Say [O Prophet], "In all that has been revealed to me, I do not find a ban on anything to eat, except for carrion, flowing blood and pork, all these being unclean or profane, on which the name of someone other than God has been invoked." But if anyone is forced by necessity, being neither disobedient nor exceeding the limit, then surely your Lord is most forgiving and merciful. 145 We made unlawful for the Jews all animals with claws or nails, and the fat of the oxen and sheep, except that on their backs or their intestines, or which remains attached to their bones. This was the punishment for their insubordination; and what We say is true. 146 But if they give you the lie, then say: Your Lord is the Lord of All-encompassing mercy; and His punishment cannot be averted from the guilty people. 147 THOSE who are bent on ascribing divinity to aught beside God will say: "Had God so willed, we would not have ascribed divinity to aught but Him, nor would our forefathers [have done so]; and neither would we have declared as forbidden anything [that He has allowed]." Even so did those who lived before them give the lie to the truth - until they came to taste Our punishment! Say: "Have you any [certain] knowledge which you could proffer to us? You follow but [other people's] conjectures, and you yourselves do nothing but guess." 148 Say: "With Allah is the argument that reaches home: if it had been His will, He could indeed have guided you all." 149 Say: "Bring forward your witnesses to prove that Allah did forbid so and so." If they bring such witnesses, be not thou amongst them: Nor follow thou the vain desires of such as treat our signs as falsehoods, and such as believe not in the Hereafter: for they hold others as equal with their Guardian-Lord. 150