Introduction to the presentation of detailed provisions of the Islamic religion

Your God is one God; there is no god other than He, the compassionate, ever-merciful.

Creation of the heavens and the earth, alternation of night and day, and sailing of ships across the ocean with what is useful to man, and the rain that God sends from the sky enlivening the earth that was dead, and the scattering of beasts of all kinds upon it, and the changing of the winds, and the clouds which remain obedient between earth and sky, are surely signs for the wise.

And yet there are men who take others as compeers of God, and bestow on them love due to God; but the love of the faithful for God is more intense. If only the wicked could see now the agony that they will behold (on the Day of Resurrection), they will know that to God belongs the power entirely'. And the punishment of God is severe.

When those who were followed will disclaim those who followed them, and see the torment all ties between them shall be severed,

And the followers will say: "Could we live but once again we would leave them as they have abandoned us now." God will show them thus their deeds, and fill them with remorse; but never shall they find release from the Fire.

O men, eat only the things of the earth that are lawful and good. Do not walk in the footsteps of Satan, your acknowledged enemy.

He will ask you to indulge in evil, indecency, and to speak lies of God you cannot even conceive.

When it is said to them: "Follow what God has revealed," they reply: "No, we shall follow only what our fathers had practiced," -- even though their fathers had no wisdom or guidance!

The semblance of the infidels is that of a man who shouts to one that cannot hear more than a call and a cry. They are deaf, dumb and blind, and they fail to understand.

O believers, eat what is good of the food We have given you, and be grateful to God, if indeed you are obedient to Him.

Forbidden to you are carrion and blood, and the flesh of the swine, and that which has been consecrated (or killed) in the name of any other than God. If one is obliged by necessity to eat it without intending to transgress, or reverting to it, he is not guilty of sin; for God is forgiving and kind.

Those who conceal any part of the Scriptures that God has revealed, and thus make a little profit thereby, take nothing but fire as food; and God will not turn to them on the Day of Resurrection, nor nourish them for growth; and their doom will be painful.

They are those who bartered away good guidance for error, and pardon for punishment: How great is their striving for the Fire

That is because God has revealed the Book containing the truth; but those who are at variance about it have gone astray in their contrariness.

Piety does not lie in turning your face to East or West: Piety lies in believing in God, the Last Day and the angels, the Scriptures and the prophets, and disbursing your wealth out of love for God among your kin and the orphans, the wayfarers and mendicants, freeing the slaves, observing your devotional obligations, and in paying the zakat and fulfilling a pledge you have given, and being patient in hardship, adversity, and times of peril. These are the men who affirm the truth, and they are those who follow the straight path.