The First Call of al-Ma'idah: Fulfilling Covenants

Occasion: A transcription of an evening lecture delivered at AIA on September 9, 2026Source: A transcription of a video lecture by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

The recording begins in the middle of a supplication, of which this remains: «…والفوز بالجنة والنجاة من النارين. ﴿رَبَّنَا لَا تُؤَاخِذْنَا إِن نَّسِينَا أَوْ أَخْطَأْنَا﴾، ﴿لَا تَحْمِلْ عَلَيْنَا إِصْرًا كَمَا حَمَلْتَهُ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِنَا﴾، ﴿لَا تُحَمِّلْنَا مَا لَا طَاقَةَ لَنَا بِهِ﴾، ﴿وَاعْفُ عَنَّا وَاغْفِرْ لَنَا وَارْحَمْنَا﴾. ربنا تب علينا من سيئاتنا وتقبل أعمالنا… آمين يا رب العالمين» (…and the triumph of Paradise and deliverance from the two Fires. "Our Lord, do not hold us to account if we forget or make a mistake," "do not lay on us a burden as You laid on those before us," "do not burden us with more than we have the strength to bear," "and pardon us, forgive us, and have mercy on us." Our Lord, turn to us in repentance from our wrongdoings and accept our deeds… Amen, O Lord of the worlds.)

Tonight we reach Sūrat al-Māʾidah, and we pause at the first call of faith in it:

﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَوْفُوا بِالْعُقُودِ﴾ [المائدة: 1] ("O you who believe, fulfil the covenants" [al-Māʾidah: 1])

In this surah the words of Jesus, son of Mary, peace be upon him, are mentioned: «أنزل علينا من السماء تكون لنا عيدًا لأولنا وآخرنا» ("send down to us from heaven to be a festival for the first of us and the last of us").^[1] The first thing al-Māʾidah asks of those whom it addresses in the name of faith is fulfilment: fulfilment, and keeping to covenants and pledges.

The Contract and the Covenant

The contract (ʿaqd) is the joining of words between people, one with another, so that it does not come undone or break apart. If it comes apart, the contract is broken, and breaking pledges becomes the rule among these people.

The speaker drew attention to the letter qāf in the word «العقود», as if it were an indication of added commitment, especially when the word occurs in this place.^[2] Then he said that no one asks about the translation in this passage (and his phrase after it, "try to connect," is unclear in the transcript).

A Reference Already Mentioned

With the help of one of those present, he recalled calls that came earlier in Sūrat al-Baqarah: ﴿لَا تَقُولُوا رَاعِنَا وَقُولُوا انظُرْنَا وَاسْمَعُوا﴾ ("Do not say 'Rāʿinā' but say 'Unẓurnā,' and listen"), and «كلوا من الطيبات ما رزقناكم واشكروا لله» ("Eat of the good things We have provided for you, and give thanks to God"), and ﴿اسْتَعِينُوا بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلَاةِ﴾ ("Seek help through patience and prayer"). Then in his talk there came a mention of "commitment to the reference" and some words about "the life of creation," whose connection to these calls was not clear.^[3]

The Default in Things Is Permissibility, and the Contract Is Attached to It

﴿أُحِلَّتْ لَكُم بَهِيمَةُ الْأَنْعَامِ﴾ [المائدة: 1] ("Livestock animals have been made lawful for you" [al-Māʾidah: 1])

If we speak a little in Arabic, we would say: permissibility is the default, and fulfilling the contract is something attached to it. Things are permitted, but once they are assigned to one person and not another, it is not lawful for me to take them except through a contract that has been agreed. And he recited: ﴿أَوْفُوا بِالْعُقُودِ أُحِلَّتْ لَكُم بَهِيمَةُ الْأَنْعَامِ﴾ ("Fulfil the covenants. Livestock animals have been made lawful for you").

Then comes the exception: ﴿إِلَّا مَا يُتْلَىٰ عَلَيْكُمْ غَيْرَ مُحِلِّي الصَّيْدِ وَأَنتُمْ حُرُمٌ﴾ [المائدة: 1] ("except what is recited to you, not making hunting lawful while you are in the state of iḥrām" [al-Māʾidah: 1]). The speaker asked what falls under ﴿مَا يُتْلَىٰ عَلَيْكُمْ﴾ ("what is recited to you"), and then called to mind the words of the Most High: «وعلى الذين هادوا حرّمنا كل ذي ظفر، ومن الغنم والبقر حرّمنا عليهم شحومهما…» ("And to those who were Jews We forbade every animal with claws, and of cattle and sheep We forbade them their fat…").^[4] He said that this is a discussion of a legislative system in which specific criteria were set for the various kinds, and that to the degree we respect the kinds, we respect the places where those kinds are, or are not, transgressed.^[5]

﴿إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَحْكُمُ مَا يُرِيدُ﴾

Then He concluded the verse with: ﴿إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَحْكُمُ مَا يُرِيدُ﴾ ("Indeed Allah decrees what He wills"). The speaker went on to explain that "yaḥkum" comes from ḥukm (judgment), and that the implication of this word is that choice is stripped from people at the root, except for the capacity to choose that Allah has given them; otherwise the capacity is, at root, nonexistent, and we have no power to direct affairs on our own in this creation except through what Allah has enabled His servants to do. So take note: if the One who empowered you is the One who bound you, where is your choice? If you do not commit, what He empowered you with, and by means of, is taken from you, "and you can then act as you like and see how things turn out."

If a servant truly acknowledges that judgment belongs to Allah, he becomes committed to what Allah has given him, and becomes more thankful to Allah for what He has forbidden than for what He has permitted. We give thanks for what is lawful because we enjoy it and delight in it. Then he mentioned the words of the Most High: ﴿حُرِّمَتْ عَلَيْكُمُ الْمَيْتَةُ وَالدَّمُ وَلَحْمُ الْخِنزِيرِ﴾ ("Forbidden to you are carrion, blood, and the flesh of swine"), and none of us ever went near these things in the first place. So which of the two deserves more praise? Praise for the forbidden should be greater than praise for the permitted. And he asked: is food not lawful? Then why do we reach a stage where we lighten its weight and its consequences, though it is lawful?^[6]

So you have two ends: commands that we call obligations, and prohibitions that we call forbidden things, and what lies between them is in the category of the permissible, which includes the recommended and the disliked. What you were commanded to do, you thank Allah for, since He taught you commitment; and what you were forbidden, you thank Allah for, since He taught you commitment. He set you at the limit of doing and at the limit of not doing, and these are the two shores of deliverance.

And he said: sometimes you have "He does what He wills (yurīd)," and elsewhere "He does what He pleases (yashāʾ)"; so when it is said "yurīd," there is an intended addition in the Qur'anic wording.^[7] Then he said: for God's sake, do you imagine that the will is about the two morsels you are going to eat, you poor soul? This is a subject already discussed, and the question here is commitment or the lack of it: ﴿يَحْكُمُ مَا يُرِيدُ﴾ ("He decrees what He wills"). He did not will for you to eat or to abstain; He willed for you to commit to what He has laid down for you and against you.

A Call That Does Not Befit Refusal

So our Lord said: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا﴾ ("O you who believe"). When it is said "O you who believe," refusal does not befit it, for you are being called by the loftiest title of honor in your life. ﴿أَوْفُوا بِالْعُقُودِ﴾ ("Fulfil the covenants"), and you say: At your service. Where, then, is the first contract? It is with Allah, glory be to Him, the Most High.

This verse came after about twenty-seven calls of faith in the Qur'an, according to what the speaker and those present said in counting what preceded, "and Allah the Most High knows best."^[8] Then comes al-Māʾidah, in which there are sixteen calls. Imagine: sixteen calls of "O you who believe," and all of them are contracts, though contracts differ in their patterns and kinds according to how the word is described and what is meant.

al-Māʾidah: Opening Your Eyes to Those Around You

Sūrat al-Māʾidah is a very special surah. I have always described the harmony among the surahs: Allah raised for us the building of society in Sūrat al-Baqarah; He commanded us with the tools of maintaining society in Sūrat Āl ʿImrān; in Sūrat al-Nisāʾ He singled out for maintenance the first building block of this society; and then He commanded you to look around you to see non-Muslims and to treat them as He commanded you in Sūrat al-Māʾidah. So al-Māʾidah is like the beginning of opening your eyes to the universe around you: look at who is here with you.

That is why you see that it opened with the command to full commitment, to fulfilment, and to not transgressing: ﴿لَا تُحِلُّوا شَعَائِرَ اللَّهِ وَلَا الشَّهْرَ الْحَرَامَ﴾ ("Do not violate the sacred rites of Allah, nor the sacred month"). And a little further on you find: ﴿إِذَا قُمْتُمْ إِلَى الصَّلَاةِ فَاغْسِلُوا﴾ ("When you rise for prayer, wash"),^[9] as if He commanded you to bind your mind to the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, the Most High, first, and then to hold this body to constant purification.

Then we move on after that to see the calls to the believers, and the calls to the People of the Book, and a long story. Glory be to You, O Allah, and praise.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: The body text was limited to what appears in the transcription of the verse («أنزل علينا من السماء تكون لنا عيدًا لأولنا وآخرنا»), and it is in al-Māʾidah: 114. The full verse in the muṣḥaf is: ﴿قَالَ عِيسَى ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ اللَّهُمَّ رَبَّنَا أَنزِلْ عَلَيْنَا مَائِدَةً مِّنَ السَّمَاءِ تَكُونُ لَنَا عِيدًا لِّأَوَّلِنَا وَآخِرِنَا وَآيَةً مِّنكَ﴾ ("Jesus, son of Mary, said: O Allah, our Lord, send down to us a table from heaven to be a festival for the first of us and the last of us, and a sign from You"). The transcription has "the Children of Israel" before "Jesus son of Mary," and its context was unclear, so it was not retained. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: The wording of the transcription at this point is garbled («القاف… فهي معقودة وليست مسهّلة وهي منقوطة وكأنها إشارة إلى مزيد التزام خاصة إذا وردت في هذا الموضع»; "the qāf… it is tied, not eased, and it is dotted, as if it were an indication of added commitment, especially when it occurs in this place"), so only the general sense was taken from it, and the speaker is to review it. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: The speaker's numbering of these calls and the garbling of his words on the "reference" and the "life of creation" in the transcription do not allow us to determine which calls he meant, so nothing was numbered; to be reviewed. These passages, according to the muṣḥaf, are: ﴿لَا تَقُولُوا رَاعِنَا وَقُولُوا انظُرْنَا وَاسْمَعُوا﴾ [al-Baqarah: 104], ﴿كُلُوا مِن طَيِّبَاتِ مَا رَزَقْنَاكُمْ وَاشْكُرُوا لِلَّهِ﴾ [al-Baqarah: 172], ﴿اسْتَعِينُوا بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلَاةِ﴾ [al-Baqarah: 153]; the speaker pronounced the second in the form «كلوا من الطيبات ما رزقناكم». ^[4]: Editor's documentation: It appears that what is meant is the words of the Most High: ﴿وَعَلَى الَّذِينَ هَادُوا حَرَّمْنَا كُلَّ ذِي ظُفُرٍ ۖ وَمِنَ الْبَقَرِ وَالْغَنَمِ حَرَّمْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ شُحُومَهُمَا إِلَّا مَا حَمَلَتْ ظُهُورُهُمَا أَوِ الْحَوَايَا أَوْ مَا اخْتَلَطَ بِعَظْمٍ﴾ [al-Anʿām: 146] ("And to those who were Jews We forbade every animal with claws, and of cattle and sheep We forbade them their fat, except what their backs carry, or the entrails, or what is mixed with bone"), and the transcription is confused here. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: The speaker's wording («بقدر ما نحترم الأصناف بقدر ما نحترم الأماكن التي يتجاوز فيها…», "to the degree we respect the kinds, to that degree we respect the places where it is transgressed…") is garbled in the transcription, and its meaning is not certain. ^[6]: Editor's documentation: The wording of the question is unclear in the transcription («لماذا نأتي إلى مرحلة ونتخفف منه من ثقله من تبعاته وهو حلال»); it has been given as it was understood, approximately. The verse mentioned before it is [al-Māʾidah: 3], and the speaker did not state its number. ^[7]: Editor's documentation: The speaker's wording on the difference between "He does what He wills (yurīd)" and "He does what He pleases (yashāʾ)" is garbled in the transcription, and only what is stated was taken from it; the speaker is to review it. ^[8]: Editor's documentation: The distribution of the count across the surahs is garbled in the transcription (eleven in al-Baqarah then nine, and seven in Āl ʿImrān, and eleven in al-Nisāʾ), and only the total on which the discussion proceeded (27) is established; the speaker did not confirm the count, and said "and Allah the Most High knows best." ^[9]: Editor's documentation: The verse numbers are the editor's addition, and the speaker did not state them: ﴿لَا تُحِلُّوا شَعَائِرَ اللَّهِ وَلَا الشَّهْرَ الْحَرَامَ﴾ [al-Māʾidah: 2], and ﴿إِذَا قُمْتُمْ إِلَى الصَّلَاةِ فَاغْسِلُوا﴾ [al-Māʾidah: 6].