Tafseer of The Cattle · Al-An'aam · 6:139
And they say, "What is in the bellies of these animals is exclusively for our males and forbidden to our females. But if it is [born] dead, then all of them have shares therein." He will punish them for their description. Indeed, He is Wise and Knowing.
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 مَا فِي بُطُونِ هَذِهِ الأَنْعَامِ خَالِصَةٌ لِذُكُورِنَا وَمُحَرَّمٌ عَلَى أَزْوَاجِنَا وَإِنْ يَكُنْ مَيْتَةً فَهُمْ فِيهِ شُرَكَاءُ ("And they said: What is in the bellies of these cattle is exclusively reserved for our males and forbidden to our wives; but if it is dead, then they all share in it together.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: The exegetes differed concerning what is meant by His word: "What is in the bellies of these cattle."
Some of them said: by it is meant the milk.
* Mention of who said that:
13932 - Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn ʿAṭiyya related to us, saying: Isrāʾīl related to us, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, on the authority of ʿAbdallāh ibn Abī l-Hudhayl, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: وقالوا ما في بطون هذه الأنعام خالصة لذكورنا ("And they said: What is in the bellies of these cattle is exclusively reserved for our males"), he said: the milk.
13933 - Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Yaḥyā related to us, on the authority of Isrāʾīl, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, on the authority of Ibn Abī l-Hudhayl, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, the same.
13934 - Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: وقالوا ما في بطون هذه الأنعام خالصة لذكورنا ومحرم على أزواجنا ("And they said: What is in the bellies of these cattle is exclusively reserved for our males and forbidden to our wives") — the milk of the baḥāʾir (the slit-eared she-camels) was for the men and not for the women, but if the animal was dead, their men and women shared in it together.
13935 - 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: خالصة لذكورنا ومحرم على أزواجنا ("exclusively reserved for our males and forbidden to our wives"), he said: what was in the bellies of the baḥāʾir, that is to say their milk, that they reserved exclusively for the men and not for the women.
13936 - Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus related to us, on the authority of Zakariyyā, on the authority of ʿĀmir, who said: of the milk of the "baḥīra" only the men ate, but if anything of the animal died, the men and the women ate of it.
13937 - Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: وقالوا ما في بطون هذه الأنعام خالصة لذكورنا ("And they said: What is in the bellies of these cattle is exclusively reserved for our males"), the verse — that is the milk; they declared it forbidden to their women, and their men drank it. And when the ewe bore a male young, they slaughtered it, and that was for the men and not for the women. And if it was a female young, it was used as a mount and not slaughtered. And if it was dead, they all shared in it together. Therefore Allah forbade that.
* * *
And others said: no, by it is meant the unborn young that is in the bellies of the baḥāʾir and the sawāʾib (the released she-camels).
* Mention of who said that:
13938 - Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: وقالوا ما في بطون هذه الأنعام خالصة لذكورنا ومحرم على أزواجنا وإن يكن ميتة فهم فيه شركاء ("And they said: What is in the bellies of these cattle is exclusively reserved for our males and forbidden to our wives; but if it is dead, then they all share in it together") — what of these cattle was born alive was exclusively for the men and not for the women. And what was born dead, of that the men and the women ate.
13939 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid: ما في بطون هذه الأنعام خالصة لذكورنا ("What is in the bellies of these cattle is exclusively reserved for our males") — the sāʾiba and the baḥīra.
13940 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, the same.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct of the statements in the explanation of that is that one says: Allah, exalted is His mention, has reported concerning these disbelievers (kuffār) that they said about certain cattle: "What is in the bellies of these cattle is exclusively reserved for our males and not for our women." And the milk is what is in their bellies, and likewise their unborn young. And Allah, in the report about them, did not specify that they said: a part of it is forbidden to them [the women] and another part is not.
And since that is so, it is obligatory to say that they said: what is in the bellies of those cattle of milk and unborn young is permitted to their men — exclusively to them and not to their women, and they thereby gave preference to their men — unless the unborn young in their bellies was dead; then the men and the women shared together in eating it.
* * *
The Arabic linguists differed concerning the reason why "al-khāliṣa" (exclusively reserved) was put in the feminine form.
Some grammarians of Basra and some of the Kufans said: it was made feminine to emphasize the "khulūṣ" (the exclusivity); for when he affirmed that exclusivity for them, it resembled a multitude, and thus it proceeded in the manner of "rāwiya" (much-narrator) and "nassāba" (expert in genealogies).
* * *
And some grammarians of Kufa said: it was made feminine because of the feminine gender of "al-anʿām" (the cattle), for "what is in their bellies" is equivalent to it, so it was made feminine because of its femininity. And whoever makes it masculine does so because of the masculinity of "mā" (what). He said: and in the reading of ʿAbdallāh it is: "khāliṣun" (masculine). He said: and "al-khāliṣa" in its feminine form may also be a verbal noun (maṣdar), as you say: "al-ʿāfiya" (well-being) and "al-ʿāqiba" (the outcome); and it is equivalent to His word: إِنَّا أَخْلَصْنَاهُمْ بِخَالِصَةٍ ("We chose them with a [special] selection") [sūrat Ṣād: 46].
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct statement concerning that, in my view, is that one says: by it is intended the emphasis upon the exclusivity of what is in the bellies of the cattle — which they had declared forbidden, what was in their bellies, to their wives, reserved exclusively for their men and not for their women — as that was done with "al-rāwiya," "al-nassāba" and "al-ʿallāma" when one intends thereby the emphasis in describing someone who possessed such a quality, as one says: "So-and-so is the confidant (khāliṣa) of so-and-so, and his bosom friend (khulṣān)."
* * *
And as for His word: ومحرم على أزواجنا ("and forbidden to our wives") — the exegetes differed concerning what is meant by "al-azwāj" (the wives).
Some of them said: by it the women are meant.
* Mention of who said that:
13941 - 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: ومحرم على أزواجنا ("and forbidden to our wives"), he said: the women.
* * *
And others said: no, by "al-azwāj" the daughters are meant.
* Mention of who said that:
13942 - Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said: ومحرم على أزواجنا ("and forbidden to our wives"), he said: "al-azwāj" are the daughters. And they said: the daughters have no share in it.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct statement concerning that is that one says: Allah has reported concerning these polytheists (mushrikīn) that they said about what was in the bellies of these cattle — that is to say their cattle: "This is forbidden to our wives." And "al-azwāj" in their usage are nothing other than their women, and these are without doubt daughters of those whose parents they are, and wives of those whose husbands they are.
And in Allah's, mighty and exalted, word: ومحرم على أزواجنا ("and forbidden to our wives") lies the clear proof that the making feminine of "al-khāliṣa" was on account of what I have described concerning the emphasis in describing what is in the bellies of the cattle as exclusive to the men. For had it been on account of the femininity of "al-anʿām," it would have been said: "wa-muḥarrama ʿalā azwājinā" (in the feminine form). But because the feminine form in "al-khāliṣa" was for the reason mentioned, and one then did not intend with "al-muḥarram" the emphasis that one intended with "al-khāliṣa," one returned therein to the masculine form of "mā" and used what was most fitting for its description.
* * *
And as for His word: وإن يكن ميتة فهم فيه شركاء ("but if it is dead, then they all share in it together") — the reciters differed concerning the reading of it.
Yazīd ibn al-Qaʿqāʿ, Ṭalḥa ibn Muṣarrif and others read it as: "wa-in takun maytatun" with a tāʾ in "takun" and the nominative (rafʿ) in "maytatun," except that Yazīd doubled the yāʾ in "mayyitatun," while Ṭalḥa lightened it (without doubling).
13943 - That al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Ḥammād related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ṭalḥa ibn Muṣarrif.
13944 - And Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf related to us, on the authority of al-Qāsim and Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar, on the authority of Yazīd.
* * *
And some reciters of Medina, Kufa and Basra read it as: وإن يكن ميتة ("but if it is dead") with a yāʾ, and "maytatan" in the accusative (naṣb), with lightening of the yāʾ.
* * *
It is as if whoever read: وإن يكن ("but if it is") with a yāʾ, and ميتة ("dead") in the accusative, meant: and if what is in the bellies of those cattle [is dead] — so he used "yakun" (masculine) because of the masculinity of "mā," and put "al-mayta" in the accusative because it is the predicate of "yakun."
And whoever read it: "wa-in takun maytatun," that one meant — if Allah wills — : and if what is in their bellies is dead, so he made "takun" feminine because of the femininity of "maytatun."
* * *
And His word: فهم فيه شركاء ("then they all share in it together") — that means that the men and their wives share together in eating it, and they declare it forbidden to none of them, as we have mentioned from those whom we have previously transmitted among the exegetes.
* * *
And Ibn Zayd said concerning that what follows:
13945 - Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said: وإن يكن ميتة فهم فيه شركاء ("but if it is dead, then they all share in it together"), he said: the women eat together with the men; if what comes out of their bellies is dead, then they all share in it together. And they said: if we wish, we give the daughters a share in it, and if we wish, we do not give that.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: The obvious meaning of the recitation is other than what Ibn Zayd explained, for its obvious meaning indicates that they said: "If what is in their bellies is dead, then we all share in it together" — without the condition of will. And Ibn Zayd claimed that they left that to their will.
* * *
The explanation of His word: سَيَجْزِيهِمْ وَصْفَهُمْ إِنَّهُ حَكِيمٌ عَلِيمٌ ("He will requite them for their describing; verily, He is All-Wise, All-Knowing") (139)
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted is His praise, says: "He will requite," that is to say: He will reward and requite these people who fabricate the lie against Him, for forbidding what Allah has not forbidden, and permitting what Allah has not permitted, and ascribing their lie therein to Allah. And His word: وصفهم ("their describing") — by it He means by "their describing" the lie against Allah, and that is as He, exalted is His praise, said in another place in His Book: وَتَصِفُ أَلْسِنَتُهُمُ الْكَذِبَ ("and their tongues describe the lie") [sūrat al-Naḥl: 62].
* * *
And "al-waṣf" (the describing) and "al-ṣifa" (the description/quality) are in the usage of the Arabs one and the same, and they are both verbal nouns (maṣdar), like "al-wazn" and "al-zina" (the weighing / the weight).
* * *
And in agreement with what we have said concerning the meaning of "al-waṣf," the exegetes have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
13946 - 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 concerning His word: سيجزيهم وصفهم ("He will requite them for their describing"), he said: their utterance of the lie therein.
13947 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, the same.
13948 - Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Ibn Numayr related to us, on the authority of Abū Jaʿfar al-Rāzī, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas, on the authority of Abū l-ʿĀliya: سيجزيهم وصفهم ("He will requite them for their describing"), he said: their lie.
13949 - Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: سيجزيهم وصفهم ("He will requite them for their describing"), that is to say: their lie.
And as for His word: إنه حكيم عليم ("verily, He is All-Wise, All-Knowing") — He, exalted is His praise, says: Allah is, in requiting them for their describing with the lie and their false utterance about Him, "All-Wise" (ḥakīm) in all His governance over His creation, "All-Knowing" (ʿalīm) of what is for their welfare and of all else of their affairs.
