among them would swear that if he were granted a certain number of sons, he would surely sacrifice one of them, just as ‘Abd al-Muttalib had vowed concerning his son ‘Abdullah.

Ibn ‘Amir recited “was made fair” with a u-vowel on the zay and an i-vowel on the ya; “the killing” in the nominative, “their children” in the accusative, and “their partners” in the genitive, by way of transposition. It is as though he said: The killing of their children by their partners was made fair to many of the polytheists. Thus, the object—namely, the children—was placed between the verbal noun and its agent, as the poet said:

“I urged him on, standing firm …
the driving of the she-camel by Abu Muzadah.”

That is: Abu Muzadah drove the she-camel on. The act—namely, killing—was attributed to the partners, even though they did not themselves carry it out, because they were the ones who made it seem fair and called people to it; thus, it was as though they had done it themselves.

His saying, Most High, “in order to bring about their ruin” means: in order to destroy them; and “to confuse them in their religion” means: to cast confusion upon them. Ibn ‘Abbas said: This means, to cause them to doubt their religion. They had followed the religion of Ishmael, but turned away from it through Satan’s deception.

“And had Allah willed, they would not have done so”: that is, had Allah willed, He would have protected them, so that they would not have committed such acts as forbidding crops and livestock and killing their children. “So leave them, O Muhammad, and what they fabricate”—that is, the lies they invent—for Allah, Most High, lies in wait for them.