A. J. Arberry - Sura 5: The Table lyrics

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compa**ionate. O believers, fulfil your bonds. Permitted to you is the beast of the flocks, except that which is now recited to you, so that you deem not game permitted to be hunted when you are in pilgrim sanctity. God decrees whatsoever He desires. O believers, profane not God's waymarks nor the holy month, neither the offering, nor the necklaces, nor those repairing to the Holy House seeking from their Lord bounty and good pleasure. But when you have quit your pilgrim sanctity, then hunt for game. Let not detestation for a people who barred you from the Holy Mosque move you to commit aggression. Help one another to piety and godfearing; do not help each other to sin and enmity. And fear God; surely God is terrible in retribution. Forbidden to you are carrion, blood, the flesh of swine, what has been hallowed to other than God, the beast strangled; the beast beaten down, the beast fallen to d**h, the beast gored, and that devoured by beasts of prey -- excepting that you have sacrificed duly -- as also things sacrificed to idols, and partition by the divining arrows; that is ungodliness. Today the unbelievers have despaired of your religion; therefore fear them not, but fear you Me. 5:5 Today I have perfected your religion for you, and I have completed My blessing upon you, and I have approved Islam for your religion. But whosoever is constrained in emptiness and not inclining purposely to sin -- God is All-forgiving, All-compa**ionate. They will question thee what is permitted them. Say: 'The good things are permitted you; and such hunting creatures as you teach, training them as hounds, and teaching them as God has taught you -- eat what they seize for you, and mention God's Name over it. Fear God; God is swift at the reckoning.' Today the good things are permitted you, and the food of those who were given the Book is permitted to you, and permitted to them is your food; Likewise believing women in wedlock, and in wedlock women of them who were given the Book before you if you give them their wages, in wedlock and not in licence, or as taking lovers. Whoso disbelieves in the faith, his work has failed, and in the world to come he shall be among the losers. O believers, when you stand up to pray wash your faces, and your hands up to the elbows, and wipe your heads, and your feet up to the ankles. If you are defiled, purify yourselves; but if you are sick or on a journey, or if any of you comes from the privy, or you have touched women, and you can find no water, then have recourse to wholesome dust and wipe your faces and your hands with it. God does not desire to make any impediment for you; but He desires to purify you, and that He may complete His blessing upon you; haply you will be thankful. 5:10 And remember God's blessing upon you, and His compact which He made with you when you said, 'We have heard and we obey. And fear you God; surely God knows the thoughts in the breasts. O believers, be you securers of justice, witnesses for God. Let not detestation for a people move you not to be equitable; be equitable -- that is nearer to godfearing. And fear God; surely God is aware of the things you do. God has promised those that believe, and do deeds of righteousness; they shall have; forgiveness and a mighty wage. And the unbelievers, who cried lies to Our signs -- they shall be the inhabitants of Hell. O believers, remember God's blessing upon you, when a certain people purposed to stretch against you their hands, and He restrained their hands from you; and fear God; and in God let the believers put all their trust. 5:15 God took compact with the Children of Israel; and We raised up from among them twelve chieftains. And God said, 'I am with you. Surely, if you perform the prayer, and pay the alms, and believe in My Messengers and succour them, and lend to God a good loan, I will acquit you of your evil deeds, and I will admit you to gardens underneath which rivers flow. So whosoever of you thereafter disbelieves, surely he has gone astray from the right way. So for their breaking their compact We cursed them and made their hearts hard, they perverting words from their meanings; and they have forgotten a portion of that they were reminded of; and thou wilt never cease to light upon some act of treachery on their part, except a few of them. Yet pardon them, and forgive; surely God loves the good-doers. And with those who say 'We are Christians' We took compact; and they have forgotten a portion of that they were reminded of. So We have stirred up among them enmity and hatred, till the Day of Resurrection; and God will a**uredly tell them of the things they wrought. People of the Book, now there has come to you Our Messenger, making clear to you many things you have been concealing of the Book, and effacing many things. There has come to you from God a light, and a Book Manifest whereby God guides whosoever follows His good pleasure in the ways of peace, and brings them forth from the shadows into the light by His leave; and He guides them to a straight path. They are unbelievers who say, 'God is the Messiah, Mary's son.' Say: 'Who then shall overrule God in any way if He desires to destroy the Messiah, Mary's son, and his mother, and all those who are on earth?' 5;20 For to God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and of the earth, and all that is between them, creating what He will. God is powerful over everything. Say the Jews and Christians, 'We are the sons of God, and His beloved ones.' Say: 'Why then does He chastise you for your sins? No; you are mortals, of His creating; He forgives whom He will, and He chastises whom He will.' For to God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and of the earth, and all that is between them; to Him is the homecoming. People of the Book, now there has come to you Our Messenger, making things clear to you, upon an interval between the Messengers lest you should say, 'There has not come to us any bearer of good tidings, neither any warner. Indeed, there has come to you a bearer of good tidings and a warner; God is powerful over everything. And when Moses said to his people, 'O my people, remember God's blessing upon you, when He appointed among you Prophets, and appointed you kings, and gave you such as He had not given to any being. O my people, enter the Holy Land which God has prescribed for you, and turn not back in your traces, to turn about losers.' 5:25 They said, 'Moses, there are people in it very arrogant; we will not enter it until they depart from it; if they depart from it then we will enter.' Said two men of those that feared God whom God had blessed, 'Enter against them the gate! When you enter it, you will be victors. Put you all your trust in God, if you are believers.' They said, 'Moses, we will never enter it so long as they are in it. Go forth, thou and thy Lord, and do battle; we will be sitting here.' He said, 'O my Lord, I rule no one except myself and my brother. So do Thou divide between us and the people of the ungodly.' Said He, 'Then it shall be forbidden them for forty years, while they are wandering in the earth; so grieve not for the people of the ungodly.' 5:30 And recite thou to them the story of the two sons of Adam truthfully, when they offered a sacrifice, and it was accepted of one of them, and not accepted of the other. 'I will surely slay thee,' said one. 'God accepts only of the godfearing,' said the other. 'Yet if thou stretchest out thy hand against me, to slay me, I will not stretch out my hand against thee, to slay thee; I fear God, the Lord of all Being. I desire that thou shouldest be laden with my sin and thy sin, and so become an inhabitant of the Fire; that is the recompense of the evildoers.' Then his soul prompted him to slay his brother, and he slew him, and became one of the losers. Then God sent forth a raven, scratching into the earth, to show him how he might conceal the vile body of his brother. He said, 'Woe is me! Am I unable to be as this raven, and so conceal my brother's vile body?' And he became one of the remorseful. 5:35 Therefore We prescribed for the Children of Israel that whoso slays a soul not to retaliate for a soul slain, nor for corruption done in the land, shall be as if he had slain mankind altogether; and whoso gives life to a soul, shall be as if he had given life to mankind altogether. Our Messengers have already come to them with the clear signs; then many of them thereafter commit excesses in the earth. This is the recompense of those who fight against God and His Messenger, and hasten about the earth, to do corruption there: they shall be slaughtered, or crucified, or their hands and feet shall alternately be struck off; or they shall be banished from the land. That is a degradation for them in this world; and in the world to come awaits them a mighty chastisement, except for such as repent, before you have power over them. So know you that God is All-forgiving, All-compa**ionate. O believers, fear God, and seek the means to come to Him, and struggle in His way; haply you will prosper. 5:40 The unbelievers, though they possessed all that is in the earth, and the like of it with it, to ransom themselves from the chastisement of the Day of Resurrection thereby, it would not be accepted of them; for them awaits a painful chastisement. They will desire to come forth from the Fire, but they will not come forth from it; for them awaits a lasting chastisement. And the thief, male and female: cut off the hands of both, as a recompense for what they have earned, and a punishment exemplary from God; God is All-mighty, All-wise. But whoso repents, after his evildoing, and makes amends, God will turn towards him; God is All-forgiving, All-compa**ionate. Knowest thou not that to God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth? He chastises whom He will, and forgives whom He will; and God is powerful over everything. 5:45 O Messenger, let them not grieve thee that vie with one another in unbelief, such men as say with their mouths 'We believe' but their hearts believe not; and the Jews who listen to falsehood, listen to other folk, who have not come to thee, perverting words from their meanings, saying, 'If you are given this, then take it; if you are not given it, beware!' Whomsoever God desires to try, thou canst not avail him anything with God. Those are they whose hearts God desired not to purify; for them is degradation in this world; and in the world to come awaits them a mighty chastisement; who listen to falsehood, and consume the unlawful. If they come to thee, judge thou between them, or turn away from them; if thou turnest away from them, they will hurt thee nothing; and if thou judgest, judge justly between them; God loves the just. Yet how will they make thee their judge seeing they have the Torah, wherein is God's judgment, then thereafter turn their backs? They are not believers. Surely We sent down the Torah, wherein is guidance and light; thereby the Prophets who had surrendered themselves gave judgment for those of Jewry, as did the masters and the rabbis, following such portion of God's Book as they were given to keep and were witnesses to. So fear not men, but fear you Me; and sell not My signs for a little price. Whoso judges not according to what God has sent down -- they are the unbelievers. And therein We prescribed for them: 'A life for a life, an eye for an eye, a nose for a nose, an ear for an ear, a tooth for a tooth, and for wounds retaliation'; but whosoever forgoes it as a freewill offering, that shall be for him an expiation. Whoso judges not according to what God has sent down -- they are the evildoers. 5:50 And We sent, following in their footsteps, Jesus son of Mary, confirming the Torah before him and We gave to him the Gospel, wherein is guidance and light, and confirming the Torah before it, as a guidance and an admonition unto the godfearing. So let the People of the Gospel judge according to what God has sent down therein. Whosoever judges not according to what God has sent down -- they are the ungodly. And We have sent down to thee the Book with the truth, confirming the Book that was before it, and a**uring it. So judge between them according to what God has sent down, and do not follow their caprices, to forsake the truth that has come to thee. To every one of you We have appointed a right way and an open road. If God had willed, He would have made you one nation; but that He may try you in what has come to you. So be you forward in good works; unto God shall you return, all together; and He will tell you of that whereon you were at variance. And judge between them according to what God has sent down, and do not follow their caprices, and beware of them lest they tempt thee away from any of what God has sent down to thee. But if they turn their backs, know that God desires only to smite them for some sin they have committed; surely, many men are ungodly. 5:55 Is it the judgment of pagandom then that they are seeking? Yet who is fairer in judgment than God, for a people having sure faith? O believers, take not Jews and Christians as friends; they are friends of each other. Whoso of you makes them his friends is one of them. God guides not the people of the evildoers. Yet thou seest those in whose hearts is sickness vying with one another to come to them, saying, 'We fear lest a turn of fortune should smite us.' But it may be that God will bring the victory, or some commandment from Him, and then they will find themselves, for that they kept secret within them, remorseful, and the believers will say, 'What, are these the ones who swore by God most earnest oaths that they were with you? Their works have failed now they are losers.' O believers, whosoever of you turns from his religion, God will a**uredly bring a people He loves, and who love Him, humble towards the believers, disdainful towards the unbelievers, men who struggle in the path of God, not fearing the reproach of any reproacher. That is God's bounty; He gives it unto whom He will; and God is All-embracing, All-knowing. 5:60 Your friend is only God, and His Messenger, and the believers who perform the prayer and pay the alms, and bow them down. Whoso makes God his friend, and His Messenger, and the believers -- the party of God, they are the victors. O believers, take not as your friends those of them, who were given the Book before you, and the unbelievers, who take your religion in mockery and as a sport -- and fear God, if you are believers -- and when you call to prayer, take it in mockery and as a sport; that is because they are a people who have no understanding. Say: 'People of the Book, do you blame us for any other cause than that we believe in God, and what has been sent down to us, and what was sent down before, and that most of you are ungodly?' 5:65 Say: 'Shall I tell you of a recompense with God, worse than that? Whomsoever God has cursed, and with whom He is wroth, and made some of them apes and swine, and worshippers of idols -- they are worse situated, and have gone further astray from the right way. When they come to you, they say, 'We believe'; but they have entered in unbelief, and so they have departed in it; God knows very well what they were hiding. Thou seest many of them vying in sin and enmity, and how they consume the unlawful; evil is the thing they have been doing. Why do the masters and the rabbis not forbid them to utter sin, and consume the unlawful? Evil is the thing they have been working. The Jews have said, 'God's hand is fettered.' Fettered are their hands, and they are cursed for what they have said. Nay, but His hands are outspread; He expends how He will. And what has been sent down to thee from thy Lord will surely increase many of them in insolence and unbelief; and We have cast between them enmity and hatred, till the Day of Resurrection. As often as they light a fire for war, God will extinguish it. They hasten about the earth, to do corruption there; and God loves not the workers of corruption. 5:70 But had the People of the Book believed and been godfearing, We would have acquitted them of their evil deeds, and admitted them to Gardens of Bliss. Had they performed the Torah and the Gospel, and what was sent down to them from their Lord, they would have eaten both what was above them, and what was beneath their feet. Some of them are a just nation; but many of them -- evil are the things they do. O Messenger, deliver that which has been sent down to thee from thy Lord; for if thou dost not, thou wilt not have delivered His Message. God will protect thee from men. God guides not the people of the unbelievers. Say: 'People of the Book, you do not stand on anything, until you perform the Torah and the Gospel, and what was sent down to you from your Lord.' And what has been sent down to thee from thy Lord will surely increase many of them in insolence and unbelief; so grieve not for the people of the unbelievers. Surely they that believe, and those of Jewry, and the Sabaeans, and those Christians, whosoever believes in God and the Last Day, and works righteousness -- no fear shall be on them, neither shall they sorrow. And We took compact with the Children of Israel, and We sent Messengers to them. Whensoever there came to them a Messenger with that their souls had not desire for, some they cried lies to, and some they slew. 5:75 And they supposed there should be no trial; but blind they were, and deaf. Then God turned towards them; then again blind they were, many of them, and deaf; and God sees the things they do. They are unbelievers who say, 'God is the Messiah, Mary's son.' For the Messiah said, 'Children of Israel, serve God, my Lord and your Lord. Verily whoso a**ociates with God anything, God shall prohibit him entrance to Paradise, and his refuge shall be the Fire; and wrongdoers shall have no helpers.' They are unbelievers who say, 'God is the Third of Three. No god is there but One God. If they refrain not from what they say, there shall afflict those of them that disbelieve a painful chastisement. Will they not turn to God and pray His forgiveness? God is All-forgiving, All-compa**ionate. The Messiah, son of Mary, was only a Messenger; Messengers before him pa**ed away; his mother was a just woman; they both ate food. Behold, how We make clear the signs to them; then behold, how they perverted are! 5:80 Say: 'Do you serve, apart from God, that which cannot hurt or profit you? God is the All-hearing, the All-knowing.' Say: 'People of the Book, go not beyond the bounds in your religion, other than the truth, and follow not the caprices of a people who went astray before, and led astray many, and now again have gone astray from the right way.' Cursed were the unbelievers of the Children of Israel by the tongue of David, and Jesus, Mary's son; that, for their rebelling and their transgression. They forbade not one another any dishonour that they committed; surely evil were the things they did. Thou seest many of them making unbelievers their friends. Evil is that they have forwarded to their account, that God is angered against them, and in the chastisement they shall dwell forever. Yet had they believed in God and the Prophet and what has been sent down to him, they would not have taken them as friends; but many of them are ungodly. 5:85 Thou wilt surely find the most hostile of men to the believers are the Jews and the idolaters; and thou wilt surely find the nearest of them in love to the believers are those who say 'We are Christians'; that, because some of them are priests and monks, and they wax not proud; and when they hear what has been sent down to the Messenger, thou seest their eyes overflow with tears because of the truth they recognize. They say, 'Our Lord, we believe; so do Thou write us down among the witnesses. Why should we not believe in God and the truth that has come to us, and be eager that our Lord should admit us with the righteous people?' And God rewards them for what they say with gardens underneath which rivers flow, therein dwelling forever; that is the recompense of the good-doers. But those who disbelieve, and cry lies to Our signs -- they are the inhabitants of Hell. O believers, forbid not such good things as God has permitted you; and transgress not; God loves not transgressors. 5:90 Eat of what God has provided you lawful and good; and fear God, in whom you are believers. God will not take you to task for a slip in your oaths; but He will take you to task for such bonds as you have made by oaths, whereof the expiation is to feed ten poor persons with the average of the food you serve to your families, or to clothe them, or to set free a slave; or if any finds not the means, let him fast for three days. That is the expiation of your oaths when you have sworn; but keep your oaths. So God makes clear to you His signs; haply you will be thankful. O believers, wine and arrow-shuffling, idols and divining-arrows are an abomination, some of Satan's work; so avoid it; haply So you will prosper. Satan only desires to precipitate enmity and hatred between you in regard to wine and arrow-shuffling, and to bar you from the remembrance of God, and from prayer. Will you then desist? And obey God and obey the Messenger, and beware; but if you turn your backs, then know that it is only for Our Messenger to deliver the Message Manifest. There is no fault in those who believe and do deeds of righteousness what they may eat, if they are godfearing, and believe, and do deeds of righteousness, and then are godfearing and believe, and then are godfearing and do good; God loves the good-doers. 5:95 O believers, God will surely try you with something of the game that your hands and lances attain, that God may know who fears Him in the Unseen. Whoso thereafter commits transgression, there awaits him a painful chastisement. O believers, slay not the game while you are in pilgrim sanctity; whosoever of you slays it wilfully, there shall be recompense -- the like of what he has slain, in flocks as shall be judged by two men of equity among you, an offering to reach the Kaaba; or expiation -- food for poor persons or the equivalent of that in fasting, so that he may taste the mischief of his action. God has pardoned what is past; but whoever offends again, God will take vengeance on him, God is All-mighty, Vengeful. Permitted to you is the game of the sea and the food of it, as a provision for you and for the journeyers; but forbidden to you is the game of the land, so long as you remain in pilgrim sanctity; and fear God, unto whom you shall be mustered. God has appointed the Kaaba, the Holy House, as an establishment for men, and the holy month; the offering, and the necklaces -- that, that you may know that God knows all that is in the heavens and in the earth; and that God has knowledge of everything. Know God is terrible in retribution, and God is All-forgiving, All-compa**ionate. It is only for the Messenger to deliver the Message; and God knows what you reveal and what you hide. 5:100 Say: 'The corrupt and the good are not equal, though the abundance of the corrupt please thee.' So fear God, O men possessed of minds; haply so you will prosper. O believers, question not concerning things which, if they were revealed to you, would vex you; yet if you question concerning them when the Koran is being sent down, they will be revealed to you. God has effaced those things; for God is All-forgiving, All-clement. A people before you questioned concerning them, then disbelieved in them. God has not appointed cattle dedicated to idols, such as Bahira, Sa'iba, Wasila, Hami; but the unbelievers forge against God falsehood, and most of them have no understanding. And when it is said to them, 'Come now to what God has sent down, and the Messenger, they say, 'Enough for us is what we found our fathers doing.' What, even if their fathers had knowledge of naught and were not guided? O believers, look after your own souls. He who is astray cannot hurt you, if you are rightly guided. Unto God shall you return, all together, and He will tell you what you were doing. 5:105 O believers, the testimony between you when any of you is visited by d**h, at the bequeathing, shall be two men of equity among you; or two others from another folk, if you are journeying in the land and the affliction of d**h befalls you. Them you shall detain after the prayer, and they shall swear by God, if you are doubtful, 'We will not sell it for a price, even though it were a near kinsman, nor will we hide the testimony of God, for then we would surely be among the sinful' But if it be discovered that both of them have merited the accusation of any sin, then two others shall stand in their place, these being the nearest of those most concerned, and they shall swear by God, 'Our testimony is truer than their testimony, and we have not transgressed, for then we would a**uredly be among the evildoers.' So it is likelier that they will bear testimony in proper form, or else they will be afraid that after their oaths, oaths may be rebu*ted. Fear God, and hearken; God guides not the people of the ungodly. The day when God shall gather the Messengers, and say, 'What answer were you given?' They shall say, 'We have no knowledge; Thou art the Knower of the things unseen. When God said, 'Jesus Son of Mary, remember My blessing upon thee and upon thy mother, when I confirmed thee with the Holy Spirit, to speak to men in the cradle, and of age; 5:110 and when I taught thee the Book, the Wisdom, the Torah, the Gospel; and when thou createst out of clay, by My leave, as the likeness of a bird, and thou breathest into it, and it is a bird, by My leave; and thou healest the blind and the leper by My leave, and thou bringest the dead forth by My leave; and when restrained from thee the Children of Israel when thou camest unto them with the clear signs, and the unbelievers among them said, "This is nothing but sorcery manifest." And when I inspired the Apostles: "Believe in Me and My Messenger"; they said, "We believe; witness Thou our submission."' And when the Apostles said, 'O Jesus son of Mary, is thy Lord able to send down on us a Table out of heaven?' He said, 'Fear you God, if you are believers. They said, 'We desire that we should eat of it and our hearts be at rest; and that we may know that thou hast spoken true to us, and that we may be among its witnesses.' Said Jesus son of Mary, 'O God, our Lord, send down upon us a Table out of heaven, that shall be for us a festival, the first and last of us, and a sign from Thee. And provide for us; Thou art the best of providers.' 5:115 God said, 'Verily I do send it down on you; whoso of you hereafter disbelieves, verily I shall chastise him with a chastisement wherewith I chastise no other being.' And when God said, 'O Jesus son of Mary, didst thou say unto men, "Take me and my mother as gods, apart from God"?' He said, 'To Thee be glory! It is not mine to say what I have no right to. If I indeed said it, Thou knowest it, knowing what is within my soul, and I know not what is within Thy soul; Thou knowest the things unseen I only said to them what Thou didst command me: "Serve God, my Lord and your Lord." And I was a witness over them, while I remained among them; but when Thou didst take me to Thyself, Thou wast Thyself the watcher over them; Thou Thyself art witness of everything. If Thou chastisest them, they are Thy servants; if Thou forgivest them, Thou art the All-mighty, the All-wise.' God said, 'This is the day the truthful shall be profited by their truthfulness. For them await gardens underneath which rivers flow, therein dwelling forever and ever; God being well-pleased with them and they well-pleased with Him; that is the mighty triumph.' To God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and of the earth, and all that is in them, and He is powerful over everything.