Al-Ma'idah (The Table Spread): Verse 77

{Say, "O People of the Scripture, do not commit excess in your religion beyond the truth...}

Know that when the Almighty first discussed the falsehoods of the Christians and established conclusive proof against their corruption, He then addressed both groups with this address, saying: {Say, "O People of the Scripture, do not commit excess in your religion beyond the truth..."}

• Excess (الغلو - al-ghuluw) is the opposite of falling short. It means exceeding the limit. This is because the Truth lies between the extremes of exaggeration (excess) and negligence (falling short). The religion of God lies between excess and falling short.
• The phrase {beyond the truth} (ghayra al-haqq) is an adjective describing the verbal noun (the act of excess). It means: "Do not commit excess in your religion with an excess that is not the truth," i.e., a false excess.
• Excess in religion is of two types:
  1. True excess: Exaggerating in establishing and confirming the religion.
  2. False excess: Laboring to establish specious arguments and conceal clear proofs. This false excess is what the Jews—may God curse them—did by attributing adultery to Jesus, and what the Christians did by claiming divinity for him.

{...and do not follow the inclinations of a people who have already gone astray, and have misled many, and have strayed far from the sound path.}

Regarding this verse, there are two issues:

Here, *inclinations (ahwā')* refer to doctrines that are driven by desire rather than by evidence.

• Al-Sha'bi said: "God never mentioned the word hawa (inclination/desire) in the Qur'an except in condemnation." He cited verses like: {...and do not follow inclination, lest it make you stray from the path of God} (20:26), and {And follow his inclination, and thus he will perish} (20:16), and {Nor does he speak from inclination} (53:3), and {Have you seen the one who takes his inclination as his god?} (45:23).
• Abu 'Ubaydah said: "We have not found hawa used except in a context of evil. One does not say, 'So-and-so desires good'; rather, one says, 'He intends good and loves it.'"
• Some scholars said: Hawa is a god worshipped besides God.
• It is also said that hawa is named so because it causes its follower to fall (yahwī) into the Fire. Poetry was cited in condemnation of hawa:

  Indeed, desire (al-hawa) is humiliation itself; And when you desire, you have met with humiliation.

• A man said to Ibn Abbas: "Praise be to God who made my desire align with your desire." Ibn Abbas replied: "Every desire is misguidance."

The Almighty described them with three degrees of deviation:

1. They had already gone astray (qad ḍallū) before.
2. They had misled many (wa aḍallū kathīran).
3. They strayed far from the sound path (wa ḍallū ‘an sawā’), meaning they persisted in that state until they were now astray just as they were before.

There is no state closer to God's wrath and punishment than this state. We seek refuge in God from it.

• It is also possible that the meaning is that they went astray and misled others, and then they went astray again because they believed that their misleading was guidance to the truth.
• Another possibility is that the first deviation refers to deviation from religion, and the second deviation refers to deviation from the path to Paradise.

Know that when the Almighty addressed the People of the Scripture with this address, He described their ancestors, saying:

{Cursed were those among the Children of Israel who disbelieved, on the tongue of David and Jesus, the son of Mary. That was because they disobeyed and were transgressing.} (5:78)