5. Surah Maida

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

قُلْ يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ لاَ تَغْلُواْ فِي دِينِكُمْ غَيْرَ الْحَقِّ...

5: 77. Say:

"O People of the Book! exceed not in your religion the bounds (of what is proper), trespassing beyond the truth,

C785. Excess, as opposed to moderation and reason, is the simplest test by which a hypocrite or a selfish man who "trades" on religion, is known from a sincere, pious, and truly religious man.

Excess means that truth is sometimes concealed or trampled upon, that the fashions of ancestors or contemporaries are copied or overdone, and Allah's name is dishonoured by blasphemies or the setting up of false gods or fetishes, or that good (or even bad) men are deified and worshipped. The true path is the even path, the path of rectitude.

(Cf. 2:108, and 5:13).

... وَلاَ تَتَّبِعُواْ أَهْوَاء قَوْمٍ قَدْ ضَلُّواْ مِن قَبْلُ وَأَضَلُّواْ كَثِيرًا...

nor follow the vain desires of people who went wrong in times gone by, who misled many,

... وَضَلُّواْ عَن سَوَاء السَّبِيلِ ﴿٧٧﴾

and strayed (themselves) from the even way.

Pickthall’s Version:

5: 77

Pickthall Say: O People of the Scripture! Stress not in your religion other than the truth, and follow not the vain desires of folk who erred of old and led many astray, and erred from a plain road.

Transliteration Qul ya_ ahlal kita_bi la_ taglu_ fi dinikum gairal haqqi wa la_ tattabi'u_ ahwa_'a qaumin qad dallu_ min qablu wa adallu_ kasiraw wa dallu_ 'an sawa_'is sabil(i).