Tafseer of The Cattle · Al-An'aam · 6:138
And they say, "These animals and crops are forbidden; no one may eat from them except whom we will," by their claim. And there are those [camels] whose backs are forbidden [by them] and those upon which the name of Allah is not mentioned - [all of this] an invention of untruth about Him. He will punish them for what they were inventing.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of His word: وَقَالُوا هَذِهِ أَنْعَامٌ وَحَرْثٌ حِجْرٌ لا يَطْعَمُهَا إِلا مَنْ نَشَاءُ بِزَعْمِهِمْ ("And they said: 'This is cattle and crops that are forbidden (ḥijr); none may eat of them except whom we will,' according to their claim.") (6:138)
Abū Jaʿfar said: This is a report from Allah — exalted be His mention — concerning these ignorant ones among the polytheists (mushrikīn), namely that they, of their own accord, declared things forbidden and permitted, without Allah having permitted them anything of that at all.
He — exalted be His mention — says: These polytheists, who set up others as equals to their Lord, said out of ignorance concerning their cattle and crops: this is cattle and this is forbidden (ḥijr) crops — by which is meant the "cattle" and the "crops" that they had designated for Allah and for their idols, which was already mentioned in the verse before this verse.
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It is said: that the "cattle" are the sāʾiba, the waṣīla, and the baḥīra, which they named thus. (1)
13914 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related this to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: the "cattle" are the sāʾiba and the baḥīra which they named thus.
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And the word "al-ḥijr" means in the language of the Arabs: the forbidden thing. One says: "ḥajartu ʿalā fulān kadhā," that is to say: I forbade him such-and-such. To this also belongs the word of Allah: وَيَقُولُونَ حِجْرًا مَحْجُورًا ("And they say: 'A barrier impassable,'") [Sūrah al-Furqān: 22]. To this also belongs the word of al-Mutalammis:
"She longed for the furthest palm-tree, and I said to her: forbidden, unlawful! For yonder lie the calamities." (3)
And the word of Ruʾba — [al-ʿAjjāj]: (4)
"And the neighbour-woman of the house holds for me something inviolable (ḥujriyy)" (5)
— by which the forbidden thing is meant. To this also belongs the word of another: (6)
"Thus I passed the night, leaning upon my elbow, with wakeful eye, as though my sleep were forbidden to me that night." (7)
— that is to say: forbidden. One says both "ḥijr" and "ḥujr," with a kasra or a ḍamma on the ḥāʾ.
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And with the ḍamma on it, according to what has been transmitted, al-Ḥasan and Qatāda read it. (8)
13915 — ʿAbd al-Wārith ibn ʿAbd al-Ṣamad related to me, saying: my father related to me [he said: my uncle related to me], saying: my father related to me, on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, on the authority of Qatāda, that he read it as: "wa-ḥarthun ḥujrun," whereby he says: forbidden, with a ḍamma on the ḥāʾ. (9)
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As for the reciters of the Ḥijāz, of Iraq, and of Syria: they read it with the kasra. And that is the reading from which I do not deem any deviation permissible, on account of the unanimity of the authoritative reciters upon it, and because it is the most excellent (al-jūdā) of the languages of the Arabs. (10)
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And from Ibn ʿAbbās it is transmitted that he read it as: "wa-ḥarthun ḥirjun," with the rāʾ before the jīm.
13916 — al-Ḥārith related this to me, saying: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUyayna related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: that he read it thus.
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And that is a third linguistic form, the meaning of which is one with the meaning of "al-ḥijr." This is like their saying: "jadhaba" and "jabadha" (to pull), and "nāʾa" and "naʾā" (to move away).
So there are in the word "al-ḥijr" three linguistic forms: "ḥijr" with a kasra on the ḥāʾ and the jīm before the rāʾ; "ḥujr" with a ḍamma on the ḥāʾ and the jīm before the rāʾ; and "ḥirj" with a kasra on the ḥāʾ and the rāʾ before the jīm.
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And in agreement with what we have said about the explanation of "al-ḥijr" spoke also the people of interpretation (the exegetes).
* Mention of who said that:
13917 — ʿImrān ibn Mūsā al-Qazzāz related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-Wārith related to us, on the authority of Ḥumayd, on the authority of Mujāhid and Abū ʿAmr: (wa-ḥarthun ḥijr), he says: forbidden.
13918 — al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning his word: (wa-ḥarthun ḥijr): the ḥijr is what they declared forbidden of the waṣīla, and the prohibition of what they declared forbidden.
13919 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: (wa-ḥarthun ḥijr), he said: forbidden.
13920 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning his word: (hādhihi anʿāmun wa-ḥarthun ḥijr), the verse: it was a prohibition imposed upon them by the devils concerning their possessions, an aggravation and a tightening. And that came from the devils, and it did not come from Allah.
13921 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: as for his word: (wa-qālū hādhihi anʿāmun wa-ḥarthun ḥijr), they say: it is forbidden that we give any of it to anyone to eat, except whom we will.
13922 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning his word: (hādhihi anʿāmun wa-ḥarthun ḥijr): we keep it inaccessible (naḥtajiruhā) for whom we will and bar it from whom we will; none may eat of it except whom we will, according to their claim. He said: they kept that inaccessible only for their idols, and they said: (none may eat of it except whom we will, according to their claim), they said: we keep it inaccessible for the women, and designate it for the men.
13923 — It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, saying: I heard Abū Muʿādh say, saying: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān related to us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning his word: (anʿāmun wa-ḥarthun ḥijr): as for "ḥijr," he says: forbidden. And that is because in the time of ignorance (jāhiliyya) they did things that Allah had not commanded: they declared certain of their animals forbidden and did not eat them, and they set aside from their crops a fixed portion for their idols, and they said: what we have designated for our idols is not permitted to us.
13924 — al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid: (anʿāmun wa-ḥarthun ḥijr): what they had designated for Allah and for their associate-partners (shurakāʾ).
13925 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, something similar.
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The explanation of His word: وَأَنْعَامٌ حُرِّمَتْ ظُهُورُهَا وَأَنْعَامٌ لا يَذْكُرُونَ اسْمَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْهَا افْتِرَاءً عَلَيْهِ سَيَجْزِيهِمْ بِمَا كَانُوا يَفْتَرُونَ ("And cattle whose backs are forbidden, and cattle over which they do not pronounce the name of Allah, as a fabrication against Him. He will requite them for what they used to fabricate.") (138)
Abū Jaʿfar said: He — exalted be His mention — says: These ignorant ones among the polytheists declared the backs of a portion of their cattle forbidden, so that they did not ride upon their backs, while they did derive benefit from their milk, their offspring, and all other things from them, except from their backs for riding. (11) And of their cattle they declared other cattle forbidden, so that they did not perform the ḥajj-pilgrimage upon them, nor did they pronounce the name of Allah over them — neither when they rode upon them in any state whatsoever, nor when they milked them, nor when they loaded burdens upon them.
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And in agreement with what we have said about that spoke also the people of interpretation.
* Mention of who said that:
13926 — Sufyān related to us, saying: Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh related to us, on the authority of ʿĀṣim, saying: Abū Wāʾil said to me: do you know what "cattle over which they do not pronounce the name of Allah" is? He said: I said: no! He said: it is cattle upon which they do not perform the ḥajj.
13927 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād ibn Mūsā related to us, saying: Shādhān related to us, saying: Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh related to us, on the authority of ʿĀṣim, saying: Abū Wāʾil said to me: do you know what His word means: (ḥurrimat ẓuhūruhā wa-anʿāmun lā yadhkurūna ism Allāh ʿalayhā)? He said: I said: no! He said: it is the baḥīra; upon them they did not perform the ḥajj. (12)
13928 — Aḥmad ibn ʿAmr al-Baṣrī related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd al-Shahīd related to us, saying: Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh related to us, on the authority of ʿĀṣim, on the authority of Abū Wāʾil: (wa-anʿāmun lā yadhkurūna ism Allāh ʿalayhā), he said: upon them they did not perform the ḥajj. (13)
13929 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: as for (anʿāmun ḥurrimat ẓuhūruhā), those are the baḥīra, the sāʾiba, and the ḥām. And as for "the cattle over which they do not pronounce the name of Allah," he said: neither when they had them give birth, [(14)] nor when they slaughtered them.
13930 — al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning his word: (wa-anʿāmun lā yadhkurūna ism Allāh ʿalayhā), he said: there was among their camels a group over which they did not pronounce the name of Allah, in no matter concerning them: neither when they rode upon them, nor when they milked them, nor when they loaded burdens upon them, nor when they gave them as a gift, nor when they did any work with them.
13931 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning his word: (wa-anʿāmun ḥurrimat ẓuhūruhā), he said: no one rode upon them; (wa-anʿāmun lā yadhkurūna ism Allāh ʿalayhā).
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As for His word: (iftirāʾan ʿalā Allāh — as a fabrication against Allah): He says: these polytheists did what they did in forbidding what they declared forbidden, and said what they said about it, as a lie against Allah and a slanderous fabrication of falsehood against Him; for they attributed what they declared forbidden of those things — in accordance with what He — exalted be His praise — has described concerning them in His Book — to Allah, as though it were He who had forbidden it. Thereupon Allah repudiated that from Himself, declared them liars, and informed His Prophet ﷺ and the believers that they are liars in what they claim. (15)
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Then He — mighty be His mention — said: (sa-yajzīhim — He will requite them), He says: their Lord will requite them for what they used to fabricate as a lie against Allah with their deserved requital, and will mete out to them for that their deserved recompense. (16)
