Tafseer of The Cattle · Al-An'aam · 6:140
Those will have lost who killed their children in foolishness without knowledge and prohibited what Allah had provided for them, inventing untruth about Allah. They have gone astray and were not [rightly] guided.
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 statement concerning the interpretation of His word: Waarlijk verloren zijn zij die hun kinderen doodden uit dwaasheid, zonder kennis, en die verboden hebben wat Allah hun aan levensonderhoud schonk, als verzinsel tegen Allah. Zij zijn waarlijk afgedwaald en zij waren niet rechtgeleid (6:140).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, says: Truly ruined are these fabricators of the lie against their Lord, those who ascribe to Him the idols and the false deities as equals, for whom their associate-partners have made fair-seeming the killing of their children and the forbidding of [that with which I bestowed My favor upon them] of their possessions. So they killed their children in obedience to those associate-partners, and forbade what Allah had declared permissible for them and had made a means of livelihood for them from their cattle, out of foolishness on their part. He says: They did what they did of that out of ignorance on their part regarding what is to their benefit and to their harm, and out of a lack of intelligence, weakness of judgment on their part, and slightness of understanding concerning its near harm and its future terror, in the form of the tremendous chastisement of Allah for that upon them. As a fabrication against Allah, He says: as a lie against Allah and the fabrication of falsehood against Him. They are truly astray, He says: They have abandoned the right course of the truth in their performing of that, and have deviated from the straight path. And they were not rightly guided, He says: And those who performed that were not upon guidance and rectitude in their deeds which they performed before that, nor were they rightly guided to what is correct therein, nor successful.
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This verse was revealed concerning those whose account Allah has mentioned in these verses, from His word: And they assigned to Allah a share of what He has produced of crops and cattle — those who slit the ears of the baḥāʾir, set loose the sawāʾib, and buried their infant daughters alive. As:
13950 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, who said: ʿIkrima said concerning His word: Those who killed their children out of foolishness, without knowledge, he said: It was revealed concerning those who buried their infant daughters alive among Rabīʿa and Muḍar. The man would stipulate to his wife that she keep one girl alive and bury the other alive. When the girl whom she was to bury [was born], the man would go away or return from his wife, and would say to her: "You are to me as the back of my mother, if I return to you and you have not buried her." Then she would dig a hole in the earth for the child, and send for her women who would gather around her, and they would pass the child from one to another, until she saw him (the man) returning, whereupon she would push it into its pit and then smooth the earth over it.
13951 — 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: Then He mentioned what they did with their children and their possessions, and said: Truly lost are those who killed their children out of foolishness, without knowledge, and who forbade what Allah granted them as livelihood.
13952 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: Truly lost are those who killed their children out of foolishness, without knowledge, whereupon he said: This is the doing of the people of the Jāhiliyya (the age of ignorance). One of them would kill his daughter out of fear of captivity and poverty, while he fed his dog. And His word: and who forbade what Allah granted them as livelihood, the verse — these are the people of the Jāhiliyya. They made a baḥīra, a sāʾiba, a waṣīla and a ḥāmī, as an arbitrary ordinance of the devils over their possessions.
13953 — Al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, saying: If it pleases you to know the ignorance of the Arabs, then read what comes after the hundredth verse of Sūrat al-Anʿām, His word: Truly lost are those who killed their children out of foolishness, without knowledge, the verse.
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Abū Razīn interpreted His word They are truly astray thus: that what is meant by it is: They went astray before these deeds — the killing of the children and the forbidding of the livelihood that Allah granted them — through matters other than that.
13954 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Abū Razīn, concerning His word: Truly lost are those who killed their children, up to His word: They are truly astray, he said: They had already gone astray before that.