Weaponizing the Eucharist
A Study of the Qur'an, Chapter 5
By the seventh century, the areas around the Syro-Arabian desert were in complete disarray. The war that had been raging between the two giant Byzantine and Sassanid empires had brought both titans to their knees. While the Romans and the Persians had been at war off and on for centuries by this point, this final struggle over dominance of the Silk Road proved to be more catastrophic than ever before.
On top of that, the Christian world was at war with itself over controversies relating to Christological terminology. Author Michael Penn has made incredible contributions to the study of early Islam and the world that it sprung out of. In the introduction to his book When Christians First Met Muslims, he notes the disconnect from within the Byzantine Empire, which officially endorsed Chalcedonian Christianity, despite governing over Levantine Christian subjects who were largely non-Chalcedonian miaphysites. This theological rift caused by the fallout of the Council of Chalcedon was oftentimes violent — so much so that Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, Pope Honorius of Rome, and Patriarch Sergius of Constantinople would champion monothelitism in hopes that it would heal the divide in the east. This attempt backfired as monothelitism would be later condemned as a heresy at the sixth ecumenical council in 680.
Interestingly, as Penn notes in the book, the career of Heraclius and traditions surrounding Muḥammad parallel each other. Heraclius’ reign started in 610, the same year that Muḥammad is said to have received his first revelation. Heraclius triumphantly returned the cross to the newly recaptured Jerusalem in 630, the same year that Muḥammad is said to have returned triumphantly to Mecca. Under Heraclius’ nose, the united Arabs under the budding Rashidun Caliphate were brewing a power rivaling the Byzantine emperor without him even being aware of it. While both the Byzantines and the Persians employed bedouins as mercenaries during the war, they certainly did not expect them to unite in the manner that they did by the 630s. This is important to lay out ahead of time, because this is the world that the Qur’an was written in — that is, a world ravaged by war and violent religious sectarianism.
The fifth chapter of the Qur’an is called by convention, Al-Ma’idah, which in Arabic refers to a table that is spread out with food. While the table in question only appears at the end of the chapter (vv. 112–115), themes of dietary law and table fellowship run deep throughout the surah. What is especially interesting for me is the link between food consumption and false teaching. The surah begins with dietary laws and then transitions to holding fast to the truth and being wary of taking nonbelievers as allies. Verses 1–3 are specifically regulations against hunting during the sacred month, and against consuming carrion, blood, and pork. This is striking. Blood and carrion represent life and death respectively, and is therefore in the total domain of God (haram/taboo). Pigs are often linked to the impurity of the world outside of God’s revelation. This is true especially in the Bible. The clear delineation between what is holy (taboo) and common is important in the scriptural tradition. That being said, God can still make something lawful what was previously unlawful. One must not call unclean what God has made clean, as Peter is admonished in the book of Acts. The Qur’an actually makes mention to this when Jesus speaks of God making certain things ḥalal (permitted) which were previously ḥaram.
And verifying what lies before me of the Torah, and to make lawful for you some of what was forbidden to you. I have come to you with a sign from your Lord; so fear God, and obey me. — Q. 3:50
What was made ḥalal was not food per se but the non Jew himself, the gentile previously without the instruction of God’s Torah. In the book of Acts, Peter connects these dots that what God revealed to him about the clean and the unclean was referring to gentiles specifically, and not the food.
You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. — Acts 10:28b
This total acceptance of the gentiles allows them to submit to God without being burdened by kashrut. The teaching is to bring the entire world under God’s instruction, not to make everyone culturally Jewish. That is why the council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 only prohibits gentile Christians from eating blood and food sacrificed to idols. Paul even goes as far to proclaim that his gospel message of one God and one Lord frees the Corinthian church from superstitions relating to unclean foods and food sacrificed to idols because those gods who the food was dedicated to are non functional. This only works if the believer is truly submitting to the aforementioned truth of monotheism. If eating habits are causing believers to stumble, Paul says that he would go as far as not eating meat at all! I think the Qur’an is simply applying this Pauline principle. That is to say that the restriction against pork in this surah is not necessarily about literal food, but a warning to not fall into the trap that the Jews and Christians fell into. According to the Qur’an, Jews and Christians started to conform to the pagan world instead of inviting the pagan world to the Torah and Gospel they were entrusted with. That word pagan is appropriate because it was originally used by the Romans to denote those who were outside of the Empire — it literally refers to a rustic villager in Latin. Pagan and pork go hand in hand with each other. While this may seem like a stretch, there are many interesting things to consider in this chapter.
First, it is interesting that verses 42, 62, and 63 all refer to Jews and Christians consuming what is forbidden. In Arabic, the original word is from the root S-Ḥ-T which refers to something that is of unlawful gain. This root is also present in the Hebrew Bible and refers to something that corrupts and/or destroys. In fact, it is exactly the word that is used in Genesis 6:11 when God observes that the whole earth has gone corrupt, shaḥat, prompting the divine intervention with the flood. It is also the root that is used for the name of the destroying angel in the Old Testament. It is not merely that they were taking part in something haram, but something that was actively destructive for them. The word that is translated in the Clear Qur’an as “eat” and “consume” is ’akal from the same triliteral root in Hebrew and unambiguously refers to eating actual food. Here, the meaning is also clearly metaphorical and refers to their consumption of destructive heresies. Conversely, the Muslims are commanded in this chapter to partake in the good things that were offered to the Jews and Christians, but to eschew the bad.
Today all good things are made lawful for you. And the food of those given the Scripture is lawful for you, and your food is lawful for them. So are chaste believing women, and chaste women from the people who were given the Scripture before you, provided you give them their dowries, and take them in marriage, not in adultery, nor as mistresses. But whoever rejects faith, his work will be in vain, and in the Hereafter he will be among the losers. — Q. 5:5
The message that this chapter is more about the teaching rather than literal food, is reinforced in verse 93.
Those who believe and do righteous deeds will not be blamed for what they may have eaten, provided they obey, and believe, and do good deeds, then maintain piety and faith, then remain righteous and charitable. God loves the charitable. — Q. 5:93
Verse 60 is particularly interesting in this discussion because it links those who are under God’s condemnation with the pigs and thus, pagans.
Say, “Shall I inform you of worse than that for retribution from God? He whom God has cursed, and with whom He became angry; and He turned some of them into apes, and swine, and idol worshipers. These are in a worse position, and further away from the right way.” — Q. 5:60
In this sense, it echoes the Gospel narrative of Jesus sending legion into the pigs in an act of exorcism. Here Jesus is ridding the gentiles of swine, which is symbolic of him exercising their uncleanness and therefore, their inability to abide to God’s law.
The entirety of surah 5 leads up to the grand finale with the Table that God provides for Jesus’ disciples, following Jesus’ specific intercession. This Table is none other than the eucharistic meal — God’s very own table of fellowship. What is interesting is that the Qur’an makes no mention of the theology behind the mystical change of the elements that occurs at the Christian liturgy. All it refers to is its functional purpose, which is to be fed at God’s table after being taught (fed) by his word after the Gospel has been read aloud.
There is a stipulation though. If the disciples are unfaithful after receiving the gift that is God’s table of fellowship, they will be punished harshly and severely. The text then goes on to suggest that God’s displeasure with the Christians is that they have considered Jesus to be equal to God. This isn’t merely about the belief in the Trinity, but about the fact that for the past three hundred years, Christians have persecuted, killed, ostracized, and excommunicated their fellow believers because of these Christological controversies. Christological and not theological, because all of the ecumenical councils were about Christ. It’s not about Christ being the reference which is so damning to the Qur’an, but the fact that Christ was weaponized and formulations about his nature and essence were the cause of endless enmity and strife. As Jesus says in this chapter, he only commanded his disciples to worship God. The work of the Byzantine church and other schismatic groups were not his doing. These Christians weaponized God’s table, which is the grave sin addressed here. Christians were being killed because they were in communion with the wrong bishop.
This passage at the end is employed to comfort the Syriac Christians who were under the boot of Byzantine oppression. As Jesus proclaims,
“If You punish them, they are Your servants; but if You forgive them, You are the Mighty and Wise.” God will say, “This is a Day when the truthful will benefit from their truthfulness.” They will have Gardens beneath which rivers flow, wherein they will remain forever. God is pleased with them, and they are pleased with Him. That is the great attainment. To God belongs the sovereignty of the heavens and the earth and what lies in them, and He has power over everything. — Q. 5:118–20
Unlike Emperor Heraclius, God has power over the heavens and the earth. This same chapter of the Qur’an depicts Syriac Christians being so moved by this message that they are reduced to tears.
And when they hear what was revealed to the Messenger, you see their eyes overflowing with tears, as they recognize the truth in it. They say, “Our Lord, we have believed, so count us among the witnesses.” — Q. 5:83
For Christians, there are many lessons to be learned here. While the Qur’an is a scandal to us, it is a scandal we have to face head on. It’s not a matter of agreeing or disagreeing with it. The point is that it exists and was written for a reason, and it is a reason we should take seriously. Education matters. It is the only thing that frees us from tyranny. Being educated means we study things that are scandalous to us. What I have attempted to do is showcase, what I think, is an honest digestion of a Qur’anic surah that I find to be pertinent in the narrative of Christian Church history. The over-Hellenization of Christianity was a disaster, and it is becoming ever more clear to me that Islam is a sharp rejection against the attitude of the first five ecumenical councils. In the span of three hundred years, Christianity had not only become splintered, but violently so. The persecution faced by Syriac miaphysites at the hand of the Byzantines made it easier for the Sassanids to gain the initial upper hand, and when the Byzantines finally prevailed against them, they were completely unprepared for the onslaught of Arabs coming in from across the Jordan. I believe this is the milieu whence came the Qur’an, and it serves as a warning to those of us who are boastful and arrogant in our Christianity. God shows no partiality! He doesn’t care about creeds, he cares about how we treat the poor.
Read Matthew 25. Over and over again, until the Day of Judgement. God is the King of the Day of Judgement.
“Weaponized gods table” … epically worded. Wonderful read!