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’).

Your Lord is Independent, of His creatures and their worship, the Lord of Mercy. If He will, He can remove you, O people of Mecca, by destroying you, and leave whom He will, of creatures, to succeed after you, just as He produced you from the seed of another folk, [whom] He removed; but He has spared you, as a mercy to you.

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.