Clarification on Quran 5:5 needed:

[mclinkin94]

Quran 5:5 ""..and the food of those who were given to the People of the Scripture is lawful for you and your food is lawful for them.."

The alleged contradiction is that Jews cannot eat shellfish but Muslims can. Christians can eat pork but Muslims cannot. Therefore this would be a contradiction.

Further, if you say that the modern day Jews and the Christians are not the people of the scripture, then why does the same verse (5:5) tell us that it is okay to marry them because they are believers if they do not exist?

Further, wouldn't this verse be pointing at the fact that the Quran believes that Jews and Christians' scriptures are not corrupted?

Please explain

((I'm playing the devils advocate here so that people can reference this in the future. In other words: I am purposely posting difficulties so that people can reference this as a guide))

[abdullah]

Assalamualaykum
The ayah is saying that we can eat food which comes from the Jews and Christians. It's not saying that we can eat the same good they eat. Anyways christains aren't even allowed to eat pork but they do it anyways. Bro if you are looking for answers to alleged contrAdictions in the Qur'an go to understanding-islam.com in my opinion they give the most satisfactory answers to alleged errors in the Qur'an

[mclinkin94]

Assalamualaykum
The ayah is saying that we can eat food which comes from the Jews and Christians. It's not saying that we can eat the same good they eat. Anyways christains aren't even allowed to eat pork but they do it anyways. Bro if you are looking for answers to alleged contrAdictions in the Qur'an go to understanding-islam.com in my opinion they give the most satisfactory answers to alleged errors in the Qur'an

Hello brother, thank you very much for that explanation. It was originally a Yahoo Answers question and I answered it a little differently though. I thought it would be best to reference it here.

The way I answered it would be that in the beginning of that verse it says: "On this day". So this verse is not stating what Christians and Jews can eat, its a verse that is telling us (from the context) that on this day their slaughtered meat is okay for you, and your slaughtered meat is okay for them. Its not stating fact, rather it is a new law.

Here was my response:

[Let us read Quran 5:5 with its important beginning.

Quran 5:5, ON THIS DAY, good foods have been made lawful, and the food of those who were given the Scripture is lawful for you and your food is lawful for them.

Did you get that? "ON THIS DAY".

Not let us dissect the verse.

"The food of those who were given the scripture is lawful for you". So the food that the previous scripture says are made lawful for us on that day. Indeed the Jew's form of Kosher is lawful onto us (muslims).

"Your food is lawful to them". On this day, your food is lawful to them. So when this verse was revealed, what you can eat, they can eat (of the slaughtered meat).

If you notice this verse is talking about Marriage. So when you Marry someone who is a real Jew or Christian (yes Christians are actually supposed to follow the old law for not eating pork), their food is okay for you, and your food is okay for them. Don't add any meaning to that verse.

Source(s):

Alcohol consumption in the bible:

Do not drink wine nor strong drink (Leviticus 10:9)

Wine [is] a mocker, strong drink [is] raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. (Proverbs 20:1)
i]