Its marvels will never cease

(Jami Tirmidhi)

Scientific and Archaeological Explanation of

the Ayaats of the Holy Quran

For the complete work, visit our blog

Miraculousquran.blogspot.com

Comments, queries and feedback at

Muhammad.Awais.Tahir@gmail.com
 Sura: Al-Maaida
Ayat 3

Forbidden to you is that which dies of itself, and blood, and flesh of swine, and that on which any other
name than that of Allah has been invoked, and the strangled (animal) and that beaten to death, and
that killed by a fall and that killed by being smitten with the horn, and that which wild beasts have
eaten, except what you slaughter, and what is sacrificed on stones set up (for idols) and that you
divide by the arrows; that is a transgression. This day have those who disbelieve despaired of your
religion, so fear them not, and fear Me. This day have I perfected for you your religion and completed
My favor on you and chosen for you Islam as a religion; but whoever is compelled by hunger, not
inclining willfully to sin, then surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

M Shakir's Quran Translation

List of Forbidden things

In this Ayat Allah forbids the intake of following things

1. Animal which dies of itself (Dead meat)

2. Blood
3. Flesh of Swine
4. Animals on which any one else’s name has been invoked other than Allah (not killed the Islamic way)
5. Strangled Animal
6. Animal beaten to Death
7. Animal killed by a fall
8. Animal killed by being smitten by the horn
9. Animals which wild beasts have eaten
10. Animals sacrificed on stones set up for idols (altars)
11. Meat divided by casting lots
Allah says in the next verse, “The good things are allowed to you” (SURAH MAIDA 5:4), indicating that whatever is
prohibited for us is harmful for us and this is what modern science is telling us now. First four points, of the above
mentioned, have been discussed in detail earlier. See (SURAH BAQARAH 2:173).

The types mentioned after the first four actually fall under the above four.

Strangled Animal, Animal beaten to death, animal killed by being smitten by the horn, animals which wild beasts
have eaten fall under two of the above: 1- It is Dead Meat 2-It is not killed the Islamic way. In all these we have the
fear of improper flow of blood and hence all hormones and antibodies are retained in the blood, and all infective
organisms including virus flourish in the blood media, therefore ingestion of such will be dangerous medically (as
discussed earlier).
Animals sacrificed on stones set up for idols (altars) means those animals which have been killed for some one else
beside Allah. They do not involve the Islamic method of sacrifice (zabeeha) and also they involve ‘shirk’ (polytheism).
Shirk means to do something for anyone else besides Allah that is only worthy to be done for Allah.

Meat divided by casting lots is also declared forbidden in this verse. System of casting lots for the sake of division of
money or food is prohibited in Islam, it involves unjust distribution of money in the society and it is one of the
financial involves which in the long run make the poor more poor and the rich further rich. According to Tafseer Ibn
e Kathir in this verse by casting lots Allah is mentioning the acts of the people of ‘Quraish’ who used to cast lots to
take decisions and they thought that the results came from their false lords and hence to end all polytheist acts this
is forbidden in Islam. (See TAFSIR IBN E KATHIR 1/911)

In the end of the Ayat Allah says,” whoever is compelled by hunger, not inclining willfully to sin, then surely Allah is
Forgiving, Merciful”. If a person is compelled by hunger and doesn’t find anything else to eat than in those
circumstances even the prohibited becomes lawful for him. This is the mercy of Allah on mankind and very logical
command which makes it vivid to us that the purpose of making the above mentioned things prohibited for us was
the sole fact that they are harmful for us and when we don’t find anything else to eat and we are dying because of
hunger than Allah allows us to eat those things; taking a small risk to avoid a bigger risk.

This document is based on my under process book. I plan to collect all the Ayaats of the Holy Quran with deal with
scientific, historical and archaeological subjects. I am trying to provide explanation to those Ayaats in light of
Previous commentaries (Tafaseer), established science, archaeological discoveries and Arabic lexicons. Send in
your comments, queries and suggestion at Muhammad.Awais.Tahir@gmail.com

Please do not copy paste without permission, until my book is published, Insha’Allah.

For the complete work, visit our blog

Miraculousquran.blogspot.com