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Chapter 6

Cattleal-Anʿām ( الأنعام )

165 verses • revealed at Meccan

»The surah that debunks as a mere forgery against the Law of God the forbidden practices of Pre-Islamic Arabia with regard to the sacrifice, distribution, and consumption of Cattle—and all such systems that arbitrarily impose upon people meaningless sacrifices, offerings, and prohibitions in the name of ungodly ideas and lifeless idols, which lead invariably to the impoverishment of women and the poor, and the institutionalization, thereby, of infanticide. It takes its name from “the cattle” (al-anʿām) mentioned in verse 136 ff. which deal with pagan superstitions and certain regulations related to cattle. The surah in its entirety makes plain that it is God who creates, controls, and sees everything, and that it is to Him that we turn in times of need. Thus it gives a lengthy refutation of the idolaters” claims.«

The surah is also known as The Livestock

بِسمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحمٰنِ الرَّحيمِ

Yusuf Ali: In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

1
الحَمدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذي خَلَقَ السَّماواتِ وَالأَرضَ وَجَعَلَ الظُّلُماتِ وَالنّورَ ۖ ثُمَّ الَّذينَ كَفَروا بِرَبِّهِم يَعدِلونَ

Yusuf Ali

Praise be God, Who created the heavens and the earth, and made the darkness and the light. Yet those who reject Faith hold (others) as equal,1 with their Guardian-Lord.2
  • ‘Adala has various meanings: (1) to hold something as equal to something else, as here; to balance nicely; (2) to deal justly, as between one party and another, 42:15; (3) to give compensation or reparation, or something as equivalent to something else, 6:70; (4) to turn the balance the right way, to give a right disposition, to give a just bias or proportion, 82:7; (5) to turn the balance the wrong way, to swerve, to show bias, 4:135.
  • The argument is threefold: (1) God created everything you see and know: how can you then set up any of His own creatures as equal to Him? (2) He is your own Guardian-Lord; He cherishes and loves you, how can you be so ungrateful as to run after something else? (3) Darkness and Light are to help you to distinguish between the true from the false: how then can you confound the true God with your false ideas and superstitions? There may also be a repudiation of the Duality of old Persian theology; Light and Darkness are not conflicting Powers; they are both creatures of God (Cf. 6:150).