Tafseer of The Table · Al-Maaida · 5:94
O you who have believed, Allah will surely test you through something of the game that your hands and spears [can] reach, that Allah may make evident those who fear Him unseen. And whoever transgresses after that - for him is a painful punishment.
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 His word: "O you who believe, Allah will surely test you with something of the game that your hands and your spears can reach."
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise be mentioned, says: O you who held Allah and His Messenger to be true, "Allah will surely test you with something of the game," He says: Allah will surely put you to the test "with something of the game," that is to say: with a portion of the game.
He informed them only that He would test them with "something," because He did not test them with the game of the sea, but tested them only with the game of the land. The test thus concerns a portion, not the whole.
His word: "that your hands can reach," by this is meant: either with the hand, such as eggs and young; or by striking with arrows and spears, as is the case with wild asses, cattle, and gazelles. Thus He puts you to the test with it in the state of your consecration (iḥrām) for your ʿumra or your ḥajj.
In a corresponding manner a number of the people of exegesis have spoken.
Mention of who said that:
12537 - Hannād related to us, he said: Ibn Abī Zāʾida related to us, he said: Warqāʾ informed us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word: "Allah will surely test you with something of the game that your hands and your spears can reach," he said: "your hands" are the small game, the seizing of the young and the eggs; and "the spears," he said: the large game.
12538 - Hannād related to us, he said: Ibn Abī Zāʾida related to us, on the authority of Dāwūd, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid, the like of it.
12539 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, he said: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word: "that your hands and your spears can reach," he said: the arrows; "your spears" reach the large game, and "your hands" reach the small game, the seizing of the young and the egg.
12540 - Hannād related to us, he said: Wakīʿ related to us — and Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, he said: my father related to us — on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Ḥumayd al-Aʿraj, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word: "Allah will surely test you with something of the game that your hands and your spears can reach," he said: that which is not able to flee from the game.
12541 - Ibn Bashshār related to us, he said: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, they both said: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Ḥumayd al-Aʿraj, on the authority of Mujāhid, the like of it.
12542 - Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: ʿAbdallāh related to us, he said: Muʿāwiya ibn Ṣāliḥ related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: "your hands and your spears," he said: it is the weak and the small of the game, with which Allah, the Exalted, whose praise be mentioned, tests His servants during their consecration (iḥrām), so that, if they wished, they could reach it with their hands. Thus Allah forbade them to approach it.
12543 - Al-Ḥārith related to me, he said: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, he said: Sufyān al-Thawrī related to us, on the authority of Ḥumayd al-Aʿraj and Layth, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word: "O you who believe, Allah will surely test you with something of the game that your hands and your spears can reach," he said: the young and the eggs, and that which is not able to flee.
The explanation of His word: "so that Allah may make known who fears Him in the unseen. And whoever transgresses after that, for him there is a painful punishment." (5:94)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise be mentioned, means: so that Allah may surely test you, O believers, with a portion of the game in the state of your consecration (iḥrām), so that He may make known the people of obedience to Allah and faith in Him, and those who keep to His limits and His command and His prohibition, and who it is that fears Allah and therefore guards himself against what He has forbidden him and avoids it out of fear of His punishment; "in the unseen," in the meaning of: in this world, where he does not see Him.
We have already explained that "the unseen" (al-ghayb) is merely a verbal noun from the utterance of the one who says: "this matter has remained hidden from me (ghāba ʿannī), it remains hidden, ghayban and ghaybatan," and that the Arabs call that which is not beheld with one's own eyes "ghayb."
The explanation of the words is then: so that the intimates of Allah may know who fears Allah and therefore guards himself against His forbidden matters which He has forbidden him, of the game and of other things, where he does not see Him and does not behold Him with his own eyes.
As for His word: "And whoever transgresses after that," by this is meant: whoever oversteps the limit of Allah which He has set for him, after his being tested by the prohibition of the game upon him while he is in the state of consecration (ḥarām), and who thus holds as permitted what Allah has forbidden him of it by seizing it and killing it; "for him there is a punishment, from Allah, painful," that is to say: agonizing, tormenting.
