Cheatsheet

Sūrah Al-MāʾidahThe Table Spread · Madinah · 120 āyāt · 5 movements

Among the last surahs revealed, largely during and after the Farewell Pilgrimage. It opens with the command to fulfil contracts and closes a body of law with 5:3, revealed at ʿArafah, declaring the religion complete. Between these poles it legislates purification and justice, retells the story of Ādam's two sons as a lesson on the sanctity of life, sets out the covenant taken from the People of the Book, and ends with ʿĪsā's public disavowal of those who deified him.

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At a glance

Āyāt	Movement	In one line
1–5	Fulfil your contracts	Fulfilling contracts and covenants is named before any other ruling in the surah.
6–11	Purification and justice that resists hatred	Physical purification and moral justice are placed side by side in the same passage.
27–32	The two sons of Ādam and the sanctity of life	Acceptance of worship is a matter of sincerity and taqwā, not status or precedence.
12–19, 82	The covenant of the People of the Book	A covenant carries responsibility; breaking it has spiritual consequences described as hardened hearts.
116–120	ʿĪsā's disavowal on the Day of Judgement	ʿĪsā himself will disown the claims later made about him, in front of all creation.

Occasion & setting

By this stage the Arabian Peninsula had largely entered Islam, treaties with the People of the Book needed clear terms, and the Prophet ﷺ was completing his mission. The surah's final legal material reflects a community now mature enough to be given its last and most complete instructions.

— Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 45; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 3017

Key messages

· Islam opens its most legislatively dense surah with a single command: fulfil your contracts.
· The completion of the religion was announced at ʿArafah, the peak of the Prophet's ﷺ mission.
· Justice must hold even toward those you have every worldly reason to hate.
· The killing of one innocent soul carries the weight of killing all mankind.
· Covenants carry consequences; breaking them hardens the heart over time.
· Humility, not lineage, is what draws people nearer to true faith.
· ʿĪsā will personally disown, before all creation, the divinity later claimed for him.
· All dominion, without partner, belongs to Allah alone.

Root vocabulary

و ف ي

to fulfil, complete

1, 3

أَوْفُوا۟ (fulfil!) · الْمُوفُونَ (those who fulfil) · وَفَّى (he fulfilled fully)

ع د ل

justice

8, 42, 95, 106

تَعْدِلُوا۟ (you are just) · ٱعْدِلُوا۟ (be just!) · عَدْل (justice)

ك م ل

completion, perfection

أَكْمَلْتُ (I have perfected) · كَامِل (complete) · تَكْمِلَة (completion)

ق ب ل

acceptance

تُقُبِّلَ (it was accepted) · يَتَقَبَّلُ (He accepts) · قُرْبَان (an offering)

ق ت ل

killing

27, 28, 32

لَأَقْتُلَنَّكَ (I will surely kill you) · قَتَلَ (he killed) · قَـٰتِلُوهُمْ (fight them)

ع ه د

covenant, pact

1, 7, 12, 14

مِيثَـٰق (a firm covenant) · عَهِدَ (he made a covenant) · عَهْد (a covenant)

س ب ح

to glorify, exalt as free of imperfection

116

سُبْحَـٰنَكَ (exalted are You) · يُسَبِّحُ (he glorifies) · تَسْبِيح (glorification)

Flip cards

20 cards over the roots, movements, takeaways and seerah events of this surah. Anything you mark “still learning” comes back before the deck ends.

Sūrah Al-Māʾidah deck

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Concept map

The surah at the centre, its movements in sequence around it, and the roots, seerah moments and messages that hang off each one. Tap a node to focus its connections — the same way a linked notebook shows you what a single idea touches.

Tap any node to focus it and dim everything it is not connected to — the movement it sits in, the roots that carry it, and the moment of the seerah it answers.