Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:173
He has only forbidden to you dead animals, blood, the flesh of swine, and that which has been dedicated to other than Allah. But whoever is forced [by necessity], neither desiring [it] nor transgressing [its limit], there is no sin upon him. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.
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.
Explanation of the saying of the Exalted: إِنَّمَا حَرَّمَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْمَيْتَةَ وَالدَّمَ وَلَحْمَ الْخِنْزِيرِ وَمَا أُهِلَّ بِهِ لِغَيْرِ اللَّهِ ("He has only forbidden you the carrion, and the blood, and the flesh of swine, and that over which, at the slaughtering, a name other than that of Allah has been invoked.") (2:173)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted means thereby: Do not forbid for yourselves what I have not forbidden you, O you who believe in Allah and in His Messenger, such as the baḥīra, the sāʾiba, and the like; rather, eat that, for I have forbidden you nothing except the carrion, the blood, the flesh of swine, and that over which, at the slaughtering, a name other than Mine has been invoked.
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The meaning of His word "He has only forbidden you the carrion" is: He has forbidden you nothing except the carrion.
"Innamā" ("only") is a single particle, and for that reason "al-mayta" (the carrion) and "al-dam" (the blood) stand in the accusative; and with "al-mayta" no case other than the accusative is permissible when one takes "innamā" as a single particle. If, however, "innamā" were two particles — and "mā" were separated from "inna" — then "al-mayta" would stand in the nominative, and likewise what follows it. The explanation of the sentence would then be: indeed, that which Allah has forbidden you of foods is the carrion, the blood, and the flesh of swine, and nothing other than that. (22)
It has been transmitted that some of the reciters did indeed recite it thus, according to this interpretation. Yet I do not deem it permissible to recite according to that [reading] — even though it has an intelligible ground in the interpretation and in Arabic — because of the agreement of the authoritative [collective] of reciters upon the contrary. It is permissible for no one to object to them in that which they have transmitted in unanimity.
* * *
And if one were to recite "ḥurrima" with a ḍamma upon the ḥāʾ of "ḥurrima" (in the passive form), then with "al-mayta" there would be two possibilities of the nominative. The first: that the acting subject is unnamed, while "innamā" is a single particle.
The second: that "inna" and "mā" have the meaning of two particles, and that "ḥurrima" forms part of the relative complement of "mā," and that "al-mayta" is the predicate of "alladhī" (that which), in the nominative as predicate. Yet I do not deem it permissible to recite according to that [reading] — even though that too has a ground — for the reason which I have mentioned.
* * *
As for "al-mayta": the reciters differ over its recitation. Some recite it with lightening (takhfīf, that is "mayta"), while the meaning therein is that of the doubling (tashdīd), but one lightens it just as they lighten, as they say, in "huwa hayyin layyin" — "al-hayn al-layn," as the poet said: (24)
He who has died and so found rest is not a dead man; indeed, the dead one is the dead among the living. (25)
Thus he combined both linguistic forms in a single verse, with a single meaning.
Others recite it with doubling (tashdīd, that is "mayyita") and trace it back to its original form, and say: it is in reality "maywit," according to the pattern "fayʿil," derived from "al-mawt" (death). But when the silent "yāʾ" and the moving "wāw" came together, while the "yāʾ" with its quiescence preceded, the "wāw" was transformed into a "yāʾ" and doubled, so that the two became a doubled "yāʾ," just as they did with "sayyid" and "jayyid." They said: whoever lightens it merely seeks the lightening; and the recitation of it according to the original form, which is its proper root-form, is to be preferred.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct judgment concerning this is, in my opinion, that the lightening and the doubling in the "yāʾ" of "al-mayta" are two well-known linguistic forms, both in the recitation and in the speech of the Arabs; with whichever of the two the reciter recites this, he is correct, for there is no difference in the meaning of the two.
* * *
As for His word: "and that over which, at the slaughtering, a name other than that of Allah has been invoked" — thereby He means: that which is slaughtered for the [false] deities and the idols, over which a name other than His has been pronounced, or by which someone other than Him, of the idols, has been intended.
One says "wa-mā uhilla bihi" (and that over which [a name] has been invoked), because, when they wished to slaughter something which they brought near to their deities, they would invoke the name of their deities for whom they brought that offering, and would raise their voices thereat. That became their custom, until of every slaughterer — whether he pronounced a name or not, whether he invoked it loudly or not — one came to say "muhill." The raising of their voices thereat is the "ihlāl" (loud invocation) which Allah the Exalted named when He said: "and that over which a name other than that of Allah has been invoked." From this also comes that one calls the person who pronounces the talbiya during the ḥajj or the ʿumra "muhill," on account of the raising of his voice at the talbiya. From this comes likewise the "istihlāl" of the child, when it cries out at its birth from the belly of its mother, and the "istihlāl" of the rain, which is the sound of its falling upon the earth, as ʿAmr ibn Qamīʾa said:
The torrents covered the plains with a greedy downpour, so that the droplets became clear to him, soon after the ceasing [of the rain]. (27)
The interpreters differ concerning this. Some say: by His word "and that over which a name other than that of Allah has been invoked" is meant: that which is slaughtered for someone other than Allah.
* Mention of who said that:
2468 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "and that over which a name other than that of Allah has been invoked" — he said: that which is slaughtered for someone other than Allah.
2469 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda concerning His word: "and that over which a name other than that of Allah has been invoked" — he said: that which is slaughtered for someone other than Allah and over which [His name] has not been pronounced.
2470 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: "and that over which a name other than that of Allah has been invoked" — that which is slaughtered for someone other than Allah.
2471 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, saying: Ibn Jurayj said: Ibn ʿAbbās said concerning His word: "and that over which a name other than that of Allah has been invoked" — he said: that over which [a name] has been invoked for the ṭawāghīt (the idols).
2472 — Sufyān ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Abū Khālid al-Aḥmar related to us, on the authority of Juwaybir, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, he said: "and that over which a name other than that of Allah has been invoked" — he said: that over which [a name] has been invoked for the ṭawāghīt.
2473 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "and that over which a name other than that of Allah has been invoked" — thereby He means: that over which [a name] has been invoked for all the ṭawāghīt. That is to say: that which is slaughtered for someone other than Allah by the people of unbelief, with the exception of the Jews and the Christians.
2474 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ concerning the word of Allah: "and that over which a name other than that of Allah has been invoked" — he said: that is that which is slaughtered for someone other than Allah.
* * *
Others said: the meaning thereof is: that over which a name other than that of Allah has been pronounced.
* Mention of who said that:
2475 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ concerning His word: "and that over which a name other than that of Allah has been invoked" — he says: that over which a name other than that of Allah has been pronounced.
2476 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said — and I had asked him about the word of Allah: "and that over which a name other than that of Allah has been invoked" — he said: that is what is slaughtered for their deities, the sacred stones (al-anṣāb) which they worship, or over which they pronounce their names. He said: they say: "in the name of so-and-so," just as you say: "in the name of Allah." He said: that is His word: "and that over which a name other than that of Allah has been invoked."
2477 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ḥaywa related to us, on the authority of ʿUqba ibn Muslim al-Tujībī and Qays ibn Rāfiʿ al-Ashjaʿī, that the two of them said: for us is permitted what is slaughtered on the occasion of the feast of the [Christian] churches, and what is bestowed thereat of bread or meat, for it is merely the food of the People of the Book. Ḥaywa said: I said: what is your opinion concerning the word of Allah: "and that over which a name other than that of Allah has been invoked"? He said: that pertains only to the Magians (al-majūs), the worshippers of idols, and the polytheists (mushrikīn).
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Explanation of the saying of the Exalted: فَمَنِ اضْطُرَّ غَيْرَ بَاغٍ وَلا عَادٍ فَلا إِثْمَ عَلَيْهِ ("But whoever is compelled by necessity, without being desirous or transgressing, upon him is no sin.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted means by His word "but whoever is compelled by necessity": whoever is driven by the necessity of hunger to that which I have forbidden you, of the carrion, the blood, the flesh of swine, and that over which, at the slaughtering, a name other than that of Allah has been invoked — and he is in the condition which we have described — upon him is no sin in eating it, if he eats it.
* * *
His word "iḍṭurra" (compelled by necessity) is the pattern "iftaʿala," derived from "al-ḍarūra" (necessity).
* * *
And "ghayra bāghin" (without being desirous) stands in the accusative as a circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl) for "man" (whoever), as though it were said: whoever is compelled by necessity, without being desirous and without being transgressing, and then eats it — for him that is permitted.
* * *
It has also been said: the meaning of His word "but whoever is compelled by necessity" is: whoever is forced to eat it and then eats it, upon him is no sin.
* Mention of who said that:
2478 — Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq al-Ahwāzī related to us, saying: Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī related to us, saying: Isrāʾīl related to us, on the authority of Sālim al-Afṭas, on the authority of Mujāhid concerning His word: "but whoever is compelled by necessity, without being desirous or transgressing" — he said: the man who is seized by the enemy and whom they seek to drive to disobedience to Allah.
* * *
As for His word: "without being desirous or transgressing" — the interpreters differ over its explanation.
Some said: by His word "without being desirous" is meant: without rising up with his sword against the [rightful] leaders (imams) and turning against them desirously and unlawfully, and without turning against them transgressingly with war and hostility, and so making the way [for travelers] unsafe.
* Mention of who said that:
2479 — Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn Idrīs related to us, saying: I heard Layth, on the authority of Mujāhid: "but whoever is compelled by necessity, without being desirous or transgressing" — he said: without being a brigand of the road, without separating himself from the community, and without going out in disobedience to Allah; for him is the alleviation [of the prohibition].
2480 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: "but whoever is compelled by necessity, without being desirous or transgressing" — he says: without being a brigand of the road, without separating himself from the leaders, and without going out in disobedience to Allah; for him is the alleviation. And whoever goes out, desirous or transgressing, in disobedience to Allah, for him there is no alleviation, even though he be compelled to it by necessity.
2481 — Hannād ibn al-Sarī related to us, saying: Sharīk related to us, on the authority of Sālim, on the authority of Saʿīd: "without being desirous or transgressing" — he said: that is he who cuts off the road [as a highwayman]; for him there is no alleviation, when he is hungry, to eat the carrion, nor, when he is thirsty, to drink the wine.
2482 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Suwayd ibn Naṣr related to us, saying: Ibn al-Mubārak informed us, on the authority of Sharīk, on the authority of Sālim — that is, al-Afṭas — on the authority of Saʿīd concerning His word: "but whoever is compelled by necessity, without being desirous or transgressing" — he said: the desirous one, the transgressing one is he who cuts off the road; for him there is no alleviation and no mercy.
2483 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Al-Ḥimmānī related to us, saying: Sharīk related to us, on the authority of Sālim, on the authority of Saʿīd concerning His word: "but whoever is compelled by necessity, without being desirous or transgressing" — he said: when he goes out upon one of the ways of Allah and is compelled by necessity to drink wine, he may drink, and when he is compelled to the carrion, he may eat. But when he goes out to cut off the road [as a highwayman], then for him there is no alleviation.
2484 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥafṣ ibn Ghiyāth related to me, on the authority of al-Ḥajjāj, on the authority of al-Qāsim ibn Abī Bazza, on the authority of Mujāhid, he said: "without being desirous" — against the leaders; "or transgressing" — he said: a brigand of the road.
2485 — Hannād related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Zāʾida related to us, on the authority of Warqāʾ, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: "but whoever is compelled by necessity, without being desirous or transgressing" — he said: without being a brigand of the road, without separating himself from the leaders, and without going out in disobedience to Allah; for him is the alleviation.
2486 — Hannād related to us, saying: Abū Muʿāwiya related to us, on the authority of Ḥajjāj, on the authority of al-Ḥakam, on the authority of Mujāhid: "but whoever is compelled by necessity, without being desirous or transgressing" — he said: without being desirous against the leaders, and without being transgressing against the wayfarer (Ibn al-sabīl).
* * *
Others said in the explanation of His word "without being desirous or transgressing": without desiring the forbidden in his eating, and without overstepping the limit of that which is permitted to him [of the forbidden].
* Mention of who said that:
2487 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd, on the authority of Qatāda concerning His word: "but whoever is compelled by necessity, without being desirous or transgressing" — he said: without being desirous in his eating, and without being transgressing: that he passes over from the permitted to the forbidden while he finds therefrom a way out.
2488 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of al-Ḥasan concerning His word: "but whoever is compelled by necessity, without being desirous or transgressing" — he said: without being desirous therein and without being transgressing therein by eating it, while he is able to do without it.
2489 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, from someone who heard al-Ḥasan say that.
2490 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Abū Tumayla related to us, (28) on the authority of Abū Ḥamza, on the authority of Jābir, on the authority of Mujāhid and ʿIkrima concerning His word: "but whoever is compelled by necessity, without being desirous or transgressing" — "without being desirous": desiring it; "or transgressing": overstepping the limit of that by which he keeps himself alive.
2491 — It was related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār ibn al-Ḥasan, he said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ: "but whoever is compelled by necessity, without being desirous or transgressing" — he says: without his desiring the forbidden and overstepping the limit thereof. Do you not see that He says: فَمَنِ ابْتَغَى وَرَاءَ ذَلِكَ فَأُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْعَادُونَ ("But whoever desires more than that, they are the ones who overstep the limit") [Surah Al-Muʾminūn: 7; Surah Al-Maʿārij: 31].
2492 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: "but whoever is compelled by necessity, without being desirous or transgressing" — he said: that he eats that out of desire and transgression, passing over from the permitted to the forbidden, and abandoning the permitted while it is at his disposal, and overstepping the limit by eating this forbidden thing. This is the transgression. He denies that the two [words] are different, and he says: this and that are one and the same!
* * *
Others said that the explanation thereof is: whoever is compelled by necessity, without desiring it in his eating out of appetite, and without overstepping the limit beyond that which is indispensable for him.
* Mention of who said that:
2493 — Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "but whoever is compelled by necessity, without being desirous or transgressing" — as for the "desirous one": he desires therein his appetite; and as for the "transgressing one": he oversteps the limit in his eating, he eats until he is sated. But he ought to eat of that only as much as that by which he keeps himself alive, until he thereby meets his need.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct of these statements concerning the explanation of the verse is the statement of him who said: whoever is compelled by necessity, without being desirous by eating that which it is forbidden for him to eat, and without overstepping the limit in his eating, while he — through the presence of something else which Allah has permitted him — has the possibility and the capacity to refrain from eating it.
That is because Allah the Exalted has given to no one, in whatever condition, permission to kill himself. And since that is so, there is no doubt that the rebel against the leader (imam) and the highwayman who cuts off the road — even though the two of them have committed what Allah has forbidden them, namely the rebellion of this one against him against whom he rebelled, and the striving of that other after corruption upon the earth — that their commission of that which Allah has forbidden them does not make permissible for them what Allah had forbidden them, before they committed what they committed, namely the killing of themselves. [And their reversion to the forbidden things which Allah has imposed upon them, after their commission of what they have committed — even though there is thereby forbidden to them what was permitted to them before that time of their action, and even though we do not regard their reversion to the forbidden things of Allah as a [new] prohibition — (29) does not make permissible for them what was forbidden to them before that time.] Since that is so, it is incumbent upon the highwaymen and the rebels against the just leaders: the return to obedience to Allah, and the return to that to which Allah has imposed their return, and the repentant turning away from the disobediences to Allah — not the killing of themselves through hunger, so that they add to their sin yet another sin, and to their opposition to the command of Allah yet more opposition. (30)
As for him who directed the explanation thereof to the meaning: without desiring it in his eating out of appetite — so that he eats that out of appetite, not in order to ward off the necessity whose ruin is feared, of that which Allah has forbidden him — that [interpretation] coincides with what we have said in the explanation thereof, even though it differs in wording.
As for the directing of the explanation of His word "or transgressing" to: and without eating of that so much that he becomes sated, but only as much as that by which he keeps himself alive — that is merely one of the meanings of transgressing in his eating. Allah, however, has excepted no particular meaning of transgressing in his eating, such that one could say that He meant thereby one of its meanings.
Since that is so, the correct statement is what we have said: that it is transgression in all its forbidden meanings.
* * *
As for the explanation of His word "upon him is no sin," He says: whoever eats that in the condition which we have described, upon him is no liability for so eating it, and no fault.
* * *
Explanation of the saying of the Exalted: إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ ("Indeed, Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.") (2:173)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted means by His word "indeed, Allah is Forgiving, Merciful": "indeed, Allah is Forgiving" — if you obey Allah in your Islam, abstain from eating what He has forbidden you, and leave off following Satan in that which you held forbidden in your time of ignorance (jāhiliyya) — out of your obedience to Satan and following of his footsteps — of that which I have not forbidden you — for what of yours has gone before, in your unbelief and before your Islam, of error, sin, and disobedience therein: then He is overlooking it on your behalf and He leaves off your punishment for it; "Merciful" toward you, if you obey Him.
