| Surah Aal Imran, 93-95
"Every (kind of) food was lawful for the children of Isra'il, except what Isra'il had made unlawful for himself well before the Torah was revealed. Say, "Then, bring the Torah and recite it, if you are true." [93] Then, after all this, those who forge the lie and attribute it to Allah, they are the transgressors. [94] Say, "Allah has spoken the truth. So, follow the Faith of Ibrahim, the upright -- and he was not one of the associators."[95] (3:93-95)
Commentary
In the verses appearing above, there is a continuity of arguments against positions taken by the people of the Book. At some places, it concerns Jews and at others, the Christians. One such argument, which has been reported in Ruh al-Ma'ani on the authority of Wahidi and al-Kalbi, recounts the incident when the Holy Prophet Sallallahu 'Alayhi Wasallam: Peace be upon him stated his adherence to the community of Abraham with reference to all fundamentals of the religious code, and most of the subsidiaries, the Jews objected by saying: 'You eat camel meat and partake of its milk although these were unlawful for Abraham.' The Holy Prophet Sallallahu 'Alayhi Wasallam: Peace be upon him said: 'No, this was lawful for him.' The Jews said: 'All that we consider unlawful has continued to be unlawful since the days of Nooh and Ibraheem (peace be upon them) to the point that this unlawfulness reached us.' Thereupon, Allah Almighty revealed the verse: - 'Every (kind of) food was lawful for the children of Isra'il - 93' to refute the Jewish claim in which it is said that before the revelation of Torah, all things were lawful for the children of Isra'il except the camel meat which Isra'il (Jacob) (A.S) himself had denied to eat for a particular reason, and then it remained unlawful for his progeny also.
The fact, as narrated by Sayyidna Ibn 'Abbas in an authentic report, is that Jacob suffered from Sciatica. He had taken a vow that he would abandon what he liked most in what he ate if Allah Almighty cured him of the disease. He was cured and camel meat was what he liked most, so he abandoned it. (See Al-Hakim and al-Tirmidhi as quoted by Ruh al-Ma'ani). Then, it. so happened that this prohibition which started because of a vow continued among the Bani Isra'il as a divine injunction. It seems their code recognized a vow as a cause of unlawfulness of something lawful, like in our own Shari'ah, a vow may make the permissible acts as obligatory. However, a vow or pledge which renders things unlawful is, in reality, an oath which is not permissible in our Shari'ah. In fact, in such a case, it is obligatory to break the oath and make amends by making Kaffarah. This is in accordance with what Allah Almighty has said in the verse , (... why do you forbid what Allah has made lawful for you? - 66:1) See al-Tafsir al-Kabir) (Ma'ariful Qur'an)
» Posted by Seifeddine-M on 19th December 2011
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