Sura 5, Maida, Medina 112 [ very late Medina verse, the last verse prohibits all intoxcicants, gambling and foretelling future ]
The Quranic text and Ali’s version
5:90
يَا
أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ
آمَنُواْ إِنَّمَا
الْخَمْرُ
وَالْمَيْسِرُ
...
O ye who believe!
- intoxicants and gambling,
.
... وَالأَنصَابُ ...
- (dedication of) stones,
... وَالأَزْلاَمُ ...
- and (divination by) arrows,
... رِجْسٌ مِّنْ عَمَلِ الشَّيْطَانِ...
are an abomination, of Satan's handiwork:
... فَاجْتَنِبُوهُ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ ﴿٩٠﴾
eschew such (abomination), that ye may prosper.
إِنَّمَا
يُرِيدُ الشَّيْطَانُ
أَن يُوقِعَ
بَيْنَكُمُ
الْعَدَاوَةَ
وَالْبَغْضَاء
فِي الْخَمْرِ
وَالْمَيْسِرِ...
91. Satan's plan is (but) to
- excite enmity and hatred between you, with intoxicants and gambling,
... وَيَصُدَّكُمْ عَن ذِكْرِ اللّهِ وَعَنِ الصَّلاَةِ ...
- and hinder you from the remembrance of Allah, and from prayer:
... فَهَلْ أَنتُم مُّنتَهُونَ ﴿٩١﴾
will ye not then abstain?
وَأَطِيعُواْ
اللّهَ وَأَطِيعُواْ
الرَّسُولَ
وَاحْذَرُواْ...
Asad’s version
5:90 O YOU who have attained to faith! Intoxicants, and games of chance, and idolatrous practices, and the divining of the future are but a loathsome evil of Satan's doing: 105 shun it, then, so that you might attain to a happy state!
(5:91) By means of intoxicants and games of chance Satan seeks only to sow enmity and hatred among you, and to turn you away from the remembrance of God and from prayer. Will you not, then, desist? 106
[[ Ali’s notes:
C793. Cf. 2:219, and notes 240 and 241
C794. Cf. 5:3.
The stones there referred to were stone altars or stone columns on which oil was poured for consecration, or slabs on which meat was sacrificed to idols. Any idolatrous or superstitious practices are here condemned.
The ansab were objects of worship, and were common in Arabia before Islam.
See Renan, "History of Israel", Chapter 6, and Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum. Part 1. p. 154: Illustrations Nos. 123 and 123 bis are Phoenician columns of that kind, found in Malta.
C795. Cf. 5:3.
The arrows there referred to were used for the division of meat by a sort of lottery or rate.
But arrows were also used for divination, i.e., for ascertaining lucky or unlucky moments, or learning the wishes of the heathen gods, as to whether men should undertake certain actions or not. All superstitions are condemned.]]
[[Asad’s comments:-
105 According to all the lexicographers, the word khamr (derived from the verb khamara, "he concealed" or "obscured") denotes every substance the use of which obscures the intellect, i.e., intoxicates. Hence, the prohibition of intoxicants laid down in this verse comprises not merely alcoholic drinks, but also drugs which have a similar effect. The only exception from this total prohibition arises in cases of "dire necessity" (in the strictest sense of these words), as stipulated in the last sentence of verse 3 of this surah: that is to say, in cases where illness or a bodily accident makes the administration of intoxicating drugs or of alcohol imperative and unavoidable. - As regards the expression "idolatrous practices" (ansab, lit., "idolatrous altars"), see note 8 of this surah. This term has, I believe, been used here metaphorically, and is meant to circumscribe all practices of an idolatrous nature - like saint- worship, the attribution of "magic" properties to certain inanimate objects, the observance of all manner of superstitious taboos, and so forth. - For an explanation of the expression rendered by me as "divining of the future" (al-azlam, lit., "divining-arrows"), see note 9 on the second paragraph of verse 3 of this surah.
106 Lit., "Will you, then, desist?" - a rhetorical question implying the necessity of desisting, which can be expressed in English only by the use of the negative
form. ]]