Translation of the meanings Ayah 136 Surah Al-An‘ām - English Translation - Dr. Waleed Bleyhesh Omary - The Noble Qur'an Encyclopedia

Ayah: 136

وَجَعَلُواْ لِلَّهِ مِمَّا ذَرَأَ مِنَ ٱلۡحَرۡثِ وَٱلۡأَنۡعَٰمِ نَصِيبٗا فَقَالُواْ هَٰذَا لِلَّهِ بِزَعۡمِهِمۡ وَهَٰذَا لِشُرَكَآئِنَاۖ فَمَا كَانَ لِشُرَكَآئِهِمۡ فَلَا يَصِلُ إِلَى ٱللَّهِۖ وَمَا كَانَ لِلَّهِ فَهُوَ يَصِلُ إِلَىٰ شُرَكَآئِهِمۡۗ سَآءَ مَا يَحۡكُمُونَ

(136) ^[1502]They professed for Allah a share in crops and livestock which He generated and said: “This is for Allah – so they claimed – and this is for our Associates^[1503]”; whatever is allocated for their Associates does not reach Allah, but whatever is allocated for Allah reaches their Associates—sordid indeed how they judge.

[1502] This passage and the next detail the sorry moral ‘state’ (makānah) to which the idolater Arabs of Makkah were demoted because they fabricated laws and falsely ascribed them to God. Ibn ʿAbbās (رضي الله عنه) said: “If you want to realize just how ignorant the Arabs were then, read ˹the ayas˺ beyond 130 of al-Anʿām up until: “Losers indeed are those who killed their ˹own˺ children out of foolishness with no basis in ˹proper˺ knowledge, and forbade what Allah provided for them, falsely ascribing it ˹all˺ to Allah; they have gone astray, and they were not guided” (al-Bukhārī: 358).
[1503] Their idols (cf. al-Ṭabarī). It was their heathen ritual to allocate two shares out of their livestock; a share for God and a share for the idols. If a portion of the share they allocated to God was mixed with that of their idols, they would not deduct and add it to God’s so-called share, saying that God is in no need of it. Yet they would not do so the other way round; if a portion of the share they allocated for their idols fell with that of God’s they would readily cut it and add it on to their idols’ share (cf. al-Ṭabarī, al-Saʿdī, al-Shinqīṭī, Aḍwā’ al-Bayān).