Tafsir of Al-Ma'idah 5:103

"Allah has not appointed..."

In the pre-Islamic era, if a she-camel gave birth to five litters, the last of which was a male, they would slit its ear. This is the Bahirah. They forbade riding it, and it was not driven away from water or pasture. If a traveler encountered it, he would not ride it.

A man would say upon returning from a journey or recovering from an illness: "My camel is a Sa'ibah," treating it like the Bahirah in forbidding any benefit from it.

It is also said that if a man freed a slave, he would say: "He is a Sa'ibah," meaning there is no blood-money ('aql) or inheritance between them.

If a ewe gave birth to a female, it was for them; if it gave birth to a male, it was for their idols. If it gave birth to both a male and a female, they would say: "It has joined its brother," and they would not slaughter the male for their idols.

If a stallion sired ten litters, they would say: "This one is protected in its back (Hami)," so it was not ridden, nothing was carried upon it, and it was not prevented from water or pasture.

The meaning of "Allah has not appointed": He did not legislate this, nor did He command the Tabhir (slitting ears), the Tas'ib (declaring a Sa'ibah), or the rest of these practices. Rather, by forbidding what they forbade, they are "inventing lies against Allah, but most of them do not understand."

They do not attribute the prohibition to Allah until they invent it; rather, they imitate their elders in these prohibitions. When it is said to them, "Come to what Allah has revealed and to the Messenger," they say, "Sufficient for us is that upon which we found our fathers."

"Even though their fathers knew nothing and were not guided?"