وه‌رگێڕانی ماناكان ئایه‌تی 32 سوره‌تی سورەتی المائدة - وەرگێڕاوی ئینگلیزی - د. ولید بلیهش العمري - فرەفەرهەنگی قورئانی پیرۆز

ئایه‌تی: 32

مِنۡ أَجۡلِ ذَٰلِكَ كَتَبۡنَا عَلَىٰ بَنِيٓ إِسۡرَٰٓءِيلَ أَنَّهُۥ مَن قَتَلَ نَفۡسَۢا بِغَيۡرِ نَفۡسٍ أَوۡ فَسَادٖ فِي ٱلۡأَرۡضِ فَكَأَنَّمَا قَتَلَ ٱلنَّاسَ جَمِيعٗا وَمَنۡ أَحۡيَاهَا فَكَأَنَّمَآ أَحۡيَا ٱلنَّاسَ جَمِيعٗاۚ وَلَقَدۡ جَآءَتۡهُمۡ رُسُلُنَا بِٱلۡبَيِّنَٰتِ ثُمَّ إِنَّ كَثِيرٗا مِّنۡهُم بَعۡدَ ذَٰلِكَ فِي ٱلۡأَرۡضِ لَمُسۡرِفُونَ

(32) ^[1165]For this reason We decreed for the Children of Israel that whoever kills a person – unless for killing another or spreading corruption in the land – it shall be as if he killed all people and whoever saves a life then it is as if he gave life to all people. Indeed our Messengers came to them with clear evidences, and then many of them still committed excesses^[1166] in the land.

[1165] Given the millennia that separate this episode of Adam’s two direct descendants and the setting down of Jewish laws, what, then, is the coherence between Ayas 31and 32? Specifically, how was the story of Cain and Abel causative to the law passed to the Children of Israel? The relevance of this aya is better grasped with reference to Aya 15 above: “People of the Book, here is Our Messenger coming to you to reveal to you much of what you used to hide and overlooks much—indeed there has come to you a Light and a clarifying Book”. A similar wording of this aya (5: 32; with the notable exception that the Qur’an talks about all humans and not just Israelites,) is found in the Talmud (particularly in the Mishnah which is known as the Oral Law) in a comment on Genesis 4:10 when it is said that God spoke admonishingly to Cain for killing his brother. The exact statement is: “Therefore but a single person was created in the world, to teach that if any man has caused a single life to perish from Israel, he is deemed by Scripture as if he had caused a whole world to perish; and anyone who saves a single soul from Israel, he is deemed by Scripture as if he had saved a whole world” (Mishnah, Sanhedrin, 4:5; emphasis added). Clearly what is being brought to the fore here, which brings out the connection between the story of Cain and Abel and the Children of Israel, is textual par excellence. They ‘committed excesses’ in shedding blood and committing sins and thus this legal stipulation of theirs, which they willingly overlooked or distorted from its proper position, was ‘revealed’ in the Qur’an, which is ‘a Light and a Clarifying Book’.
One other point that needs to be clarified here and in light of the above is the applicability of this law to Muslims. The fact that this verse was ‘revealed’ as an aya of the Qur’an and not ‘overlooked’ for being irrelevant, given the overruling nature of the Islamic law, God’s last revealed canon, underlines its universal validity. The stern punishment in the next aya (5: 33) follows from the grave nature of murder which is highlighted in this aya.
[1166] Musrifūn (lit. wasteful) means unreservedly committing gravely vile deeds. (al-Ṭabarī, Ibn Kathīr, al-Saʿdī)