6. Al-An'aam

That sending of the messengers is because an phonetically lightened with the lām of li-annahu implied thus read as li-annahu ‘because’ your Lord would never destroy the towns through injustice on their part while their inhabitants were heedless not having had any Messenger to make things clear to them.

All of those who perform deeds shall have degrees of requital according to what they have done of good or evil. Your Lord is not heedless of what they do ya‘malūna may also be read ta‘malūna ‘you do’.

Truly that which you are promised of the Hour and chastisement will surely come to pass inevitably and you cannot escape you cannot elude Our chastisement.

Say to them ‘O my people act according to your state your circumstances; truly I am acting according to my circumstances. And assuredly you will know whose man the relative particle introducing the object of the verb ‘you will know’ sequel shall be the abode that is who shall have the praiseworthy sequel in the abode of the Hereafter will it be us or yourselves? Surely the evildoers the disbelievers will not prosper’ will not find happiness.

They the disbelievers of Mecca assign to God of the tillage the crops and the cattle which He multiplied He created a portion which they dispense to visitors and the needy and to their associates belongs a portion which they dispense to such keepers of the tillage and cattle saying ‘This is for God’ — so they assert read bi-za‘mihim or bi-zu‘mihim — ‘and this is for our associates’ and if any of the portion of these associates fell into God’s portion they used to restore it to that of their associates but when something of His portion fell into theirs they would leave it there saying ‘God is Independent and is not in need of this’ as God exalted be He says So that which is intended for their associates does not reach God and that which is intended for God does reach their associates. Evil is that provision of theirs which they decree!

And thus in the same way that what is mentioned was adorned for them those associates of theirs from among the jinn have adorned for many of the idolaters the slaying of their children by burying them alive shurakā’uhum ‘those associates of theirs’ is read in the nominative as the subject of the verb zayyana ‘adorned’; an alternative reading has the passive zuyyina ‘it has been adorned’ with qatlu ‘the slaying’ in the nominative as the subject of this passive verb awlādahum ‘their children’ in the accusative on account of it being the direct object of qatlu ‘the slaying’ and shurakā’ihim in the genitive as an annexation to qatlu so that the object in this case intervenes between the two elements of the annexation qatlu awlādahum shurakā’ihim ‘their associates killing the children’ — this is acceptable syntactically — and the annexation of qatlu to shurakā’ihim in this latter reading is on account of them the associates commanding the idolaters to do this that they may destroy them and to confuse to make obscure their religion for them. Had God willed they would not have done so; so leave them and that which they fabricate.

They say ‘These cattle and tillage are sacrosanct forbidden. No one is to eat of them except whom we will’ from among the retainers of the graven images and others — so they assert in other words they have no convincing argument for it — ‘and cattle whose backs have been forbidden and cannot therefore be ridden such as the camels they call Sā’ibas or Hāmīs and cattle over which they do not invoke the Name of God’ when they slaughter them invoking instead the names of their idols ascribing such rules to God; forging lies against Him. He will assuredly requite them for what they used to fabricate against Him.

And they say ‘That which is within the bellies of these forbidden cattle namely the camels they call Sā’ibas or Bahīras is reserved permitted for our males and forbidden to our spouses that is the women; but if it be dead read maytatun or maytatan and the verb as either feminine takun or masculine yakun ‘if it be’ then they all may be partakers thereof’. He God will assuredly requite them for their describing this and that as either permitted or forbidden with the appropriate requital thereof. Surely He is Wise in His actions Knowing of His creatures.

They are losers who slay read qatalū or qattalū their children by burying them alive in folly out of ignorance without knowledge and have forbidden what God has provided them of what has been mentioned in calumny against God. Verily they have gone astray and are not guided.