Tafseer of The Bee · An-Nahl · 16:118
And to those who are Jews We have prohibited that which We related to you before. And We did not wrong them [thereby], but they were wronging themselves.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
Allah, the Exalted, says: And before you, O Muhammad, We forbade to the Jews what We have related to you earlier in sūrat al-Anʿām — and that is everything with claws, and of the cattle and sheep We forbade them their fat, except what their backs carried or the entrails, or what was mingled with bone. وَمَا ظَلَمْنَاهُمْ (and We did them no wrong) by forbidding them that. وَلَكِنْ كَانُوا أَنْفُسَهُمْ يَظْلِمُونَ — and We requited them with that as a consequence of their insolence toward their Lord and their wronging of themselves through disobedience to Allah, so that this brought upon them the punishment (ʿadhāb) of Allah.
The explanation which we gave is also the view of the exegetes.
Those who said that:
Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Abī Rajāʾ, on the authority of al-Ḥasan concerning His word وَعَلَى الَّذِينَ هَادُوا حَرَّمْنَا مَا قَصَصْنَا عَلَيْكَ مِنْ قَبْلُ : he said: In sūrat al-Anʿām.
Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Ayyūb, on the authority of ʿIkrima concerning His word وَعَلَى الَّذِينَ هَادُوا حَرَّمْنَا مَا قَصَصْنَا عَلَيْكَ مِنْ قَبْلُ : he said: In sūrat al-Anʿām.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda concerning His word وَعَلَى الَّذِينَ هَادُوا حَرَّمْنَا مَا قَصَصْنَا عَلَيْكَ مِنْ قَبْلُ : he said: What Allah, the Exalted, has mentioned in sūrat al-Anʿām, where He says: وَعَلَى الَّذِينَ هَادُوا حَرَّمْنَا كُلَّ ذِي ظُفُرٍ … the verse.
