Tafsir of Al-An'am 6:139

"And they said, 'What is in...'"

They used to say regarding the fetuses of the Ba'irah and the Sa'ibah (sacred camels): "Whatever is born alive is exclusively for our males, and the females shall not eat of it. But if it is born dead, they (the males and females) share in it."

Grammatical Notes:

• "Khalisatan" (exclusive): The feminine form is used to refer to the fetuses (al-ajinna) based on the intended meaning, while "muharram" (forbidden) is masculine to agree with the literal word (ma). A parallel is: "And among them are those who listen to you, until when they depart from you" (Muhammad: 16).
• It is possible the ta (feminine marker) is for intensification, like in rawiyyat al-shi'r (a master of poetry).
• It may also be an infinitive (masdar) used in the place of the adjective khalis (exclusive), meaning "possessing exclusivity." This is supported by the reading of those who read khalisatan in the accusative case, where li-dhukurina (for our males) is the predicate, and khalisatan is an emphatic infinitive. It cannot be a pre-posed circumstantial qualifier (hal), because a prepositional phrase cannot precede its own qualifier.
• Ibn Abbas read it as an idafa (genitive construction): khalisat. In the codex of Abdullah (Ibn Mas'ud), it is written as khalis.

"And if it be dead..." Meaning: If what is in their bellies is dead. It is also read as wa-in takun (feminine), referring to the fetuses (al-ajinna). The people of Mecca read it as wa-in takun maytatun (feminine, nominative), treating kana as a complete verb (meaning "to exist").

"They are partners therein..." The pronoun is masculine in fihi (therein) because maytah (dead) applies to any dead thing, male or female. It is as if it were said: "If there is a dead thing, they are partners in it."

"He will recompense them for their description..." Meaning: The recompense for their describing lies to Allah regarding what is lawful and what is forbidden, as in His saying: "Your tongues describe the lie: 'This is lawful and this is forbidden'" (An-Nahl: 116).

"Those who killed their children foolishly without knowledge have lost, and they have forbidden what Allah has provided for them, inventing lies against Allah. They have indeed gone astray and were not guided."