“…a lie”—the verse (al-Ḥall, p. 116).

Allah, the Exalted, also says:
“Allah has not instituted the baḥīrah, the sāʾibah, the waṣīlah, or the hām; rather, those who disbelieve invent lies about Allah, and most of them do not understand.” (5:103)

We have already discussed all of this in detail and have set out the various opinions of the early scholars regarding it (1); whoever wishes may consult that discussion. All praise and favor belong to Allah.

He, Most High, further says:
“They assign to things they know nothing about a share of what We have provided for them. By Allah, you will surely be questioned about the lies you used to fabricate.” (16:56)

And He says:
“Out of what Allah has produced of crops and livestock they set aside a portion for Him, saying, ‘This is for Allah’—so they claim—‘and this is for our partners.’ But what is set aside for their partners never reaches Allah, whereas what is set aside for Allah reaches their partners. Evil indeed is the way they judge. (136)
Likewise, their partners made the killing of their own children seem fair to many of the polytheists, so as to ruin them and to confound their religion. Had Allah willed, they would not have done so; so leave them and what they fabricate. (137)
And they say, ‘These cattle and crops are forbidden; none may eat of them except whom we wish’—so they claim—‘and there are cattle whose backs are forbidden, and cattle over which they do not pronounce the name of Allah,’ inventing a lie against Him. He will soon repay them for the lies they used to fabricate. (138)
And they say, ‘What is in the wombs of these cattle is exclusively for our men and forbidden to our wives; but if it is stillborn, they share in it.’ He will requite them for what they describe. Surely He is All-Wise, All-Knowing. (139)
Lost indeed are those who, out of folly and without knowledge, killed their children and made unlawful what Allah had provided for them, fabricating lies against Allah. They have gone astray and are not rightly guided.” (6:136–140)

Al-Bukhārī said in his Ṣaḥīḥ (2), under the heading “The Ignorance of the Arabs”:
Abū al-Nuʿmān related to us; Abū ʿAwānah related to us, from Abū Bishr, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said:
“If you wish to know the ignorance of the Arabs, then recite the verse that comes after one hundred and thirty in Sūrat al-Anʿām: ‘Lost indeed are those who, out of folly and without knowledge, killed their children and made unlawful what Allah had provided for them, fabricating lies against Allah. They have gone astray and are not rightly guided.’ (140)”

We have already explained this verse and the spurious, corrupt regulations they invented—regulations that their chieftain ʿAmr ibn Luḥayy, may Allah disfigure him, fancied to be in the animals’ interest and a mercy to beasts. In that claim he was a brazen liar and fabricator, yet in their ignorance and misguidance these crude mobs (3) followed him. Indeed, they even imitated him in matters far more monstrous (4) than that—namely, worshipping idols alongside Allah, exalted is He. Thus they altered what Allah had sent with Abraham, His close friend, of the upright religion and straight path: the pure monotheism of worshipping Allah alone with no partner and the prohibition of associating anything with Him. They distorted the rites of pilgrimage and the landmarks of the religion without knowledge, proof, or evidence—whether sound or weak—following thereby the earlier nations of idolaters and resembling the people of Noah,