Tafseer of The Table · Al-Maaida · 5:63
Why do the rabbis and religious scholars not forbid them from saying what is sinful and devouring what is unlawful? How wretched is what they have been practicing.
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 exposition of the interpretation of His word: لَوْلا يَنْهَاهُمُ الرَّبَّانِيُّونَ وَالأَحْبَارُ عَنْ قَوْلِهِمُ الإِثْمَ وَأَكْلِهِمُ السُّحْتَ لَبِئْسَ مَا كَانُوا يَصْنَعُونَ (Why do the rabbis and the scribes not forbid them sinful speech and the devouring of unlawful gain? Truly wretched is what they used to fabricate) (63)
Abū Jaʿfar said: the Exalted, whose mention is blessed, says: why do the rabbāniyyūn — among the Jews of the Children of Israel — not forbid those who hasten into sin and enmity and the devouring of bribes in adjudication, namely their rabbāniyyūn, who are their believing leaders and their learned administrators who govern them, and their aḥbār, who are their scholars and their chiefs — "sinful speech," that is to say: the speaking of lies and falsehood. And that is because they used to judge among them with a judgment other than the judgment of Allah, and they used to write scriptures with their own hands and then say: "This belongs to the judgment of Allah, and this belongs to His scriptures." Allah says: فَوَيْلٌ لَهُمْ مِمَّا كَتَبَتْ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَوَيْلٌ لَهُمْ مِمَّا يَكْسِبُونَ (So woe to them for what their hands have written, and woe to them for what they earn).
As for His word "and the devouring of unlawful gain," by it He means the bribes that they used to accept for their adjudication according to something other than the Book of Allah, in favor of the one for whom they thus judged.
We have already expounded the meaning of "the rabbāniyyūn" and "the aḥbār" and the meaning of "the unlawful gain," with the proofs thereof, in what preceded, which makes it superfluous to repeat it in this place.
"Truly wretched is what they used to fabricate" — and this is an oath of Allah by which He has sworn. The Exalted, whose mention is blessed, says: I swear: truly wretched is the fabrication that these rabbāniyyūn and aḥbār used to fabricate, in that they refrained from forbidding those among them who hastened into sin and enmity and the devouring of unlawful gain from what they used to do thereof.
And the scholars used to say: there is in the Qurʾān no verse that is more severe in its rebuke of the scholars than this verse, and no verse more fearsome to them than this.
12238 — Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dāwūd related to us, saying: Salama ibn Nubayṭ related to us, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Muzāḥim, concerning His word: "Why do the rabbāniyyūn and the aḥbār not forbid them sinful speech." He said: there is in the Qurʾān no verse more fearsome to me than this — namely that we do not forbid.
12239 — Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn ʿAṭiyya related to us, saying: Qays related to us, from al-ʿAlāʾ ibn al-Musayyab, from Khālid ibn Dīnār, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: there is in the Qurʾān no verse more severe in rebuke than this verse: لولا ينهاهم الربانيون والأحبار عن قولهم الإثم وأكلهم السحت لبئس ما كانوا يعملون (Why do the rabbāniyyūn and the aḥbār not forbid them sinful speech and the devouring of unlawful gain? Truly wretched is what they used to do). He said: thus did he recite it.
