able to] slaughter [before its death], and those which are sacrificed on stone altars, and [prohibited is] that you seek decision through divining arrows. That is grave disobedience. This day those who disbelieve have despaired of [defeating] your religion; so fear them not, but fear Me. This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have approved for you Islam as religion. But whoever is forced by severe hunger with no inclination to sin - then indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful. 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