✦ AT A GLANCE ✦
المائدة
Al-Ma'idah
✦ Why this name
The Table Spread — from the feast the disciples of 'Isa عليه السلام asked to be sent down from heaven, in verses 112–115.
✦ When it came
One of the last surahs revealed, much of it after the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah and around the Farewell Pilgrimage. It reads like a community's final instructions — a settled ummah being handed its completed way of life.
✦ The story
It opens with a single command: *fulfil your contracts.* Then comes food, hunting, purification, and wudu — and in the middle of these ordinary rules, the verse revealed at 'Arafah on the Farewell Pilgrimage: *"This day I have perfected your religion for you."* 'Umar رضي الله عنه said that had it come to the Jews, they would have made that day a festival.
The surah spends its middle on covenants that were broken before. The Children of Israel refused to enter the holy land and wandered forty years. Two sons of Adam — one offered, one was accepted, one killed his brother — and from that first murder comes the verse that whoever saves one life has saved humanity.
It closes with 'Isa عليه السلام questioned on the Day of Judgement about what people did with his name. His answer is one of the most restrained sentences in the Quran: *"I said to them only what You commanded me."* Justice, contracts, food, and finally an accounting — the surah's subject throughout is what you do with what you were entrusted.
✦ How it unfolds
- AYAH 1-11
Keep your contracts
The opening command, then lawful food, hunting, purification, and the verse of wudu.
- AYAH 12-26
Broken covenants
Israel and the Christians before, and the refusal to enter the land — "we will not enter it as long as they are in it."
- AYAH 27-34
The first murder
The two sons of Adam, and the ruling drawn from it: one life is all of humanity.
- AYAH 41-50
Judging by what Allah revealed
The standard for rulers and judges, and the Quran as a guardian over the books before it.
- AYAH 51-86
Friendship and loyalty
Where a believer's allegiance sits, and the nearest in affection among the People of the Book.
- AYAH 87-120
Oaths, wine, and the table
The final prohibition of wine and gambling, expiation for broken oaths, and 'Isa questioned on the Last Day.
✦ Verses to carry
- 3Revealed at 'Arafah on the Farewell Pilgrimage: "This day I have perfected your religion for you."
- 32"Whoever saves one life, it is as if he saved all of humanity."
- 8"Do not let the hatred of a people lead you to be unjust." Justice survives even your anger.
- 2"Cooperate in righteousness and piety, and do not cooperate in sin and aggression." The rule for every alliance.