The Table (Al-Ma’idah)

Commentary

(a) There were certain of the Jews of Madinah who were impressed by Islam. Moreover, considering the increasing domination of Islam, they did not want to incur its open enmity. Although in their hearts these people were steadfast in the religion of their forefathers, they used to make a show of being believers by their utterances. Such people forget that their dealings are not actually with any human being but with God, and God is the Being who knows what is inside one’s heart. When He deals with anyone, it will be based on reality and not on any words which that person chose to utter to protect his own interests. There were two types of prominent Jews—one the rabbis and the other the holy men. The latter were ahbar, i.e. scholars and interpreters. Both types remained busy day and night in the work of religion, for their leadership was propped up solely by religious work and they received substantial amounts in the name of religion. But, the real secret of their leadership and public acclaim was their presentation of a popular version of religion rather than the true religion favoured by God. They spoke and acted ostensibly for the sake of religion, but in reality their words and deeds were worldly-wise. Worse, they gave to the people, in the name of religion, whatever they wanted for themselves, knowing full well that in actuality those things were unconnected with religion. (a) The favoured religion of God is that of taqwa (fear of God). In other words, a man should live in society in such a way that he utters no words of sin; in his activities he should avoid forbidden ways and he should behave with entire fairness towards those with whom he has dealings. But a man’s selfishness puts him on the path of world-worship; he wants to lead a life in which he is not troubled by having to distinguish between right and wrong, and in which he needs to worry only about his own worldly interests. The general run of the Jewish people mindlessly trod this path of self-centredness. This being so, it was the duty of the foremost among them to alert them to their wrongdoing and to wean them away from this course. Instead of this, they reached a tacit understanding with the common people. They started disseminating among them a particular type of religion which guaranteed their salvation and promised them a high status, without their having to change their actual way of living in any way. These prominent people did not disturb the current lives of the common people, but used to recite to them false stories of the supremacy of the Jewish community; giving a religious colour to their communal events and conveying to them the glad news that they only had to repeat a number of ritual actions and palaces would be built for them in paradise. Before God, it is the most evil deed to disseminate this type of religion among the people, in which change in their actual lives is not required, and to delude them into thinking that, by publicly performing certain showy rites, their entry into paradise will be guaranteed.