Appearance
The Perfection of Religion
حُرِّمَتْ عَلَيْكُمُ ٱلْمَيْتَةُ وَٱلدَّمُ وَلَحْمُ ٱلْخِنزِيرِ وَمَآ أُهِلَّ لِغَيْرِ ٱللَّهِ بِهِۦ وَٱلْمُنْخَنِقَةُ وَٱلْمَوْقُوذَةُ وَٱلْمُتَرَدِّيَةُ وَٱلنَّطِيحَةُ وَمَآ أَكَلَ ٱلسَّبُعُ إِلَّا مَا ذَكَّيْتُمْ وَمَا ذُبِحَ عَلَى ٱلنُّصُبِ وَأَن تَسْتَقْسِمُوا۟ بِٱلْأَزْلَـٰمِ ۚ ذَٰلِكُمْ فِسْقٌ ۗ ٱلْيَوْمَ يَئِسَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ مِن دِينِكُمْ فَلَا تَخْشَوْهُمْ وَٱخْشَوْنِ ۚ ٱلْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِى وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ ٱلْإِسْلَـٰمَ دِينًا ۚ فَمَنِ ٱضْطُرَّ فِى مَخْمَصَةٍ غَيْرَ مُتَجَانِفٍ لِّإِثْمٍ ۙ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ
(5:3) You are prohibited carrion, blood, the flesh of swine, and what has been offered to other than Allah, and the animal strangled or beaten to death, and that which dies by falling or is gored to death, and that which is mangled by a beast of prey—barring that which you may purify —and what is sacrificed on stone altars [to idols], and that you should divide by raffling with arrows. All that is transgression. Today the faithless have despaired of your religion. So do not fear them, but fear Me. Today I have perfected your religion for you, and I have completed My blessing upon you, and I have approved Islam as your religion. But should anyone be compelled by hunger, without inclining to sin, then Allah is indeed all-forgiving, all-merciful.
The question
On what day, and by what, did God perfect the religion and complete His favour, so that the unbelievers despaired of Islam?
Views answered: the view of many exegetes (the day of ʿArafah), a modern writer, the report from ʿUmar (al-Durr al-Manthūr)
Al-Mizan's argument
Al-Mizan first shows that the passage “This day have those who disbelieve despaired of your religion … This day have I perfected for you your religion” is a parenthesis set inside a verse about forbidden food. It tests every proposed meaning of “this day” — the start of the mission, the conquest of Mecca, the revelation of Barāʾah, the day of ʿArafah in the Farewell Pilgrimage — and the various explanations of “perfection”, and rejects each. It then gives its own explanation: the unbelievers could only despair once a guardian was appointed to protect the religion after the Prophet, which agrees with the narrations that the verse was revealed at Ghadīr Khumm. In the narrations it examines the reports placing the verse on the day of ʿArafah, including the one from ʿUmar.
Reading guide
Each part opens the commentary at that point.
- A parenthesis inside a verse about food
- Which day is “this day”? Three proposals rejected
- The day of ʿArafah and the claims about “perfection”
- A writer's attempt to combine the proposals
- Al-Mizan's own explanation: the unbelievers' despair
- Despair only through appointing a guardian: Ghadīr Khumm
- Perfecting the religion and completing the favour: wilāyah
- Narrations: the Ghadīr reports and their chains
- Reconciling the reports on when the verse was revealed
- The ʿArafah reports and ʿUmar's interpretation, examined
- An objection from the promise in 24:55, and the reply