Sura 5 or ‘The Table’ translated into English is here (Translated by Yusuf Ali, a fanatical Muslim apologist, so there is no ‘mistranslations’ which so bemuse Muslimophiles when discussing problematic texts).

Sura 5 discusses the imperative of Jihad, how Christ was really a Muslim and that the Christians have perjured and distorted the worship of the Al-Lah deity and joined Christ and the Holy Spirit to the one immanent Godhead.  Killing Infidels is certainly expected and supported, but do not kill fellow-Muslims (5-32, taken from ancient Israelite texts about the killing of Abel and the blood of Adam).  Muslims are slaves of the Al-Lah, he is not a deity you can get to know or have a relationship with.  Jews and Christians are apes and pigs and there should be no philosophical or scientific inquiry unless it is supported in the Qur’an.

Excerpts from Robert Spencer’s book below and explanations on key verses within Sura 5.  This link can be used (or the link above) to read the translation of the verses which are not copied out in their entirety.  The commentary is against that specific verse (italics).

Verse 5. Muslim men can marry who they wish.  Not so Muslim women.

Muslim men are permitted to marry “the virtuous women of the believers and the virtuous women of those who received the book before you.” The Qur’an says nothing about Muslim women being permitted to marry men from the people of the book; this is prohibited in Islamic law as part of the subjugated status of the dhimmis, the “protected people,” in Islam. Traditionally a man takes his wife into his own household but not vice versa. The prohibition of Muslim women marrying non-Muslim men, and the allowance of Muslim men marrying non-Muslim women, means that the Islamic community will always be in a position to grow, while the non-Muslim community declines.

Verse 14. Christian sects are proof of the Quran’s validity.

As far as the Qur’an is concerned, the divisions among Christians demonstrate the falsity of the religion—a proposition for which Jesus stated the obverse: “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). Says Ibn Kathir, “Indeed, the numerous Christian sects have always been enemies and adversaries of each other, accusing each other of heresy and cursing each other… Each sect among them will continue to accuse the other of disbelief and heresy in this life and on the Day when the Witnesses will come forth.”

And Christ is not the Son of God or Al-Lah

And Allah is able to do all things. Those Christians who believe that “Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary” have disbelieved. The Arabic word used here is kafara, it is a form of kufr, unbelief. Islamic spokesmen in the West frequently assert that the Qur’an never refers to Christians as infidels or unbelievers, when in fact this verse is quite clear that those who believe in the divinity of Christ are unbelievers indeed.

Verse 18. Al-Lah is not the ‘Father’ figure of the Bible but a slave-master.

To those Jews and Christians who claim to be God’s children, Allah directs the messenger to retort, “Why then does he punish you for your sins?” The Qur’an’s assumption that a father would not punish his children for their wrongdoing is striking. Whatever the reasoning behind it, it makes clear that in Islam, God is not a father to human beings. To a pious Muslim, a prayer such as the Our Father prayer in Christianity would be utterly alien. A knowledgeable and believing Muslim would consider it presumptuous in the extreme to call Allah his Father; instead, Allah is the master of the universe, and human beings are his slaves. The hallmark of Islamic religious observance is external obedience, not likeness with the divine through an interior transformation.

Verse 32. The killing of Infidels is always acceptable.  But don’t kill fellow-Muslims.

This is one of the most oft-quoted verses of the Qur’an, the one that Western non-Muslim leaders refer to frequently in order to establish that Islam is a religion of peace. There is, however, less to it than Western leaders and Islamic apologists claim. It is not a general prohibition of killing: there are big exceptions to the prohibition on killing, for “manslaughter or corruption on the earth.” Also, this prohibition is not a general command but is specifically directed at the children of Israel. After it was given, “many of them committed excesses on earth,” so all this passage is really saying is that Allah gave a command to the children of Israel, and they transgressed against it.

William St. Clair Tisdall noted that the substance of this verse was taken from the Mishnah Sanhedrin: “As regards Cain who killed his brother, the Lord addressing him does not say, ‘The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth out,’ but ‘the voice of his bloods’, meaning not his blood alone, but that of his descendants; and this to show that since Adam was created alone, so he that kills an Israelite is, by the plural here used, counted as if he had killed the world at large; and he who saves a single Israelite is counted as if he had saved the whole world.”

Verse 33. Jews and Christians will be punished by not following the Al-Lah.

This verse continues from 5:32 and makes clear the dire punishments that are prescribed for the corruption and transgressions of the children of Israel, and a warning to the Jews to stop their bad behavior. Seen in its light, the celebrated passage 5:32 is explaining what must be done with Jews who reject the messenger and commit the vague sin of spreading corruption on earth. Contrary to popular belief in the West, the passage is not dictating lofty moral principles.

Verse 38.  Jews and Christians are going to Hell.

This lone legal directive amid a lengthy section warning of hellfire and decrying the misdeeds of the Jews and Christians (5:35-86) may be evidence of textual dislocation. In a hadith, Muhammad is depicted as adding a divine curse to the already draconian punishment for theft specified in this verse: “Let there be the curse of Allah upon the thief who steals an egg and his hand is cut off, and steals a rope and his hand is cut off.”

Verse 45.  Eye for an eye and legal retribution.

This verse establishes the Islamic principle of qisas, legal retribution (see also 2:178), in which retaliation or punishment is to be in kind. The “eye for an eye” principle is indeed in the Torah (Exodus 21:23-25). In the Qur’an, however, there is no mitigating element comparable to “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) or, in the New Testament, Jesus’s statement: “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist one who is evil. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matthew 5:38-9). See also 2:194 and 16:126.

Verse 47.  Christian scriptures confirm the Qur’an (they don’t).

This also seems to suggest that at the time the Qur’an was compiled, the believers assumed that the Christian Scriptures did indeed confirm the message of the Qur’an. Because this is not the case, today it is common Islamic teaching that the New Testament as we have it is not the original but has been altered by rebellious Christians to reflect their false doctrines.

Verse 51.  Do not take Jews or Christians as friends.

Ibn Kathir explains: “Allah forbids His believing servants from having Jews and Christians as friends, because they are the enemies of Islam and its people, may Allah curse them.”

Verse 60.  Jews and Christians are cursed to be apes and pigs.

A reminder that some of those “whom Allah has cursed, him on whom his wrath has fallen,” were transformed into “apes and pigs.” See 2:63. On taghut, see 2:256.

Stanley Jaki, a Catholic priest and physicist, explains that it was the renowned Sufi thinker al-Ghazali who “denounced natural laws, the very objective of science, as a blasphemous constraint upon the free will of Allah.” Al-Ghazali (1058-1111), although himself a philosopher, delivered what turned out to be the coup de grace to Islamic philosophical investigation, at least as a vibrant mainstream force, in his monumental attack on the very idea of Islamic philosophy: The Incoherence of the Philosophers.

Muslim philosophers such as Avicenna and Averroes, according to al-Ghazali, were not intellectual trailblazers worthy of respect and careful consideration. In positing that there could be truth that was outside of or even contradicted what Allah had revealed in the Qur’an, they had shown themselves to be nothing more than heretics who should be put to death and their books burned.

Relatively early in its history, therefore, science was deprived in the Islamic world of the philosophical foundation it needed in order to flourish. It found that philosophical foundation only in Christian Europe, where it was assumed that God was good and had constructed the universe according to consistent and observable laws. Such an idea would have been for pious Muslims tantamount to saying, “Allah’s hand is chained.”

Verse 68. Jews and Christians must convert and renounce their books.

Ibn Kathir explains that this passage tells Jews and Christians they will have “no real religion until you adhere to and implement the Tawrah [Torah] and the Injil [Gospel]. That is, until you believe in all the Books that you have that Allah revealed to the Prophets. These Books command following Muhammad and believing in his prophecy, all the while adhering to his Law.”

Verse 72.  Christ is not Divine.

The denial of the divinity of Christ and the labelling of those who believe in it as “unbelievers” is repeated; see 5:17.

Verse 73.  The Trinity is again denied.

The denial of the doctrine of the Trinity is repeated; see 4:171. Jesus and his mother are again presented as the other members of the divine trio with Allah, but they were mortal: they both used to eat earthly food (5: 75) “like all other people,” says the Tafsir al-Jalalayn; “Since he was like that, he cannot be a god, because of his constitution and weakness and being subject to urine and faeces.”26 The actual Christian concept of the Incarnation, with Christ being both fully God and fully human, doesn’t enter into consideration.

Verse 88.  Slavery is assumed and tolerated.

One who breaks an oath must in expiation feed ten indigents or free a slave; there is, however, no blanket condemnation of slavery anywhere in the Qur’an, or any idea of the equality of dignity of all human beings before God, which led to abolitionism in Christian contexts.

Verse 101.  No questions can be asked of the Muhammadan cult.

This passage destroys the possibility of free inquiry in Islam in warning Muslims not to “ask about things which, if they were made known to you, would trouble you.” However, the believers are promised that if they “ask about them while the Qur’an is being revealed, they will be made known to you.” It is odd that a perfect and eternal book would depend for its contents upon the questions of human beings at a particular time, but this anomaly is not explained.

Verse 102. Do not question Muhammad or his texts.

The believers are again warned not to ask questions, as “a people before you asked, and then became disbelievers,” which may explain why international Islamic organizations such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation are working so assiduously to criminalize and stifle criticism of Islam.

Verse 112.  The last supper of Christ was a table from the Al-Lah.

When the disciples said, O Jesus, son of Mary, is your Lord able to send down for us a table spread with food from heaven? He said, Observe your duty to Allah, if you are true believers.

Verse 114.  Christ asked Al-Lah for the table to be spread at the Last Supper.

Jesus, son of Mary, said, O Allah, our Lord, send down for us a table spread with food from heaven, so that it may be a feast for us, for the first of us and for the last of us, and a sign from you. Give us sustenance, for you are the best of sustainers.

Verse 114.  The Muslim Eid is from the Christian Eucharist.

This has long been seen as a trace of the Christian doctrine of the Eucharist, but Christoph Luxenberg sees it as much more than just a vestige. Jesus asks Allah that this table from heaven be “a feast (‘id) for us, for the first of us and for the last of us, and a sign (ayah) from you.” Notes Luxenberg: “The Arabic word ‘id, borrowed from the Syriac, has been, in conformity with its Arabic meaning, correctly translated by ‘celebration’ [or ‘feast,’ in the liturgical sense].” The scholar of Islam and Jesuit priest Samir Khalil Samir explains that “according to unanimous scholarly opinion [the Arabic word ‘id] is a borrowing from the Syriac ‘ida, which signifies ‘Feast’ or ‘liturgical festival.’”

Verse 115.  Al-Lah will punish those who don’t believe he sent the Eucharist.

Allah said, Indeed, I send it down for you. And whoever disbelieves among you afterward, I will surely punish him with a punishment with which I have not punished anyone of the worlds.

Verse 116.  Jesus denies he is God.

And when Allah said, O Jesus, son of Mary, did you say to mankind, Take me and my mother as two gods besides Allah? He said, Be glorified. It was not for me to say what I had no right to say. If I said it, then you know it. You know what is in my mind, and I do not know what is in your mind. Indeed, you, only you, are the knower of hidden things. Allah asks Jesus directly if he asked his followers to take himself and his mother as additional gods along with him. Jesus, of course, denies having done so. Those who believe otherwise will be punished. Here we have not only a merely human Jesus but a misapprehension of the Trinity. The Qur’an envisions the Christian Trinity not as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three Persons, one God, but as a trio of deities: Allah, Jesus, and Mary.

Any objective reading of this text will offer some obvious themes:

1-Christ is not divine and was simply a prophet of Baal or Al-Lah (the moon deity, maybe the storm or fertility deity as well of Mecca, maybe the supreme pagan deity of nature as found in many locations in the Near East).

2-The Eucharist and other Christian celebrations were created and permitted by this Al-Lah not the Christian God.

3-Jews and Christians must convert to Muhammadanism or face punishment in this lifetime and the next.

4-Murdering Muslims is strictly prohibited but killing non-Muslims especially to spread Muhammadanism is legal and divinely sanctioned.

5-Muslims have no free will to inquire or question their cult.

6-All Muslims are simply slaves of the Al-Lah.

7-Muslim men can marry whom they wish, but Muslimas must marry a Muslim man and produce Ghazi or warriors of the cult.

8-Bronze age or earlier ‘code’ of an Eye for an Eye is enshrined, and slavery is accepted and tolerated and nowhere in the Qur’an are humans discussed as being equal nor is freedom assumed.

9-It is quite obvious that the Quranic authors took Old and New Testament passages and Christian rituals and misunderstood their meaning and purpose.

It is impossible when reading Sura 5, to make the claim that the cult of Muhammad is a religion of faith, presenting immanent ideals that we find in the Old and New Testaments which sanctify life, the individual and propose salvation through knowing God and Christ.  The text portrays Jews and Christians as inferior and Christians as falsely following a Trinity and incorrectly ascribing to Christ Divine status when purportedly Christ denied his own divinity to Al-Lah.  Given that Jews and Christians are cursed to be ‘apes and pigs’ it is necessary to either convert them peaceably or war against them until they submit.