The Quran

146

Preface

وَعَلَى الَّذينَ هادوا حَرَّمنا كُلَّ ذي ظُفُرٍ ۖ وَمِنَ البَقَرِ وَالغَنَمِ حَرَّمنا عَلَيهِم شُحومَهُما إِلّا ما حَمَلَت ظُهورُهُما أَوِ الحَوايا أَو مَا اختَلَطَ بِعَظمٍ ۚ ذٰلِكَ جَزَيناهُم بِبَغيِهِم ۖ وَإِنّا لَصادِقونَ

Yusuf Ali

For those who followed the Jewish Law, We forbade every (animal) with undivided hoof,¹ and We forbade them that fat of the ox² and the sheep, except what adheres to their backs or their entrails, or is mixed up with a bone: this in recompense for their wilful disobedience: for We are true (in Our ordinances).

Zufur may mean claw or hoof; it is in the singular number; but as no animal has a single claw, and there is no point in a division of claws, we must look to a hoof for the correct interpretation. In the Jewish Law, (Leviticus. 11:3-6), “whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is cloven footed, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts” was lawful as food, but the camel, the coney (rabbit), and the hare were not lawful, because they do not “divide the hoof. Undivided hoof therefore is the correct interpretation. These three animals, unlawful to the Jews, are lawful in Islam. Cf. 4:160.
In Leviticus, (7:23) it is laid down that “ye shall eat no manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat.” As regards the exceptions, it is to be noticed that priests were enjoined (Leviticus. 7:6) to eat of the fat in the trespass offering, which was considered holy, viz., “the rump” (back and bone) “and the fat that covereth the inwards” (entrails), (Leviticus, 7:3).