Tafseer of The Cattle · Al-An'aam · 6:145
Say, "I do not find within that which was revealed to me [anything] forbidden to one who would eat it unless it be a dead animal or blood spilled out or the flesh of swine - for indeed, it is impure - or it be [that slaughtered in] disobedience, dedicated to other than Allah. But whoever is forced [by necessity], neither desiring [it] nor transgressing [its limit], then indeed, your Lord is Forgiving and Merciful."
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 the saying of Allah, the Exalted: قُلْ لا أَجِدُ فِي مَا أُوحِيَ إِلَيَّ مُحَرَّمًا عَلَى طَاعِمٍ يَطْعَمُهُ إِلا أَنْ يَكُونَ مَيْتَةً أَوْ دَمًا مَسْفُوحًا أَوْ لَحْمَ خِنْزِيرٍ فَإِنَّهُ رِجْسٌ أَوْ فِسْقًا أُهِلَّ لِغَيْرِ اللَّهِ بِهِ ("Say: I do not find in what has been revealed to me anything forbidden for someone who eats it, except that it be a carcass, or shed blood, or the flesh of swine — for that is an abomination — or something depraved (fisq) over which something other than the name of Allah has been pronounced.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, whose praise is exalted, says to His Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: say, O Muḥammad (ﷺ), to those who have assigned to Allah a share of what He has brought forth of crops and cattle, and likewise to their associate-partners among the gods and false equals — and who say "this is cattle and tillage that is forbidden; none eats of it except whom we will," as they allege — and who have declared the backs of other cattle forbidden — and who do not pronounce the name of Allah over yet other cattle — and who have forbidden a part of what is in the bellies of some of their cattle to their females and their wives but permitted it to their males — those who have declared forbidden what Allah has bestowed upon them of food, as a fabrication against Allah, and who attribute to Allah what they forbid of that by alleging that it is He who forbade it to them —: has a messenger from Allah come to you with the prohibition of that for you, then inform us of that; or did Allah charge you with the prohibition of it while you yourselves witnessed it personally, so that you heard from Him the prohibition of it for you and therefore forbade it? Indeed you are liars if you allege that, and you cannot substantiate that claim, for if you were to allege it, the people would know your lie. For I do not find in what has been revealed to me of His Book and the signs of His sending-down anything that is forbidden for someone who eats it, of that which you allege He has forbidden of this cattle, of which you describe the prohibition of what — by your allegation — is forbidden of it — "except that it be a carcass," that which has died without ritual slaughter — "or shed blood," that is, the poured-out blood — or except that it be the flesh of swine — (for that is an abomination — or something depraved), He says: or except that it be something depraved (fisq), meaning thereby: or except that it be slaughtered, slaughtered by a slaughterer among the polytheists of the idol-worshippers for his idol-image and his gods, over which he has pronounced the name of his idol. Indeed, that slaughter is a depravity (fisq) which Allah has forbidden and denied, and He has forbidden the one who believes in Him to eat of what is slaughtered thus, for it is a carcass.
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This is a proclamation from Allah, whose praise is exalted, to the polytheists (mushrikīn) who disputed with the Prophet of Allah and his companions over the prohibition of the carcass with the arguments by which they contended against them: namely, that the very thing over which they contended against them in this matter is precisely the forbidden thing that Allah has forbidden, and that the thing which they alleged Allah had forbidden is permitted — Allah has permitted it — and that they are liars in attributing that prohibition to Allah.
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And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, the exegetes (ahl al-taʾwīl) have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
14079 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Ibn Ṭāwūs, on the authority of his father concerning His saying: (say: I do not find in what has been revealed to me anything forbidden), he said: the people of the Jāhilīya forbade some things and declared other things permitted, whereupon He said: say: I do not find of what you used to forbid and to permit anything except this: (except that it be a carcass, or shed blood, or the flesh of swine — for that is an abomination — or something depraved over which something other than the name of Allah has been pronounced).
14080 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Suwayd related to us, saying: Ibn al-Mubārak informed us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Ibn Ṭāwūs, on the authority of his father concerning His saying: (say: I do not find in what has been revealed to me anything forbidden) — the verse —, he said: the people of the Jāhilīya declared some things permitted and forbade other things, whereupon Allah said to His Prophet: say: I do not find in what has been revealed to me anything forbidden of what you used to declare permitted except this. And there were things which they forbade, and those are now forbidden.
14081 — 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 Ibn Ṭāwūs, on the authority of his father: (say: I do not find in what has been revealed to me anything forbidden for someone who eats it), he said: what is eaten. I asked: in the Jāhilīya? He said: yes! And thus he used to say: (except that it be a carcass, or shed blood). Ibn Jurayj said: and Ibrāhīm ibn Abī Bakr informed me, on the authority of Mujāhid: (say: I do not find in what has been revealed to me anything forbidden), he said: of what they used to eat in the Jāhilīya, I do not find of that anything forbidden for someone who eats it except that it be a carcass or shed blood.
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As for His saying: (or shed blood), the meaning of it is: or flowing, poured-out blood. One says of this: "I shed his blood (safaḥtu damahu)" when one pours it out, "asfaḥuhu safḥan," and it is then "shed blood (dam masfūḥ)," as Ṭarafa ibn al-ʿAbd said:
Indeed — by your grandfather — I did not revile you, and by the sacrificial stones upon which blood is shed.
And as ʿAbīd ibn al-Abraṣ said:
When women of hers visited him, they shed the tears after the wailing.
That is to say: they poured out the tears and let them flow.
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And in the fact that He, whose praise is exalted, when proclaiming to His servants His prohibition of blood, attached to it the condition that it be shed and not otherwise, lies the clear proof that what of it is not shed is permitted and not impure. That is like the following:
14082 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Ibn ʿUyayna related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr, on the authority of ʿIkrima: (or shed blood), he said: were this verse not present, the Muslims would pursue the veins as the Jews pursued them.
14083 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Ibn ʿUyayna informed us, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, on the authority of ʿIkrima in like manner — except that he said: then the Muslims would pursue [it].
14084 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Suwayd related to us, saying: Ibn al-Mubārak informed us, on the authority of Ibn ʿUyayna, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, on the authority of ʿIkrima, in like manner.
14085 — Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ informed us, on the authority of ʿImrān ibn Ḥudayr, on the authority of Abū Mijlaz, concerning the cooking-pot upon which the redness of the blood appears. He said: Allah has forbidden only the shed blood.
14086 — Al-Muthannā related to us, saying: al-Ḥajjāj ibn al-Minhāl related to us, saying: Ḥammād related to us, on the authority of ʿImrān ibn Ḥudayr, on the authority of Abū Mijlaz, he said: I asked him about the blood and what gets smeared from the neck at the place of slaughter, and about the cooking-pot in which one sees the redness. He said: Allah has forbidden only the shed blood.
14087 — 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: (or shed blood), he said: forbidden is the blood that is shed; but meat with which blood is mingled, there is no objection to that.
14088 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya ibn Ṣāliḥ related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās concerning His saying: (say: I do not find in what has been revealed to me anything forbidden for someone who eats it, except that it be a carcass, or shed blood), that is to say: poured out.
14089 — 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: Ibn Dīnār informed me, on the authority of ʿIkrima: (or shed blood), he said: were this verse not present, the Muslims would pursue the veins of the meat as the Jews pursue them.
14090 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: al-Ḥajjāj ibn al-Minhāl related to us, saying: Ḥammād related to us, on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, on the authority of al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha: that she saw no objection in the flesh of beasts of prey, nor objection in the redness and the blood that were on the cooking-pot, and she recited this verse: (say: I do not find in what has been revealed to me anything forbidden for someone who eats it) ... the verse.
14091 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Suwayd related to us, saying: Ibn al-Mubārak informed us, on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, saying: al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad related to me, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha, she said, while she mentioned this verse: (or shed blood), I said: even if one sees in the water of the cooking-pot [something] of the yellow color.
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And we have already expounded the meaning of "al-rijs" (the abomination) in what has preceded of this book of ours, namely that it is the impurity and the stench, and that by which Allah is disobeyed, with the proofs for that; which makes repetition of it in this place superfluous.
The same applies to the discourse on the meaning of "al-fisq" (the depravity). And as for His saying: (over which something other than the name of Allah has been pronounced), all of that has already passed with the sufficient proofs for whoever is graced to understand it, so that it does not need to be repeated and given anew.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: and the readers differed in the reading of His saying: (except that it be a carcass (mayta)).
Some readers of the people of Medina, Kūfa, and Baṣra read it as (إِلا أَنْ يَكُونَ) with the yāʾ, (مَيْتَةً) with the lightened yāʾ and in the accusative — on the grounds that in "yakūn" there is an unnamed subject, and "al-mayta" is its predicate, so that it is placed in the accusative because it is the predicate of "yakūn"; and they gave "yakūn" the masculine form on account of the masculine concealed pronoun in "yakūn."
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And some readers of the people of Mecca and Kūfa read it: (إلا أَنْ تَكُونَ) with the tāʾ, (مَيْتَةً) with the lightened yāʾ in "al-mayta" and in the accusative — and it is as though the sense of their accusative of "al-mayta" is the sense of the first ones; they gave "takūn" the feminine form on account of the femininity of "al-mayta," as one says: "indeed, she stands upright, your maidservant," and "indeed, he stands upright, your maidservant," whereby the unnamed subject is made masculine one time and feminine another time, on account of the femininity of the noun that follows it.
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And some Medinans read it: (إلا أَنْ تَكُونَ مَيِّتَةٌ) with the tāʾ in "takūn," with doubling of the yāʾ in "mayyita" and in the nominative — whereby "al-mayta" was made the subject (ism) of "takūn," and "takūn" took the feminine form on account of the femininity of "al-mayta"; and "takūn" was deemed satisfied with the noun without a predicate, because His saying "except that it be a carcass" is an exception, and the Arabs content themselves in the exception with the nouns without the verbs. Thus they say: "the people stood up, except that it be your brother (illā an yakūna akhāka)" and "except that it be your brother (illā an yakūna akhūka)," whereby one does not give "yakūn" a verb [as predicate] and makes it self-sufficient with the noun, as one says: "the people stood up, except your brother (illā akhāka)" and "except your brother (illā akhūka)," whereby one does not require of the noun that comes after the exceptive particle a verb [as predicate].
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Abū Jaʿfar said: and the correct reading of it, in my judgment, is: (إِلا أَنْ يَكُونَ) with the yāʾ, (مَيْتَةً) with the lightened yāʾ and with the accusative of "al-mayta," because the concealed [pronoun] in "yakūn" is a reference to the masculine — and it is only: say: I do not find in what has been revealed to me anything forbidden for someone who eats it, except that it [namely the eaten thing] be a carcass, or shed blood.
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As for the reading "mayta" in the nominative: even though that is not incorrect in Arabic, it is nonetheless not correct in the reading in this place. For Allah says: (or shed blood), and there is no disagreement among all concerning the reading of "the blood (al-dam)" in the accusative, and thus it stands also in the muṣḥafs of the Muslims, and it is connected to "al-mayta." Since that is so, it is known that if "al-mayta" stood in the nominative, "al-dam" and His saying "or something depraved (aw fisqan)" would likewise stand in the nominative; but it stands in the accusative, and those two are connected to it with the accusative.
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The explanation of the saying of Allah, the Exalted: فَمَنِ اضْطُرَّ غَيْرَ بَاغٍ وَلا عَادٍ فَإِنَّ رَبَّكَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ (145) ("but whoever is compelled, without craving and without transgression — indeed, your Lord is forgiving, merciful.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: we have already mentioned the disagreement of the exegetes over the explanation of His saying: (but whoever is compelled, without craving and without transgression), and the correct view concerning it with us has already been mentioned in what has preceded of this book of ours, in Sūrat al-Baqarah, in a manner that makes repetition of it in this place superfluous. The meaning of it is: but whoever is compelled to eat of what Allah has forbidden, namely the eating of the carcass, the shed blood, the flesh of swine, or that over which something other than the name of Allah has been pronounced — without being covetous in his eating of it out of indulgence and not out of the necessity of a state of hunger, and without transgressing in his eating by overstepping the limit that Allah has set and permitted him — namely that he eats of it what wards off the fear for his life through abstaining from eating, for preservation against perishing, without transgressing beyond that to more — then there is no blame upon him in his eating of what he has eaten of it. (indeed, Allah is forgiving) regarding what he has done of that, and covers it for him by withholding His punishment for it, even though, if He willed, He could punish him for it. (merciful) by permitting him to eat of it in his need for it, even though, if He willed, He could forbid it to him and withhold him from it.