The Quran has a verse about eating together. "The food of the people of the scripture is lawful for you, [and your food is lawful for them]." (5:5). The brackets are Khalifa's; his footnote notes that the clause stands in the Arabic. A shared table is the Quran's own image for the communities of the one GOD, and this article tests it against the books: what may be eaten, what is offered in sacrifice, what is drunk, and what is done with money.
The warrant is the series' own: "We have sent a messenger to every community" (16:36), and "our god and your god is one and the same" (29:46). If so, the laws should rhyme. In large part they do; where they differ, the Quran itself says why.
Four things, in the Torah and in the Quran
“And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be cloven footed, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you. Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcass shall ye not touch, they are unclean to you” (Leviticus 11:7–8, KJV). Deuteronomy 14:8 repeats it. Isaiah counts among the rebellious a people “which eat swine's flesh” (Isaiah 65:4, KJV). The Torah likewise forbids the animal that dies of itself (Leviticus 17:15; Deuteronomy 14:21) and blood (Leviticus 17).
The Quran states its prohibition four times (2:173, 5:3, 6:145, 16:115), and each time the list is the same. "He only prohibits for you the eating of animals that die of themselves (without human interference), blood, the meat of pigs, and animals dedicated to other than GOD." (2:173). And in the form of a messenger's testimony: "I do not find in the revelations given to me any food that is prohibited for any eater except: (1) carrion, (2) running blood, (3) the meat of pigs, for it is contaminated, and (4) the meat of animals blasphemously dedicated to other than GOD." (6:145).
Carrion, blood, swine, and meat offered to idols: four items in the Torah, the same four in the Quran.
Khalifa's footnote to 5:3 draws the boundary tightly: “The ‘meat’ of the pig is prohibited, not the ‘fat.’ Anything that is not specifically prohibited in the Quran must be considered lawful.” (Khalifa's footnote to 5:3). The list is short and closed, and nobody may lengthen it. "O you who believe, do not prohibit good things that are made lawful by GOD, and do not aggress; GOD dislikes the aggressors." (5:87).
Why the Torah's list is longer
The Torah forbids far more than four things. The Quran does not hide this; it states it. "For those who are Jewish we prohibited animals with undivided hoofs; and of the cattle and sheep we prohibited the fat, except that which is carried on their backs, or in the viscera, or mixed with bones." (6:146). It gives the history: "All food used to be lawful for the Children of Israel, until Israel imposed certain prohibitions on themselves before the Torah was sent down." (3:93). And the reason: "Due to their transgressions, we prohibited for the Jews good foods that used to be lawful for them" (4:160).
So the Torah is not wrong; its extra restrictions were a burden laid on one community for a season, which the prophet to come would lift. Of that prophet it says that he "allows for them all good food, and prohibits that which is bad, and unloads the burdens and the shackles imposed upon them." (7:157). The core four remain. "For each of you, we have decreed laws and different rites. Had GOD willed, He could have made you one congregation. But He thus puts you to the test through the revelations He has given each of you. You shall compete in righteousness." (5:48). The shared table keeps its four empty places.
What is permitted
After the flood, Noah was given the animals for food with the green plants (Genesis 9:3); Deuteronomy permits the fish with fins and scales and the clean birds (Deuteronomy 14:9, 11, 20). Jesus, in Luke, is given broiled fish and eats it before the disciples (Luke 24:41–43). And Paul rules that neither side of a church divided over meat may condemn the other: “anyone who eateth, should not insult those who eateth not – and those who eateth not, should not judge those who eateth” (Romans 14:3, as the popular presentations quote it; the printed KJV wording differs slightly).
The Quran takes the same line. "Permitted for you to eat are the livestock, except those specifically prohibited herein." (5:1). "O you who believe, eat from the good things we provided for you, and be thankful to GOD, if you do worship Him alone." (2:172). With a limit on appetite, not on kind: "Eat from the good things we provided for you, and do not transgress" (20:81).
Two things follow for the Hindu, Jain or Buddhist reader. The Quran permits meat; it nowhere commands it; a believer may be a vegetarian all his life and break no law. And the mercy to animals the Indian traditions prize is in the Quran too: "All the creatures on earth, and all the birds that fly with wings, are communities like you." (6:38).
Sacrifice, and what reaches GOD
Here a Hindu text sits beside the Torah. The Law of Manu, in the English rendering the popular presentations use, says: “The eater who eats the flesh of those to be eaten does nothing bad, even if he does it day after day, for God himself created some to be eaten and some to be eater” (Manusmriti 5:30), and “Eating meat is right for the sacrifice, this is traditionally known as a rule of the gods” (Manusmriti 5:31). The Mahabharata, in Ganguli's translation, lists the offerings at the rite for the ancestors: “With beef presented at the Shraddha, their gratification, it is said, lasts for a full year” (Anushasana Parva 88). The Torah has the same rite at its altar, and it was Abraham's: "We ransomed (Ismail) by substituting an animal sacrifice." (37:107).
The Quran keeps the rite and strips from it the idea that GOD is fed. "The animal offerings are among the rites decreed by GOD for your own good. You shall mention GOD's name on them while they are standing in line. Once they are offered for sacrifice, you shall eat therefrom and feed the poor and the needy." (22:36). Then the sentence every tradition at this table needs: "Neither their meat, nor their blood reaches GOD. What reaches Him is your righteousness." (22:37). The Creator "feeds but is not fed" (6:14). And the rite is not one people's property: "For each congregation we have decreed rites whereby they commemorate the name of GOD for providing them with the livestock. Your god is one and the same god; you shall all submit to Him." (22:34).
The Secrets of Enoch (Quran-aligned edition) says the same from outside the Bible: “God does not require bread, nor a light, nor an animal, nor any other sacrifice, for it is as nothing to Him; but God requires a pure heart” (2 Enoch 45:3–4), and, on the manner of slaughter, “slaughter it rightly in God's name” (2 Enoch 59:3), which is 6:118 in a Jewish voice: "You shall eat from that upon which GOD's name has been pronounced, if you truly believe in His revelations." (6:118). One rite, and one correction of it: GOD eats nothing.
The cup
On wine the Bible warns and the Quran forbids. Solomon: “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise” (Proverbs 20:1, KJV). Paul: “And be not drunk with wine” (Ephesians 5:18, KJV). The Quran: "O you who believe, intoxicants, and gambling, and the altars of idols, and the games of chance are abominations of the devil; you shall avoid them, that you may succeed." (5:90). It gives the reason: "The devil wants to provoke animosity and hatred among you through intoxicants and gambling, and to distract you from remembering GOD, and from observing the Contact Prayers (Salat). Will you then refrain?" (5:91). And it concedes the drinker's defence before overruling it: "In them there is a gross sin, and some benefits for the people. But their sinfulness far outweighs their benefit." (2:219).
Now the Tirukkural (Quran-aligned edition), the Tamil ethical classic. Its chapter on liquor could be bound into Proverbs. “Those who love liquor will never be held in awe, and they will lose all their lustre” (Kural 921). “Drink no liquor. If any would drink, let them be those who care nothing for the esteem of the good” (Kural 922). “Those who sleep are no different from the dead; those who drink liquor are no different from those who take poison” (Kural 926). The verse before the chapter names the Quran's two abominations in one breath, “Double-hearted women, liquor and dice are the company of those whom prosperity has forsaken” (Kural 920), and the chapter after it is on gambling: “Nothing brings poverty like gambling” (Kural 934). Liquor and dice together, as in 5:90.
The Egyptian Instruction of Amenemope (Quran-aligned edition), from the Egypt of the pharaohs, says it in fewer words: “Make no haste to sing the praises of the wine cup.”
The honest difference must be stated. The Bible also permits wine (Proverbs 31:6–7; 1 Timothy 5:23; John 2); Proverbs 20:1 is a warning and Ephesians 5:18 forbids drunkenness, not the cup. Here the Quran does not repeat the earlier law; it completes it. Jesus told his disciples, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now” (John 16:12, KJV); a Christian who reads that beside 5:90 can see what a completed law on drink looks like. The Tamil sage saw it without either book.
Usury
On money the Quran is as clear as on wine. "GOD permits commerce, and prohibits usury." (2:275). "GOD condemns usury, and blesses charities." (2:276). "O you who believe, you shall not take usury, compounded over and over. Observe GOD, that you may succeed." (3:130).
What puts usury at the shared table is a clause in Sura 4, listing the faults of some among the Children of Israel: "And for practicing usury, which was forbidden, and for consuming the people's money illicitly." (4:161). Which was forbidden: the Quran states that the ban on usury was already in the law given to Israel. A Jewish reader will know where (Deuteronomy 23:19; Leviticus 25:36–37; Ezekiel 18). The project has not yet transcribed those verses in a named translation, so this article does not quote them; it invites the reader to open the Torah and check. The Secrets of Enoch (Quran-aligned edition) gives the positive side: “Stretch out your hands to the poor man according to your strength. Do not hide your silver in the earth” (2 Enoch 51:1–2).
What to show first
To a Jew or Christian, begin with the four items: read Leviticus 11:7–8 and Deuteronomy 14:8 in their own Bible, then 2:173 and 6:145, and let them count. Then read 6:146 and 3:93, so they hear that the Quran knows the Torah's longer list and explains it, and 5:48 for the dignity of different rites. Bring wine and usury last, with 4:161 and John 16:12, and say openly that here the Quran completes rather than repeats. To a Hindu, do not begin with meat; begin with 22:37, that GOD is not fed, then Manu 5:31 beside 22:36 as a shared rite, then the Tirukkural on liquor beside 5:90, and only then say that the Quran permits what the Kural's chapter 26 declines, and that a believer may decline it too.
Where the evidence is strong, and where it is not
Graded STRONG: the four-item match (ledger rows 6.10–6.11); the Bible's permission of meat in Genesis 9, Deuteronomy 14 and Romans 14 (6.12); Manu and the Anushasana Parva beside 22:36–37 (6.13); the Quran's prohibition of intoxicants and usury (6.14, 6.16); and the Quran's statement that these laws were decreed for Israel (6.19).
Graded MODERATE, and used only as such: Isaiah 65:4, an indirect witness; Luke 24:41–43, where the KJV “meat” means food; the Rigveda's cattle hymns, which need their context; and the Biblical wine texts, which warn rather than forbid. The Rigveda's gambler's lament and its verse on usury (6.15–6.16) are never quoted in the popular outlines, so they are not quoted here.
Three further honesties. The wording of Romans 14:3 reaches the project through a lecturer's quotation, not the printed KJV; the sense is secure, the letters should be checked before print. The Law of Manu is two-sided: the same book praises abstention from meat (Manu 5:48–56), and the Tirukkural's chapter 26, “Abstaining from Flesh,” holds that “If you ask what compassion is, it is not to kill” (Kural 254). These are not hidden; the Quran permits, it does not compel, and 6:38 gives the Jain and the Hindu their mercy to animals as common ground. The Hindu sacrificial texts are quoted as a shared rite, never as a point to win.
Claims the article deliberately does not rely on: the popular presentations' “seventy diseases” of pork, the assertion that pig parasites survive cooking (they do not), and the remark that eaters of pigs behave like pigs, all rhetoric, and science is in any case illustration, never proof (Methodology R5); the lists of prohibited carnivores and birds of prey, the “small quantity” rule and the ten curses on the wine trade, which rest on Hadith, not the Quran, the first contradicting 6:145 and 7:157 (Methodology R4); the “strong meat” of Hebrews 5, a metaphor; and the unsourced rape and incest statistics attached to alcohol. Khalifa's footnote to 16:115 mentions trichinosis; it is a footnote and an illustration, not the reason for the law.
The reader keeps the last word: "You shall not accept any information, unless you verify it for yourself." (17:36).
One table, four empty places, one Host who is not fed. The next article, From the same male and female, turns from what the communities eat to what they are: one family, created "from the same male and female" (49:13), under GOD's three criteria for anyone at the table.
Sources
- The Holy Bible, King James Version: Leviticus 11:7–8; 17:15; Deuteronomy 14:8, 9, 11, 20, 21; Isaiah 65:4; Proverbs 20:1; Ephesians 5:18; John 16:12; Genesis 9:3; Luke 24:41–43; Romans 14:2–3 as quoted in the popular presentations; Proverbs 31:6–7, 1 Timothy 5:23 and John 2 referred to.
- Manusmriti 5:30, 5:31, in the English rendering used by the popular presentations; Mahabharata, Anushasana Parva 88, K. M. Ganguli's translation.
- Quran: The Final Testament, Authorized English Version, Rashad Khalifa (AEV): 2:172, 2:173, 2:219, 2:275, 2:276, 3:93, 3:130, 4:160, 4:161, 5:1, 5:5, 5:48, 5:87, 5:90, 5:91, 6:14, 6:38, 6:118, 6:145, 6:146, 7:157, 16:36, 17:36, 20:81, 22:34, 22:36, 22:37, 29:46, 37:107, 49:13; Khalifa's footnotes to 5:3, 5:5 and 16:115.
- Theory of Everything project, Quran-aligned editions: The Tirukkural, chapters 26, 92–94 (Kural 254, 920–934); The Secrets of Enoch 45:3–4, 51:1–2, 59:3; The Instruction of Amenemope 523.
- Theory of Everything project, master document One Message, Many Witnesses, Strand 6, rows 6.10–6.16 and 6.19; §12 (C17); §13.
- Popular presentations consulted: Zakir Naik (IRF), Is Non-Vegetarian Food Permitted or Prohibited for a Human Being?; Ahmed Deedat, Muhummed the Natural Successor to Christ.