This project started 5 years ago. As a special interest reading group, we meet once a month, read a section of the Qur’an and a psychoanalytic paper, and discuss ideas that emerge from the readings

June reading 2026

The reading:

Al Ma’idah: Verses 82 to 96

Verse 82

You will surely find the most intense of the people in animosity toward the believers [to be] the Jews and those who associate others with Allah; and you will find the nearest of them in affection to the believers those who say, “We are Christians.” That is because among them are priests and monks and because they are not arrogant.

Verse 83

And when they hear what has been revealed to the Messenger, you see their eyes overflowing with tears because of what they have recognized of the truth. They say, “Our Lord, we have believed, so register us among the witnesses.

Verse 84

And why should we not believe in Allah and what has come to us of the truth? And we aspire that our Lord will admit us [to Paradise] with the righteous people.”

Verse 85

So Allah rewarded them for what they said with gardens [in Paradise] beneath which rivers flow, wherein they abide eternally. And that is the reward of the doers of good.

Verse 86

But those who disbelieved and denied Our signs – they are the companions of Hellfire.

Verse 87

O you who have believed, do not prohibit the good things which Allah has made lawful to you and do not transgress. Indeed, Allah does not like transgressors.

Verse 88

And eat of what Allah has provided for you [which is] lawful and good. And fear Allah, in whom you are believers.

Verse 89

Allah will not impose blame upon you for what is meaningless in your oaths, but He will impose blame upon you for [breaking] what you intended of oaths. So its expiation is the feeding of ten needy people from the average of that which you feed your [own] families or their clothing or the freeing of a slave. But whoever cannot find [or afford it] – then a fast of three days [is required]. That is the expiation for your oaths when you have sworn. But guard your oaths. Thus does Allah make clear to you His verses that you may be grateful.

Verse 90

O you who have believed, indeed, intoxicants, gambling, [sacrificing on] stone alters [to other than Allah], and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of Satan, so avoid it that you may be successful.

Verse 91

Satan only wants to cause between you animosity and hatred through intoxicants and gambling and to avert you from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer. So will you not desist?

Verse 92

And obey Allah and obey the Messenger and beware. And if you turn away – then know that upon Our Messenger is only [the responsibility for] clear notification.

Verse 93

There is not upon those who believe and do righteousness any blame for what they have consumed [before the prohibition] when they fear Allah and believe and do righteous deeds and then fear Allah and believe and then fear Allah and do good; and Allah loves the doers of good.

Verse 94

O you who have believed, Allah will surely test you with something of the game that your hands and spears obtain, that Allah may know who fears Him unseen. So whoever transgresses after that – for him is a painful punishment.

Verse 95

O you who have believed, do not kill game while you are in the state of ihram. And whoever of you kills it intentionally – the penalty is an equivalent from sacrificial animals to what he killed, as judged by two just men among you as an offering [to Allah] delivered to the Ka’bah, or an expiation: the feeding of needy people or the equivalent of that in fasting, that he may taste the consequence of his deed. Allah has pardoned what is past; but whoever returns [to violation], then Allah will take retribution from him. And Allah is Exalted in Might and Owner of Retribution.

Verse 96

Lawful to you is game of the sea and its food as provision for you and the travelers, but forbidden to you is game of the land as long as you are in the state of ihram. And fear Allah to whom you will be gathered.

Paper: Envy and gratitude, Melanie Klein

The more you dive into Surat Al-Ma’idah, the more it unfolds. Layers upon layers of the “good spread” (which is one of the translations of this Surah’s name) begin to reveal themselves. This is a Surah that explicitly calls upon those who believe, leading to an array of questions: How does one transition from being a Muslim to being a true believer? Is it a linear movement or a permanent oscillation between states of being? Why does this Surah, which directly addresses the believer, speak so extensively in tandem about food? What is the precise balance between the physical and the spiritual that it points us toward?

To find answers, I return once again to the very first verse of the Surah, “O you who believe, fulfill your obligations. Live stock and animals are lawful as food for you, with the exception of what is about to be announced to you. You are forbidden to kill game while you are on pilgrimage, God commands what he wills.”  A verse that keeps amazing me the further we go into our reading of the Surah.

Nowhere in the Qur’an are we addressed as “O you who are Muslims.” This Surah is highlighting the paradigm of al Mu’min (the believer). While the nominal state of submission of being a Muslim is an acceptable baseline that should not be considered as a pathology but rather as a necessary developmental starting point, the Qur’an endeavours to open a conversation with the individual to help him expand his grasp of the internal and external worlds and meet the higher objectives of faith. Interestingly, in this verse it links three aspects together, internal belief (the food of the soul: belief in God), outwardly expression of this belief (the action of fulfilling one’s obligations, towards God, the self and other), the food of the body (halal food and management of impulsive and greedy desires)

The maturational process of iman (belief) transforms how a person approaches divine law, turning the command in the first verse of Surat Al-Ma’idah from an external burden into an organic reality. At the baseline level of a Muslim, keeping an obligation relies primarily on behavioural compliance, where the boundaries of halal and haram act as external scaffolding kept in place by duty or fear of consequences. As faith and belief mature, this scaffolding is interiorized into the heart, shifting the believer into a mature psychological space where the core driver transitions from self-preservation to preserving their relationship with God through a healthy relationship with others. The obligation is no longer viewed as an oppressive rule, but as a sacred covenant to be honoured out of love and secure trust. 

Crucially, this internalized mindfulness of God (taqwa) is directly manifested in how we treat others, transforming the covenant from an abstract spiritual theory into concrete ethical obligations towards our fellow human beings. The believer moves past simple outward compliance and steps into a mature emotional space, transforming external rules into an internal strength rooted in genuine love, resilience, and a deep connection to the divine.

This progression is highly analogous in a clinical setting to moving from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to psychodynamic therapy. At the start of a mental health journey, a person often needs the immediate structure, clear rules, and practical behavioural tools of CBT to stabilize anxiety and control impulses. But a lasting transformation requires moving deeper into a psychodynamic space, developing an integrated self, capable of acknowledging goodness outside of the ego without feeling threatened by it.

When read through the lens of Melanie Klein’s framework of envy and gratitude alongside Ibn Ashur’s insights, verses 82 to 96 shed a profound light on this exact psychodynamic transition. They illustrate how moving away from defensive security allows us to step into vulnerable, integrated gratitude (shukr). This distinction between a Muslim (one who submits outwardly to the law) and a Mu’min (a believer whose heart is anchored in secure trust) serves as the central theme for the verses that follow.

In verses 82 to 85, the Surah highlights a group of Christian priests and monks who weep upon hearing the truth. Ibn Ashur notes that their tears are an overflow of profound realization; their hearts instantly recognized the revelation because they were entirely free from kibr (arrogance). The humility required to receive a message delivered by “the other” is perhaps the ultimate crucible of the spiritual journey, and Surat Al-Ma’idah captures its psychological anatomy with striking precision. When a profound truth or critique is delivered by someone outside our own tribe, whether that “other” is defined by religion, culture, or an ideological camp, it triggers an immediate ego crisis. In the Kleinian sense, the primitive response is defensiveness or envy. The ego demands, “If this message is so good and true, why did it not originate with me? Why did my group not discover it first?” To protect its own self-importance, the untamed ego instinctively tries to “spoil” the message, attacking the messenger or denying the truth out of pure spite.

This is why Ibn Ashur’s focus on the humility of the Christian scholars and monks is so profound. They did not view the Prophet or the early Muslim community through the lens of tribal rivalry, nor did they allow the fact that the message was delivered by an “other” to close their ears. Instead, their humility allowed them to look past the identity of the vessel and see the purity of the source, permitting themselves to be moved to tears by a truth they did not own. To receive a message from the other requires a radical surrender of intellectual and spiritual arrogance. It means admitting that our group does not hold a monopoly on wisdom, and that God can choose any instrument to hold up a mirror to our souls. When you can listen to an outsider, recognize a beautiful truth, and internalize it with gratitude rather than resentment, you have effectively conquered the ego. You have transitioned from a tribal defender to a true believer, someone who loves the truth more than they love being the author of it.

Yet, this psychological balance will constantly be challenged, and the text identifies two distinct factors where this vulnerability plays out. First, we risk rejecting the good out of misplaced zeal (Verses 87–89). Some of the Prophet’s companions wanted to completely cut themselves off from the world by fasting indefinitely and refusing to marry, believing that raw deprivation was the only path to holiness. But the Quran steps in and commands: “Do not forbid the good things Allah has made lawful to you.” Psychologically, when we feel we cannot handle a gift perfectly, we often try to “spoil” it pre-emptively by declaring it bad or forbidden. God corrects this defensive asceticism by telling us to enjoy wholesome food, anchoring our spiritual appreciation in everyday blessings.

The second disruption arrives through the temptation test (Verses 94–96). God describes a specific trial where wild animals walk right up to the believers during the pilgrimage (ihram), making them incredibly easy to hunt. The verse notes that this happens to reveal “who fears Him unseen.” This is the ultimate test of self-control. Instead of greedily grabbing and destroying everything in sight simply because it is within arm’s reach, true faith gives us the capacity to look at abundance, appreciate it, and leave it at peace out of reverence for the Creator.

Returning to the significance of food in this Surah, Ibn Ashur observes that the human spiritual state is inextricably bound to the nature of what we consume and the integrity of how we acquire it. Within Surat Al-Ma’idah, this relationship is demarcated by a sacred boundary line that welcomes the wholesome (tayyibat) while filtering out the corrupting (khaba’ith). True faith cannot survive as an abstract theory; it requires a physical anchor, manifesting most intimately at the dinner table. Everyday choices of physical discipline—whether opting for the halal over the convenient haram, or intentionally refraining from the hunt during the sacred restrictions of ihram, transform mundane impulses into profound spiritual devotion. In this paradigm, physical sustenance serves as the vessel, while spiritual tranquility is the true content. The definitive transition into a mature believer occurs when you cease viewing the table as an object of material consumption and begin recognizing it as an altar of divine grace, shifting the soul’s baseline from a state of desperate appetite to one of integrated, boundary-honouring gratitude.

In essence, as a Muslim’s understanding of their faith grows exponentially through pondering the Quran, the divine discourse guides us away from human weakness, defined by restlessness and despair, and points us toward the paradigm of the believer whose soul is transformed and guided by the light of Iman through the process of gratitude. When an individual transitions into this integrated state of faith (or what Melanie Klein calls the depressive position), they do not achieve a magical escape from suffering. Instead, they gain the internal spiritual architecture required to hold, endure, and sustain the inevitable tensions of life without collapsing. Ultimately, we understand that gratitude is not an emotional luxury; it is a rigorous ethical ledger. It is an accountability system that grows as we learn to harness our destructive impulses. It is the ego’s way of saying: “I see what has been given, I acknowledge I did not create it, and I accept the profound responsibility of stewardship that comes with it.”