Overall meaning : Allah Almighty informs His servants that He has forbidden them the flesh of animals that die of themselves (that is, without being slaughtered in accordance with Islamic law or killed in a hunt), running, outpoured blood, the flesh of pigs and sacrificial animals over which the name of other than Allah is invoked upon slaughtering them. Then He mentions other types of forbidden things—namely, the flesh of animals that die of strangulation, those struck to death with a heavy object, those that fall to their death from a height, those gored to death, those that are killed and partly eaten by a wild animal, such as a lion or a wolf, unless any of these animals are slaughtered while still alive, and those that are scarified to other than Allah. He also prohibits them from deciding things or predicting the future by means of divining arrows, as was practised by the idolatrous Arabs before the advent of Islam. All these, He stresses, are abominations and grave acts of disobedience to Him. He then states that, on the Day of ‘Arafah, during the Prophet’s Farewell Pilgrimage when this verse was revealed, the unbelievers despaired of the believers’ ever renouncing their religion; therefore, He commands, Muslims should not fear them, but fear Him alone, adding that on that day He had perfected their religion for them, completed His favour upon them and had chosen for them Islam as their religion whereby they seek His nearness. However, He further instructs, whoever is driven by dire necessity through hunger to eat of any of the forbidden things mentioned in this verse is allowed to do so, as long as he does not intend to do what is forbidden and commit a sin, stating that He is All-Forgiving, All-Merciful.