Tafseer of The Table · Al-Maaida · 5:62
And you see many of them hastening into sin and aggression and the devouring of [what is] unlawful. How wretched is what they have been doing.
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.
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: وَتَرَى كَثِيرًا مِنْهُمْ يُسَارِعُونَ فِي الإِثْمِ وَالْعُدْوَانِ وَأَكْلِهِمُ السُّحْتَ لَبِئْسَ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ (5:62) (And you see many of them hastening into sin and transgression and their consuming of what is unlawfully acquired. How evil indeed is what they used to do.)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted says to His prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: "And you see" — O Muḥammad — "many" of these Jews of the Children of Israel whose report I have related to you — "hastening into sin and transgression", which means: they commit sin with haste.
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It has been said that by "the sin" (al-ithm) in this place is meant disbelief (kufr).
12235 - Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, saying: Aḥmad ibn Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī concerning His word: "And you see many of them hastening into sin and transgression", he said: "the sin" is disbelief.
12236 - Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda concerning His word: "And you see many of them hastening into sin and transgression", and this was among the judges of the Jews who were before you.
12237 - Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: "hastening into sin and transgression", he said: these are the Jews — "How evil indeed is what they used to do" — لَوْلا يَنْهَاهُمُ الرَّبَّانِيُّونَ (Why do the rabbis not forbid them), up to His word: لَبِئْسَ مَا كَانُوا يَصْنَعُونَ (How evil indeed is what they used to perform). He said: "they perform" (yaṣnaʿūna) and "they do" (yaʿmalūna) are one and the same. He said: to these [He said this] when they did not forbid, just as He said to those [this] when they themselves acted. He said: and that is acquiescence (al-idhān).
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Abū Jaʿfar said: And this statement which we have mentioned from al-Suddī — even though it is a statement whose correctness is not impossible — yet what is more fitting for the explanation of the words is: that the people are described as hastening into all forms of disobedience toward Allah, without shrinking back from any of it, neither from disbelief nor from anything else. For Allah the Exalted has characterized them in their description in a general manner with that which He has characterized them, namely that they hasten into sin and transgression, without distinguishing one sin from another in that.
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As for "the transgression" (al-ʿudwān): that is the overstepping of the limit which Allah has set for them in everything that He has set for them.
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And its explanation is: that these Jews, whom the Exalted has described in these verses with that which He has described them — that many of them hasten into disobedience toward Allah and the opposing of His command, and they overstep His limits which He has set for them concerning what He has permitted them and what He has forbidden them, in their consuming of "what is unlawfully acquired" (al-suḥt) — and that is the bribery which they accept from the people in order to render a judgment that contradicts the judgment of Allah among them.
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Allah the Exalted says: "How evil indeed is what they used to do", which means: I swear, how evil indeed is the work that these Jews used to do, in their hastening into sin and transgression, and their consuming of what is unlawfully acquired.
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