and her face. “Covering containers” means placing a lid over them, and from this usage the word khamr came to denote the intoxicating substance, for it veils the mind. Accordingly, every intoxicant is khamr, whether it is produced from grapes, dates, barley, or any of the recently invented drinks.
• al-maytah (carrion): an animal that died of itself, or one slaughtered in a manner not sanctioned by the Sharīʿah.
• al-khinzīr (swine): a vile, filthy creature from the suid family; plural khanāzīr.
• al-asnām (idols): anything carved from stone or fashioned from iron, clay, wood, or any other material to be worshipped instead of Allah. An idol may resemble a human being, an animal—such as the Calf of the Children of Israel—or a demon as they imagine it.
• araʾayta: meaning “Inform us.”
• tutlā bihā al-sufun (ships are caulked with it): ṭalā–yaṭlī–ṭalyan means “to smear”; ṭilāʾ is tar or anything used for coating. Caulking a ship is to grease it so that water slides off and does not damage it.
• al-sufun (ships): plural of safīnah, derived from safana–yasfinu–safnan, “to scrape.” A safīnah is a seafaring vessel so called because it scrapes across the surface of the water.
• yastasbiḥu bihā al-nās (people light lamps with it): istasbaḥa is when a person kindles a lamp and seeks light from it; istisbaḥ thus means illumination.
• He replied, “No, it is unlawful.” Some said the pronoun refers to benefiting from the fat—as implied by “they caulk ships with it…”—but the stronger view is that it refers to the sale, for that is what the questioner asked about and what the discourse addresses, as proven by his words, “then they sold it.”
• qātala-llāhu al-Yahūd (May Allah fight the Jews): qatala–yaqtulu–qatlan literally means to take a life. Linguists state that the idiom “qātala-llāhu” means “May Allah curse and oppose them.” Allah cursed the Jews for resorting to loopholes.
• jammalūhu: with an open jīm and mīm; they melted the fat that had been forbidden for them to eat. One says jammala al-shahm, yajmiluhu (pattern Naṣara); al-jamīl is melted fat. They would then sell it.