Surah Al-An'am 6:130-140 - Quran Translation Commentary

130. “O You assembly of Jinns and men! Did there not come to you messengers from amongst you²⁴¹ who recounted to you my revelations, and warned you of the meeting of this Day?” They will say: “We bear witness against ourselves.” In fact, the life of this world deceived them, and they will testify against themselves that they were disbelievers.

131. This is because your Lord would not destroy townships unjustly while their residents were unwarned.²⁴²

132. And for all there are ranks according to their deeds,²⁴³ and your Lord is not unaware of what they do.

133. And your Lord is Self-sufficient, Merciful. If He will, He can take you away and appoint in your place whom He will, just as He raised you from the offsprings of other people.²⁴⁴

134. Verily, what is promised to you will surely come,²⁴⁵ and you cannot escape.

135. Say: “O my people !²⁴⁶ Act in your way, I am acting in my way. Soon will you know whose end will be happy in the Hereafter. Verily , the wrong-doers will never succeed.

136. And they set aside a share for Allah from the crops and the cattle, created by Allah, saying: ‘This is for Allah’– according to their fancies – ’and this for our associated gods., Then the share of their associated gods never reaches Allah, but the share of Allah can reach their associated gods. Evil is the decision that they take !²⁴⁷

137. And thus the partners (of Allah ), fancied by them made the killing of their children seem to be alluring²⁴⁸ to many of the idolaters so that they may ruin them²⁴⁹ and may cause confusion in their faith.²⁵⁰ Had Allah willed it (otherwise), they would not have done so. So leave them to their false inventions.

138. And they say: “These animals and these crops are forbidden. None may eat of them save those whom we may allow.”– This they have done according to their fancy.²⁵¹–And there are cattle forbidden to yoke or burden, and cattle on which the name of Allah is not pronounced (when slaughtering);–All these are false inventions ascribed to Him.²⁵²–‘Soon will Allah punish them for invented lies.

139. And they say: “That which is in the womb of such and such (alive) cattle is reserved for our men and is forbidden to our wives; and if it is stillborn, then all have shares therein.²⁵³” Soon will Allah punish them for that which they impute to Him. Verily Allah is wise, All- knowing.²⁵⁴

140. Lost are those who in their ignorance have wantonly slain their children and made unlawful what Allah has given them, inventing falsehood about Allah. They went astray and did not become guided ones.

Commentary

241. This will be addressed to the combined group of men and jinns. Therefore, the meaning of the words: “Did there not come to you messengers from amongst you” –(the reality is known to Allah only)–is that though the messengers were from the human race, but they were sent for both the races of men and jinns, because the jinns are subordinate to men in this matter. This contention is supported by various verses in the Quran, e.g. the statement of the jinns: “We heard that Book which was revealed after Moosa,” (Al-Ahqaf-30), the jinns’ being subordinate to prophet Sulaiman (An- Naml-17), their hearing Quran and believing in it (Surah Jinn). There is no mention either in Quran or in the authentic Ahadith that any messengers from amongst the jinns were sent for the jinns. However, some commentators have opined otherwise, but they are in a poor minority.

242. That is: The Messengers were sent so that Allah’s message may by communicated to the people. If even after this the people do not improve, then they themselves will be responsible for their own destruction. It is not Allah’s method that without communicating his message to the people, He may destroy them without justice, when the people are not aware of the right path.

243. That is: The success or failure will be according to the nature and degree of goodness or otherwise of the acts.

244. Men should not think that Allah is dependent on them, that if they do not exist in His kingdom, there will be any kind of deficiency. He is Self-sufficient and free from all wants, and it is His mercy that inspite of men’s evil deeds He is giving them respite to improve. He can bring in other peoples and other nations by destroying this generation. Its telling example is your own national existence which has come down from the human race. One group goes and another takes its place. Therefore, no one should feel proud for one’s national existence. People should realise that the Being who has brought them into existence can, with just one move, remove them from the face of the earth.

245. That is: The Day of Resurrection when everyone will have to appear before God.

246. The nation or the people in whom a prophet is born are addressed by him as ‘My people’, which reflects his concern for them, his human sympathy and nearness to them. On such occasions the words ‘My nation’ are used to mean simply ‘O my people.’ Therefore, to consider these words to refer to the terminology’ nationalism’ and to argue in favour of the religious or political nationalism would be wrong.

247. Charity was an important part of the idolaters’ shariah. which they had invented for performing their religious rites. For this purpose they used to set aside a share of their produce and animals, as fixed by them, for God. The share fixed for God was distributed among the beggars, while the presents offered to the idols used to be received by the professional worshippers and purohits. If due to some accident the share set aside for the idols were to become less, they used to make it good by providing from the share of God. But the deficiency in God’s share was not made good by providing from the share of the idols, that is, in their eyes the right of the idols had precedence over the right of God. This method of theirs was polytheistic as well as foolish. How could their deities, the product of their imagination, get a share from the produce created by God? And then, who had given them this right of making religious laws? And how arbitrary was this distribution!

This is an example of the polytheists of Makkah. Such examples of ignorance can be seen in the case of other idolaters and polytheists also, and what is happening in the Muslim families in the name of nazr and niyaz is also due to this wrong mentality, and it has been made popular among the Muslims by labelling the “sage -worship”, “saint-worship” and “grave-worship” with the beautiful label of Islam.

248. That is: As the Satans have inspired them to set aside a portion of their produce, etc., as offerings for their deities, in the same way they have induced their votaries to sacrifice their children as an offering to them.

In the verse the partners refer to the devils at whose bidding the idolaters indulge into every kind of improper activity, to such an extent that they do not hesitate even to kill their children. They put this thought in their minds that to escape the wrath of a particular jinn or devi they would have to offer the sacrifice of their child. Among the Arabs along with the custom of burying their daughters alive in the graves under the influence of the devils, there was the custom of men pledging to sacrifice one child for the deity if they got a particular number of children. Accordingly, there is this incident reported in the Seerat Ibn Ishaq that Abdul Muttalib had pledged before the idol of Hubal in a similar fashion, and when he got many children he was about to sacrifice his son, Abdullah, who was the father of the last prophet (P.b.u.h.); but when Quraish restrained him and he agreed to pay compensation, and in this way the life of Abdullah was saved. (Seeratun-Nabi, by Ibn Hasham,Vol. I. page 166). Even today such tragic incidents take place. Superstitious people kill innocent children either to propitiate a particular jinn or devi, or to avert some disaster or in connection with black magic, etc. They are prepared to commit. this barbaric act because the devil gives it a religious colour or interprets it in an alluring manner to make this act seem desirable.

These satans are called partners (shuraka) because the idolaters worship them, under their false beliefs, with the same zeal with which Allah should be worshipped. Under their influence they do not hesitate in committing the greatest crime like sacrificing children or burying children alive.

249. What else would be the result of killing children except that man may be deprived of the blessed gift like children and may become liable for receiving the wrath of God.

250. The religion which the polytheists of Makkah had inherited was the religion of prophets Ibrahim and Ismail, that is Islam. But being misguided by the devils they introduced various kinds of innovations (bid’at) in their faith, with the result that the religion of Allah did not exist in its original form, but mixed up with false practices.

And of the cattle He created some for burden and some of low height. Eat what Allah has provided for you, and follow not the footsteps of Satan, for he is an open foe to you. (Al-Quran)

251. The Arab idolaters practised certain customary rites concerning the presents and offerings made to their deities, while other rites were born out of their superstitions. They had made a rule about the share of the produce which they used to set aside for their deities, as to which persons could eat and which could not. There was a similar rule about the flesh of the animal, the details about which are given in the following verses. These were mere products of imagination, which had no connection whatsoever with the religion of Allah. This point makes this principle clear that all the rites and customs that have been given religious or Shariah colour unauthorizedly are rejectable, when they are not supported by the divine Shariah.

252. That is: These things are self-invented, but by giving them a religious colour they are being followed in such a way that the people may believe that these belong to Allah’s Shariah.

253. The offspring of some cattle was lawful for men if born alive, that is they could eat of its flesh, but its flesh was forbidden to women. But if the offspring were to be still-born, then both men and women could eat of its flesh.

254. That is: It is the demand of Allah’s wisdom that He should punish the makers of unauthorized shariah, and He knows those who have dared to do this.