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Learn › Tafsīr al-Qurṭubī Qurʾānic Rulings and Law › Lesson 5

Tafsīr al-Qurṭubī Qurʾānic Rulings and Law · As-Sabʿ al-Ṭiwāl The Seven Long Surahs
Lesson 5

Sūrah Al-Māʾidah The Table Spread

سورة الماʾidah

Al-Qurṭubī treats Al-Māʾidah as the primary surah for Islamic food law, contract law, and the fiqh of ritual purity (wuḍūʾ and tayammum), extracting from 5:3 the definitive food prohibition list, from 5:6 the obligatory ablution conditions, and applying the principle that this surah's rulings were among the last revealed and therefore abrogating rather than abrogated.

Surah Overview

DetailInformationClassificationSignificance
SurahالمائدةMadanī 120 versesFood prohibitions, wuḍūʾ/tayammum conditions, contract law (5:1), punishments (ḥudūd), oath expiation, and the ruling on People of the Book food
Key Fiqh IssueDoes 5:3's phrase "and what has been sacrificed for other than Allah" cover all non-Quranic sacrificial slaughter, making People of the Book meat that is not bismillah-slaughtered prohibited?People of the Book foodAl-Qurṭubī: 5:5 permits People of the Book food "ṭaʿām alladhīna ūtū l-kitāb" (food of the People of the Book) is general permission overriding the concern about non-Islamic slaughter formula
School ComparisonWuḍūʾ: touching a woman breaks wuḍūʾ (Shāfiʿī any intentional touch); breaks wuḍūʾ only with desire (Mālikī); touching wife does not break wuḍūʾ unless with desire (Ḥanafī reads "lāmastum" as intercourse); Ḥanbalī: as ShāfiʿīWuḍūʾ touching womenAl-Qurṭubī maps four positions on 5:6's "aw lāmastum an-nisāʾ" (or you have touched women)
Uṣūl Principle"Mā nazala ākhiran fa-huwa nāsikh" what was revealed last is the abrogator applied to Al-Māʾidah whose late revelation means its rulings override earlier potentially conflicting versesLate revelation = abrogatingAl-Qurṭubī cites Ibn Masʿūd's statement that Al-Māʾidah is among the last surahs revealed, making it legally decisive over earlier rulings

Key Themes from Al-Qurṭubī

Al-Qurṭubī opens Al-Māʾidah with the contract verse (5:1 "fulfil your contracts") and extracts from it the principle of pacta sunt servanda in Islamic law contracts, once validly formed, are binding on both parties and cannot be unilaterally revoked without the other party's consent or a valid legal excuse. He notes that "ʿuqūd" (contracts) is a comprehensive plural encompassing all types of obligations: commercial contracts, marriage contracts, pledges, and covenants. He derives from this verse that breach of contract is not merely morally reprehensible but legally actionable.

On 5:3's comprehensive food prohibition list, al-Qurṭubī systematically extracts and explains each prohibited category: maytah (carrion), blood, pork, what has been dedicated to other than Allah, the strangled, the beaten, the fallen, the gored, the eaten by a predator (with the exception of what is slaughtered before death). He then addresses the critical question: does 5:5's permission of People of the Book food override the concern that they may not invoke the divine name at slaughter? Al-Qurṭubī's position: yes the Quran's explicit permission of their food is a general ruling that covers their slaughter practices, provided they are genuinely People of the Book and the meat is not from an explicitly prohibited category (pork, carrion, etc.).

حُرِّمَتْ عَلَيْكُمُ الْمَيْتَةُ وَالدَّمُ وَلَحْمُ الْخِنزِيرِ وَمَا أُهِلَّ لِغَيْرِ اللَّهِ بِهِ Ḥurrimat ʿalaykumu l-maytatu wa d-damu wa laḥmu l-khinzīri wa mā uhilla li-ghayri llāhi bih Prohibited to you are carrion, blood, pork, and what has been dedicated to other than Allah. Al-Qurṭubī: this definitive list in Al-Māʾidah the last major revealed surah is treated as the final, comprehensive prohibition list. "Maytah" (carrion) includes any animal that died without proper halāl slaughter; "al-dam" (blood) is the flowing blood, not blood absorbed in meat; pork is absolutely prohibited in all forms.
الْيَوْمَ أُحِلَّ لَكُمُ الطَّيِّبَاتُ وَطَعَامُ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ حِلٌّ لَّكُمْ Al-yawma uḥilla lakumu ṭ-ṭayyibātu wa ṭaʿāmu lladhīna ūtū l-kitāba ḥillun lakum Today the good things have been permitted to you, and the food of those given the Book is permitted to you. Al-Qurṭubī: "ṭaʿām" (food) here specifically means slaughtered meat the verse explicitly permits People of the Book meat for Muslims. Al-Qurṭubī derives the four-school consensus: People of the Book meat is halāl unless from a prohibited category, regardless of whether the bismillah was invoked.
  • Contract binding principle: Al-Qurṭubī extracts from 5:1 the binding nature of all contracts an uṣūl al-fiqh foundation for Islamic commercial law; contracts are obligations, not options.
  • Food prohibition comprehensiveness: Al-Qurṭubī treats 5:3 as the definitive comprehensive list applying the late-revelation principle (Al-Māʾidah is among the last revealed) to make this list legally final and not subject to further addition.
  • People of the Book meat: 5:5's explicit permission of their food is read as a general ruling overriding concerns about non-Islamic slaughter formulas a significant ruling that al-Qurṭubī documents with full four-school support.
  • Touching and wuḍūʾ: The four-school split on 5:6's "touching women" is documented in full one of the clearest examples of Quranic ambiguity (lāmastum = touch or intercourse?) generating four distinct legal positions.
  • Late revelation priority: Al-Qurṭubī explicitly applies the abrogation principle to Al-Māʾidah Ibn Masʿūd's testimony that it is among the last revealed makes its rulings legally decisive over earlier potentially conflicting verses.

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