5.87
Abbas - Tanwîr al-Miqbâs min Tafsîr Ibn ‘Abbâs
(O ye who believe! Forbid not the good things which Allah hath made lawful for you) this verse was revealed about ten Companions of the Prophet (pbuh) among them were Abu Bakr, 'Umar, 'Ali, 'Abdullah Ibn Mas'ud, 'Uthman Ibn Maz'un al-Jumahi, Miqdad Ibn al-Aswad al-Kindi, and Salim the client of Abu Hudhayfah Ibn 'Utbah, Salman al-Farisi, Abu Dharr, 'Ammar Ibn Yasir-these Companions vowed in the house of 'Uthman Ibn Maz'un that they would not eat or drink except that which was enough to keep them alive, that they would not have sex with their wives, that they would never eat meat or fat and that they would cut off their male organs. But Allah forbade them from such acts, and revealed about them: do not forbid the lawful things that Allah has permitted such as foods, drinks and having sex with your wives (and transgress not) by cutting off your male organs. (Lo! Allah loveth not transgressors) who move from the lawful to the unlawful by mutilating themselves.
When a number of Companions resolved to practise fasting and night vigil continuously and to abstain from women perfume consumption of meat and sleeping on beds the following was revealed O you who believe do not forbid the good things that God has made lawful for you and do not transgress do not exceed God’s command; God does not love transgressors.
O you who believe, with a cognitive knowledge, do not forbid the good things that God has made lawful for you, of the unveilings of states and the self-disclosures of the attributes by falling short of your wayfaring, and do not transgress, by the insolence of the soul and the manifesting of itself through its attributes. Rather make God your shield for actualising those perfections by seeing them from Him and for His sake, not from you or for your sake, lest you then become insolent, if you are [truly] affirmers of [His] Oneness.
`Ali bin Abi Talhah said that Ibn `Abbas said, "This Ayah 5:87 was revealed about some of the Companions of the Prophet who said, `We should cut off our male organs, abandon the desires of this life and travel in the land, just as the Ruhban (monks) do.' When the Prophet heard of this statement, he summoned them and asked them if they made this statement and they answered `Yes.' The Prophet said,
(I fast and break my fast, pray and sleep, and marry women. Whoever follows my Sunnah is of me, and whoever abandons my Sunnah is not of me.)'' Ibn Abi Hatim also collected this Hadith. Ibn Marduwyah recorded that Al-`Awfi said that Ibn `Abbas narrated a similar Hadith. It is recorded in the Two Sahihs that `A'ishah said that some of the Companions asked the wives of the Prophet about the acts of worship that he performed in private. One of them said, "I will not eat meat,'' another said, "I will not marry women,'' while the third said, "I will not sleep on the bed.'' When the Prophet heard this statement, he said,
(What is the matter with some people who said such and such I fast and break the fast, sleep and wake to stand to pray, eat meat, and marry women. He who is not pleased with my Sunnah is not of me.) Allah's statement,
وَلاَ تَعْتَدُواْ
(and transgress not.) means, do not exaggerate and make it hard for yourselves by prohibiting the permissible things. Do not transgress the limits by excessively indulging in the permissible matters; only use of it what satisfies your need; and do not fall into extravagance. Allah said in other Ayat,
وكُلُواْ وَاشْرَبُواْ وَلاَ تُسْرِفُواْ
(And eat and drink but waste not by extravagance.)7:31, and,
(And those, who, when they spend, are neither extravagant nor miserly, but hold a medium (way) between those (extremes).)25:67 So Allah legislated a medium way between those who are extreme and those who fall into shortcomings, and it does not allow excessive application, nor lack of application. This is why Allah said here,
(Make not unlawful the good things which Allah has made lawful to you, and transgress not. Verily, Allah does not like the transgressors.) then He said,
5.87-88
Maududi - Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi - Tafhim al-Qur'an
This Divine Commandment implies two things. First, "You have no authority to make certain things lawful and others unlawful. Lawful is only that which Allah has made lawful and unlawful is that which Allah has made unlawful. Therefore if you make a lawful thing unlawful, and vice versa, you will be following your own law and not the Divine Law." Secondly, "You should not adopt the way of asceticism like the Christian monks or the Hindu friars or the Buddhist mendicants and the like." This was meant to warn the Muslims against the general tendency, which has always existed among the religious-minded people, to consider even the normal satiation of the desires of the body and mind to be against spiritual progress. They imagine that self-torture, self-denial and abstinence are virtues in themselves and that one could not approach God without these austerities. As a matter of fact, there were some Companions, who had developed such tendencies. When the Holy Prophet came to know that some of his Companions had taken vows that they would always observe fast during the day and would not go to bed for sleep but keep awake and worship God the whole night, and would abstain from flesh, fat and women, he forbade them from such practices. He said, "I have not ordained such things; your own self has rights on you; therefore observe fast and also eat easefully. Stand in worship at night and also go to sleep. I myself sometimes observe fast and at others I do not. I eat flesh and butter. (This is my way) and the one who does not like my way, is not of me." According to another 'Tradition, he emphasized the same and said, "Now is it that some people have made unlawful for themselves women, good food, scents and perfumes, sleep and other good things of the world? As for me I have not taught you to become monks and hermits. The way of life taught by me does neither allow abstention from women nor from eating flesh nor retirement and seclusion from the world. The Law has prescribed Fasting for self-discipline, and Jihad for the same benefits that might be obtained from asceticism. Worship Allah and associate none with Him as partner, perform Hajj and `Umrah, establish the Salat and pay Zakat and observe the Fasts during the month of Ramadan. The people who were doomed before you, were doomed because they practiced austerity of their own accord, and when they did so, Allah also prescribed the same for them. Those are of them whom you now see in the Monasteries. In the same connection, we learn from some Traditions that when the Holy Prophet came to know that a certain Companion had been abstaining from having conjugal relations with his wife for a long time and had been devoting himself to worship, he immediately sent for him and ordered, "Go to your wife instantly. " The Companion replied, "I am with fast" The Prophet again said, "Break the fast and go to your wife. " There is another instance of the same kind. A woman came to Caliph 'Umar and complained, "My husband observes fast during The day and passes the night in worship and does not have conjugal relations with me." Hadrat `Umar ordered Ka`b bin Saur al-Azdi to hear the case. He decreed that the husband was permitted to pass three nights in worship but he must go to his wife on the fourth night.
"To go beyond the limits" has very extensive meanings. One goes beyond the limits, if one makes lawful things unlawful or abstains from things which Allah has declared to be pure as if they were impure or if one is extravagant in the use of pure things, or if one makes use of unlawful things as if they were lawful. Allah does not like such acts of transgression.
(O ye who believe! Forbid not the good things which Allah hath made lawful for you…) [5:87]. Abu 'Uthman ibn 'Amr al-Mu'adhdhin informed us> Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Hamdan> al-Husayn ibn Nasr ibn Sufyan> Ishaq ibn Mansur> Abu 'Asim> 'Uthman ibn Sa'id>> 'Ikrimah> Ibn 'Abbas who related that a man went to see the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, and said: "I have forbidden meat on myself because whenever I eat it I feel the urge to sleep with women", and so the verse (O ye who believe! Forbid not the good things which Allah hath made lawful for you) and also (Eat of that which Allah hath bestowed on you as food lawful and good…) [5:88]. The commentators of the Qur'an said: "The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, sat down one day and gave an admonition to people whereby he described the Day of Judgement to them and did not mention anything other than things which would instil fear in them. People cried as a result of the softening of their hearts. Then ten of the prophetic Companions gathered in the house of 'Uthman ibn Maz'un al-Jumahi. They included Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, 'Ali ibn Abi Talib, 'Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud, 'Abd Allah ibn 'Amr, Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, Salim, the client of Abu Hudhayfah, al-Miqdad ibn al-Aswad, Salman al-Farisi and Ma'qil ibn Muqarrin. They agreed to fast the day and stand in prayer at night, never to sleep in their beds, eat meat or fat, never to sleep with their wives or use perfume. They also agreed to wear coarse wool garments, reject the worldly life, wander through the land and become monks, and cut off their male organs. When the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, heard of this, he gathered them and said: 'I was informed that you agreed to do such-and-such things, is this true?' They said: 'It is, but we only meant to do good'. He said to them: 'I was not commanded to do those things, and your own selves have a right over you. Fast and break fast, stand in prayer at night and sleep, for I stand in prayer at night but I also sleep; I sometimes fast and sometimes do not; I eat meat and fat. And whoever shuns my practice is not of me'. Then he went out and gave a sermon to people in which he said: 'How come some people have forbidden sleeping with women, eating, wearing perfume, sleeping and the desires of this world? I am not commanding you to be priests or monks, for there is no room in my religion for abstention from eating meat and sleeping with women, nor is there room for adoption of monasteries. The wandering of my community consists of fasting and its monasticism is Jihad. And worship Allah and do not associate anyone with Him; perform the greater and lesser pilgrimage, establish the prayer, pay the poor-due, and fast the month of Ramadan. Those who were before you perished because of their extremism; they made things hard on themselves and so Allah made it hard on them. The remains of those people are in monasteries and cloisters'. Allah, exalted is He, then revealed this verse, upon which they said: 'O Messenger of Allah, What is to be done with the vows that we have made?' This is because they had vowed to each other to carry out the things they agreed on. As an answer, Allah, exalted is He, revealed (Allah will not take you to task for that which is unintentional in your oaths) [2:225]".
