Expiation through specific actions
5. Surah Al-Ma'idah
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
يُؤَاخِذُكُمُ
اللّهُ بِاللَّغْوِ
فِي أَيْمَانِكُمْ
وَلَـكِن يُؤَاخِذُكُم
بِمَا عَقَّدتُّمُ
الأَيْمَانَ
...
5: 89. Allah will not call you to account for what is futile in your oaths, but He will call you to account for your deliberate oaths:
C792. Vows of penance or abstention may sometimes be futile, or even stand in the way of really good or virtuous act.
See 2:224-226, and notes 251, 252.
The general principles established are:
1. take no futile oaths;
2. use not Allah's name, literally or in intention, to fetter yourself against doing a lawful or good act:
3. keep to your solemn oaths to the utmost of your ability;
4. where you are unable to do so, expiate your failure by feeding or clothing the poor, or obtaining some one's freedom, or if you have not the means, by fasting. This is from a spiritual aspect.
If any party suffers damage from your failure, compensation will be due to him, but would be question of law or equity.
... فَكَفَّارَتُهُ ...
for expiation,
... إِطْعَامُ عَشَرَةِ مَسَاكِينَ مِنْ أَوْسَطِ مَا تُطْعِمُونَ أَهْلِيكُمْ أَوْ كِسْوَتُهُمْ أَوْ تَحْرِيرُ رَقَبَةٍ...
- feed then indigent persons, on a scale of the average for the food of your families;
- or clothe them;
- or give a slave his freedom.
... فَمَن لَّمْ يَجِدْ فَصِيَامُ ثَلاَثَةِ أَيَّامٍ...
- If that is beyond your means, fast for three days.
... ذَلِكَ كَفَّارَةُ أَيْمَانِكُمْ إِذَا حَلَفْتُمْ وَاحْفَظُواْ أَيْمَانَكُمْ ...
That is the expiation for the oaths ye have sworn.
But keep to your oaths.
... كَذَلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ اللّهُ لَكُمْ آيَاتِهِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ ﴿٨٩﴾
Thus doth Allah make clear to you His Signs, that ye may be grateful.
يَا
أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ
آمَنُواْ لاَ
تَقْتُلُواْ
الصَّيْدَ
وَأَنتُمْ
حُرُمٌ...
5: 95. O ye who believe!
kill not game, while in the Sacred Precincts or in pilgrim garb.
The pilgrim garb, Ihram, has been explained in n. 212, 2:196.
... وَمَن قَتَلَهُ مِنكُم مُّتَعَمِّدًا فَجَزَاء ...
If any of you doth so intentionally, the compensation is
... مِّثْلُ مَا قَتَلَ مِنَ النَّعَمِ يَحْكُمُ بِهِ ذَوَا عَدْلٍ مِّنكُمْ هَدْيًا بَالِغَ الْكَعْبَةِ...
- an offering, brought to the Ka'bah of a domestic animal equivalent to the one he killed, as adjudged by two just men among you;
C801. For an inadvertent breach of the game rule there is apparently no penalty. Intentional breach will be prevented, if possible, by previous action.
If in some case the preventive action is not effective, the penalty is prescribed. The penalty is in three alternatives:
- an equivalent animal should be brought to the Ka'bah for sacrifice; if so, the meat would be distributed to the poor; or the poor must be fed, with grain or money, according to the value of the animal if one had been sacrificed: or
- the offender must fast as many days as the number of the poor who would have been fed under the second alternative.
- Probably the last alternative would only be open if the offender is too poor to afford the first or second, but on this point Commentators are not agreed.
The "equivalent animal" in the first alternative would be a domestic animal of similar value or weight in meat or of similar shape (e.g., goat to antelope), as adjudged by two just men on the spot.
The alternatives about the penalty and its remission ("Allah forgives what is past") or exaction explain the last two lines of the verse: being "Exalted and Lord of Retribution", Allah can remit or regulate according to His just laws.
... أَوْ كَفَّارَةٌ طَعَامُ مَسَاكِينَ أَو عَدْلُ ذَلِكَ صِيَامًا لِّيَذُوقَ وَبَالَ أَمْرِهِ ...
- or by way of atonement, the feeding of the indigent;
- or its equivalent in fasts:
that he may taste of the penalty of his deed.
... عَفَا اللّهُ عَمَّا سَلَف...
Allah forgives what is past:
... وَمَنْ عَادَ فَيَنتَقِمُ اللّهُ مِنْهُ وَاللّهُ عَزِيزٌ ذُو انْتِقَامٍ ﴿٩٥﴾
for repetition Allah will exact from him the penalty: for Allah is Exalted, and Lord of Retribution.
Asad’s Version:
5: 89 God will not take you task for oaths which you may have uttered without thought, but He will take you to task for oaths which you have sworn in earnest.
Thus, the breaking off an oath must be atoned for by feeding ten needy persons with more or less the same food as you are wont to give to your own families, or by clothing them, or by freeing a human being from bondage; and he who has not the wherewithal shall fast for three days [instead]. This shall be the atonement for your oaths whenever you have sworn [ and broken them]. But be mindful of your oaths!
Thus God makes clear unto you His Messages, so that you might have cause to be grateful.
5: 95 O you who have attained to faith! Kill no game while you are in the state of pilgrimage. And whoever of you kills it intentionally, [shall make] amends in cattle equivalent to what he has killed – with two persons of probity giving their judgment thereon – to be brought as an offering to the Kabah; or else he may atone for his by feeding the needy, or by the equivalent thereof in fasting: [this] in order that he taste the full gravity of his deed, [while] God shall have effaced the past. But whoever does it again, God will inflict His retribution on him: for God is almighty, and avenger of evil.