كُلُّ ٱلطَّعَامِ كَانَ حِلًّا لِّبَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ إِلَّا مَا حَرَّمَ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلُ عَلَىٰ نَفْسِهِۦ
Kullu'ṭ-ṭaʿāmi kāna ḥillan li-banī Isrāʾīla illā mā ḥarrama Isrāʾīlu ʿalā nafsihī min qabli an tunazzala't-Tawrāt, qul fa'tū bi't-Tawrāti fa'tlūhā in kuntum ṣādiqīn · Fa-mani'ftarā ʿala'llāhi'l-kadhiba min baʿdi dhālika fa-ulāʾika humu'ẓ-ẓālimūn · Qul ṣadaqa'llāh, fa'ttabiʿū millata Ibrāhīma ḥanīfā, wa mā kāna mina'l-mushrikīn
"Before the Torah was sent down, all food was lawful to the Children of Israel, except what Israel forbade to himself. Say: 'Bring the Torah and recite it, if you are truthful.' · Whoever invents a lie against God after this — those are the wrongdoers. · Say: 'God has spoken truly. So follow the way of Abraham, as a ḥanīf; and he was not of the mushrikūn.'"
| Verse | The proof | The note of time |
|---|---|---|
| 65 | Abraham lived before the two books | Illā min baʿdih |
| 93 | The prohibition was laid down before the Torah | Min qabli an tunazzala't-Tawrāt |
Two verses, within the same block, applying the same reasoning to two different subjects: when a thing came into being limits the claim ascribed to it. This is a weave verifiable within the sūra.
I record this as an observation and give it by way of the word order: the sentence uses the other side's book not by rejecting it but by calling for it. And this is consistent with the third verse of the sūra — there it was recorded that the Torah and the Gospel had been sent down.
Per the method (Method) I draw a boundary: what the particular prohibition the verse discusses was is transmitted in various forms in the classical sources. I do not go into the detail of those reports in this commentary and I make no preference, because the verse does not name the matter — it states only its time.
The root م-ل-ل. The lexicographers explain milla as a way kept to, a manner followed; and they record the word's connection with dictation — amlā: to dictate. That is, milla means a way dictated, a way laid out.
And it must be recorded that in the Qurʾān the word conveys not a community but a way. Millata Ibrāhīm — Abraham's way, not Abraham's people. The word was treated at 2/130-135 in al-Baqara; I rely on that treatment.
And the Turkish word millet comes from this root, but its sense has drifted: in Turkish it is the name of a community, in Arabic it is the name of a way. I record this as a note about language, and I draw no sense of "a people" from the verse.