Surah al-An`am (The Cattle) 6 : 138

Overview (Verses 136 - 138)

Temptation on the Way to Ruin
 
Out of the produce and the cattle He has created, they assign a portion to God, saying: “This is for God”— or so they pretend — “and this is for the partners we associate [with Him]”. Whatever they assign to their partners never reaches God, but that which is assigned to God does reach their partners. How ill they judge!” (Verse 136)
 
In discussing the concepts and traditions of ignorant Arabian society in relation to agricultural produce and cattle, the sūrah states clearly that it is God who creates crops and cattle. No one other than God provides sustenance for people, whether originating in the earth or emanating from the sky. The sūrah then follows this with a reference to their practices in respect of what God has provided for them. They divided it into parts, assigning a portion to God and another portion for the idols and deities they associated with Him. Needless to say, that portion ended up in the homes of the guards or the custodians attending those deities. Yet they deal unfairly with the portion they assign to God, as the Qur’ānic verse explains.
 
Ibn `Abbās, the Prophet’s cousin and Companion, reports: “When those people have taken stock of the food they have, they make it in lots, assigning a portion of it to God and another portion to their deities. If the wind blows from the side of the portion they have assigned to their deities so as to carry some of it and place it on top of what they have assigned to God, they take it back and put it where it was. However, if the wind blows in the other direction, they take no action, leaving what has been carried by the wind from God’s portion to the portion of their deities where it landed. That is why God says about their action: `How ill they judge!” (Verse 136)
 
Mujāhid reports: “They used to set aside a portion of their crops for God, and another portion for the partners they associated with Him. If the wind took something from the first portion to land it on the portion of their partners, they left it there. On the other hand, if something of the portion of their partners was transferred by wind to God’s portion, they took it back. They justified their action by saying that God was in no need of this.” Qatādah reports: Some ignorant people in the days of jāhiliyyah used to assign a portion of their crops and cattle to God, and a portion to the partners they associated with Him. If a part of what they kept to God was transferred accidentally to the portion they gave to their partners, they left it there. It the reverse happened, they would take back what came by accident to God’s portion. If they suffered a drought or shortage of crops, they would not touch what they assigned to their partners, but they would use up what they assigned to God. Hence God says: `How ill they judge!” (Verse 136)
 
Al-Suddī reports: They used to give a portion of their property to God and assign to Him a certain area of their agricultural land and a similar one to their deities. Whatever crops were yielded in the portion of their deities was spent on those deities, and what was yielded in the portion left to God was given to charity. Should the portion given to their deities be used up or give a small yield, while the one going to God gave abundant yield, they would say: our deities need to be properly served and that requires funds. Therefore, they would take what they had assigned to God and spend it on their deities. On the other hand, if the land assigned to God delivered a poor yield, while the one given to their deities gave in abundance, they would say: had God so willed, He would have made His land yield more. They would not transfer to Him anything of what had been yielded to their deities. God says that had they been honest in their division, they would not have judged ill. How is it that they take from Me but they do not give to Me? That is the meaning of the concluding comment in this verse: “How ill they judge!” (Verse 136)
 
Ibn Jarīr says: “The comment at the end of this verse, `How ill they judge’, is a description by God of what those unbelievers did. God the Almighty says that they have judged ill, since they take from His portion to give to their partners, and do not give Him any part of their partners” share. Thus God denounces them for their ignorance and lack of fairness. They not only set up partners which they claimed to be equal to the One who created them, but they also provided them with sustenance and bestowed His grace on them. Those deities which they claimed to be equal to Him can cause them no harm or benefit. Nevertheless, they give preference to them in what they assign”
 
It is such absurdities that evil human beings and jinn referred to so that they could argue with the believers concerning their cattle and crops. It is evident that these practices served only their evil interests. For example, pagan priests and custodians of those deities and other chiefs, have vested interests in maintaining their influence on their followers, so as to make them adhere to false concepts and beliefs. They also have their own personal interests to serve. As a result of what they implant in their followers’ minds, they are able to take to themselves what the unthinking masses assign to their deities. On the other hand, the evil jinn have a vested interest in leading human beings astray so that they bring them to ruin and confuse them in their faith. In this way, they lead human beings to ruin in this life and to hell in the life to come.
 
Such practices prevailed in the ignorant Arabian society, but similar practices prevailed in other jāhiliyyah societies in Greece, Persia and Byzantium. Similar ones continue to be practised in Africa, India and a number of Asian countries. All these are simply methods of using one’s property in a way that God does not sanction. Since such practices continue to be followed in today’s jāhiliyyah societies, these latter ones are the same in their polytheism as the old ones. Ignorance is the basis of any situation which allows people’s affairs to be conducted in conflict with what God has legislated. What form the conducting of such affairs takes is immaterial. The essence is the same although forms and appearances may differ.
 
Thus have the partners they associate [with God] made the killing of their own children seem goodly to many idolaters, seeking to bring them to ruin and to confuse them in their faith. Had God willed otherwise, they would not have done so. Leave them, then, to their false inventions. (Verse 137)
 
The sūrah says that in the same way as the evil ones made it acceptable for people to assign part of their crops and cattle in a particular fashion, they also made the killing of their own children seem goodly to them. This is a reference to what people in Arabia used to do, when they buried their daughters alive for fear of poverty or shame. They even went beyond this and killed some of their sons in fulfilment of pledges they made to their deities. It is well known that `Abd al-Muţţalib, the Prophet’s grandfather, pledged to slaughter one of his sons, if God would favour him with ten sons.
 
It is clear that all these practices were accepted as normal in the ignorant society of Arabia. These were traditions established by human beings and followed by human beings. The partners mentioned in this verse are the evil ones among human beings and jinn, including the priests, the guards of temples and tribal chiefs as well as the evil ones among the jinn who whisper to their partners. The sūrah makes the purpose of all this deception very clear: “Seeking to bring them to ruin and to confuse them in their faith.” (Verse 137) Thus, they not only bring them to ruin but they also place them in utter confusion with regard to their faith, so that they lack a clear concept.
 
The ruin is evident. They kill their own children and they corrupt their own social life. As a result, people become like animals led by corrupt shepherds in whichever way those shepherds find their interest. The evil ones are thus able to exercise complete authority over the lives, the children and the property of the masses, killing and ruling them, while the masses are forced to submit with humility. This is the result of the mutual effects produced by confused concepts of faith and their influence on human beings and the prevalent social traditions. Together those concepts and traditions exercise enormous pressure to which people have to submit, unless they seek protection in a clearly outlined faith and unless they place all their affairs within a consistent standard.

False Absurdity or Absurd Falsehood?
 
Such blurred, confused concepts and the social traditions they establish to weigh heavily on the masses are not limited to the types known in bygone ignorant or jāhiliyyah societies. We find clearer versions of them in modern societies, in the form of customs and traditions which people feel to be inescapable, even though they are very hard to observe. Take, for example, the case of fashion and other observances which impose themselves on people, costing them at times what they cannot afford, taking a high position on their list of concerns and ultimately corrupting their moral values and whole lives. Nevertheless, people feel that they must comply with all these dictates: a particular fashion for morning, another for afternoon, and a different one for evening. One fashion imposes short dress, another dictates tight clothes, and a third makes people wear that which is ridiculous. In addition, there is an endless variety of cosmetics, and hair styles, etc. Who imposes all this humiliating subjugation and who lends it support and backing? When we look for the facts we find that it is backed by the major fashion houses, manufacturers and dressmakers, as well as the usurious banks and finance companies who lend money to the industry in order that they themselves win a large share of the profits. It is also supported by the Zionists who work hard to weaken all mankind so that they become the masters of the world. They do not give their support in the shape of heavy armour and military prowess. They support it by the concepts and values they initiate and then formulate in the shape of theories and cultural beliefs. Then they help to translate these into a code of social behaviour. They realize that theories are of little effect unless they are seen in practice in the shape of systems of government, a social structure and an unambiguous social code that people accept without question because its roots and branches are irretrievably interlinked.
 
It is all perpetrated by evil human beings and the jinn. The result is different forms and shapes of jāhiliyyah, but they all have the same roots and origins.
 
We certainly do not give the Qur’ān its due position if we read and understand it as a reference only to ancient forms of jāhiliyyah. It, indeed, refers to its countless forms in all periods of human life. It confronts every deviant situation, trying to put it back on the straight path defined by God.
 
Wicked as their schemes against the divine message are, and heavy as the pressures on it are, the Qur’ān makes little of the might of jāhiliyyah. It exposes its reality, something which could easily be overlooked because of its apparent strength. The fact remains that these evil ones and their patrons and supporters are within God’s grasp and subject to His authority. They have no power of their own to enable them to do what they want. They can only do it because God has enabled them to play their game for a while in order to accomplish His purpose in putting His servants to a test. Had God willed otherwise, they would not have been able to do or achieve anything. Hence, the Prophet and the believers should pay little attention to those evil ones and should pursue their own objectives. As for the evil ones, the believers should leave them to God to punish them for their invented falsehood: “Had God willed otherwise, they would not have done so. Leave them, then, to their false inventions.” (Verse 137)

We need to mention here that they dare not admit that they originated these concepts and practices. Instead, they lie to God, alleging that He originated them, asserting that these concepts and practices were derived from the religion preached by the Prophets Abraham and Ishmael.
 
The evil ones in modern jāhiliyyah do the same. The vast majority of them feel unable to deny God publicly and denounce His faith as atheist Communists do. They resort instead to the same old tactics of the evil ones in ignorant Arabia, asserting that they respect religion, and alleging that their own legislation is based on that religion. This approach is all the more wicked because it blurs religious feelings in people’s hearts. It must be re-emphasized that these feelings do not represent Islam, because Islam is a clear, practical code of living which must be implemented in real life. It is not an ambiguous emotion. By their wicked approach, evil people these days channel other’s intrinsic religious zeal into non-Islamic structures.
 
With all this we find that people who are most enthusiastically religious concentrate all their power and efforts on the denunciation of some practical details which are largely marginal. They find these details highly objectionable, not realizing that the whole set-up is a non-Islamic one, totally usurping God’s authority and denying His Godhead. By their naïve enthusiasm they actually promote these non- Islamic set-ups, imparting to them an Islamic colour. They, thus, implicitly endorse them as having a religious basis, although they deviate from religion in such matters of detail. Those enthusiastic people, then, play their part in strengthening those systems, serving in the same capacity as official religious institutions which claim to speak for Islam.
 
It is well known that the religion of Islam has no clerical order and has no official spokesmen who wear the guise of priests, monks, or indeed any other guise.
 
They say: ‘Such cattle and crops are forbidden. None may eat of them save those whom we permit” — so they falsely claim. Other cattle they declare to be forbidden to burden their backs; and there are cattle over which they do not pronounce God’s name, inventing [in all this] a lie against Him. He will surely requite them for their inventions. (Verse 138)
 
Al-Ţabarī, a leading commentator on the Qur’ān, says: “Here God Himself, limitless is He in His Glory, is telling us that those idolaters used to forbid certain things and make others lawful, at their own behest, without referring to any authority or permission from God.”
 
As has already been mentioned, those usurpers of God’s authority who claimed to derive their legislation from God’s law, assigned certain portions of their agricultural produce and cattle, dedicating them to the partners they associated with God. Then they said that such assigned cattle and produce were forbidden to them to eat. Indeed, they asserted that none would be permitted to eat from them except those which God permitted. Needless to say that the decision in such matters was usually left to priests, clerics and chiefs. They also assigned certain types of cattle and determined that they were forbidden to ride. It is said that those were mentioned in the previous sūrah and given the Arabic titles Bahīrah, Sā’ibah, Waşīlah and Hāmī. They also assigned other cattle and prohibited God’s name from being mentioned over them when they were ridden, milked or slaughtered. This is because they consecrated these to partners they associated with God and whose names they did mention. All these claims were lies they had fabricated against God.
 
Al-Ţabarī says: “God describes their action saying that by their practices, they invent a lie against God. This means that when they outlined their prohibitions and made their claims, they were simply lying to God and asserting falsehoods against Him. This is because they attributed their prohibitions, as described in God’s Book, to His own authority, claiming that it is He Who had forbidden them. God denies this, making their lies appear as they are, and telling His Messenger and the believers of their false claims.”