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Sura 5
Aya 45
45
وَكَتَبنا عَلَيهِم فيها أَنَّ النَّفسَ بِالنَّفسِ وَالعَينَ بِالعَينِ وَالأَنفَ بِالأَنفِ وَالأُذُنَ بِالأُذُنِ وَالسِّنَّ بِالسِّنِّ وَالجُروحَ قِصاصٌ ۚ فَمَن تَصَدَّقَ بِهِ فَهُوَ كَفّارَةٌ لَهُ ۚ وَمَن لَم يَحكُم بِما أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ فَأُولٰئِكَ هُمُ الظّالِمونَ

Muhammad Asad

And We ordained for them in that [Torah]: A life for a life, and an eye for an eye, and a nose for a nose, and an ear for an ear, and a tooth for a tooth, and a [similar] retribution for wounds;1 but he who shall forgo it out of charity will atone thereby for some of his past sins.2 And they who do not judge in accordance with what God has revealed - they, they are the evildoers!
  • See Exodus xxi, 23 ff., where details of the extremely harsh penalties provided under Mosaic Law are given.
  • Lit., "it shall be an atonement for him". The Pentateuch does not contain this call to forgiveness which is brought out with great clarity not only in the Qur'an but also in the teachings of Jesus; especially in the Sermon on the Mount: and this, read in conjunction with the following verses, would seem to be an allusion to the time-bound quality of Mosaic Law. Alternatively, the above admonition may have been part of the original teachings of the Torah which have been subsequently corrupted or deliberately abandoned by its followers, whom the Qur'an accuses of "distorting the meaning of the revealed words" (see verse 41 above).