Tafsir of Al-Ma'idah 5:42-43

"Listeners to falsehood, consumers of illicit gain (al-suht)."

Al-Suht

It is everything that is unlawful to earn. It is derived from saḥatahu (to scrape/uproot), because its blessing is "scraped away" (masḥūt), as the Almighty said: "God destroys usury" (Al-Baqarah: 276), and usury is a form of it. It is recited as al-suḥt (with a light ḥāʾ) and al-suḥt (with a heavy ḥāʾ). It is also read as al-saḥt (with a fatḥah on the sīn, as an infinitive), al-saḥat (with two fatḥahs), and al-siḥt (with a kasrah on the sīn).

They used to take bribes for judgments and for declaring the forbidden as lawful. Al-Hasan narrated that if a judge among the Children of Israel was approached with a bribe, he would place it in his sleeve, show it to the judge, and state his need. The judge would listen to him without looking at his opponent, thus consuming the bribe and listening to falsehood.

It is told that an official returned from his post, and his people came to him. He offered them a feast and began narrating what happened during his tenure. A Bedouin among them said: "We are as God Almighty said: 'Listeners to falsehood, consumers of illicit gain.'" The Prophet (ﷺ) said: "Every flesh nourished by al-suht, the Fire is more worthy of it."

On the Prophet's Authority to Judge

It is said that the Messenger of God (ﷺ) was given the choice when the People of the Book brought their disputes to him: he could judge between them or decline.

'Aṭāʾ, al-Nakhaʿī, and al-Shaʿbī held that if they bring their disputes to Muslim judges, the judges may choose to rule or turn away. Others say this was abrogated by His saying: "And judge between them by what God has revealed."

According to Abū Ḥanīfah (may God have mercy on him), if they seek our judgment, they are subjected to Islamic law. If one of them commits adultery with a Muslim woman or steals from a Muslim, the ḥadd (prescribed punishment) is applied to him.

However, the scholars of the Hijaz do not believe in applying the ḥudūd to them, arguing that they were granted peace based on their polytheism, which is a greater offense than the ḥudūd. They point out that the Prophet (ﷺ) stoned the two Jews before the jizyah was revealed.

"They will not harm you at all"

They would only seek his judgment to obtain the easiest and lightest outcome, such as flogging instead of stoning. If he turned away from them and refused to judge, it burdened them, and they disliked his turning away. They were prone to enmity and harm, so God secured his path.

"With justice"

Meaning with fairness and caution, just as He ruled with stoning.

"But how is it that they come to you for judgment?"

This expresses astonishment at their seeking judgment from one in whom they do not believe, nor in his Book, even though the ruling is explicitly stated in their own Book which they claim to believe in.

"Then they turn away after that"

They turn away from your judgment—which conforms to what is in their own Book—because they are not satisfied with it.

"And those are not believers"

In their own Book, as they claim. Or, it means they are not "complete" in faith, used here as a form of mockery.

If you ask: What is the grammatical position of "In it is the judgment of God"? I say: It may be a state (ḥāl) from the Torah (where "the Torah" is the subject and "with them" is the predicate). Or, it may be a predicate for it, as if you said: "The Torah is with them, speaking the judgment of God." Or, it may have no grammatical position, serving as an explanatory sentence indicating that they already possess what makes them independent of seeking judgment elsewhere—like saying: "You have Zayd, who advises you and points you to the truth, so what do you need another for?"

If you ask: Why is al-Tawrāh (the Torah) feminine? I say: Because it is analogous to mūmāh and dūdāh and their likes in the speech of the Arabs.

If you ask: To what is "Then they turn away" conjoined? I say: To "they come to you for judgment."