ٱلْأَنْعَام : ١٣٧

  • وَكَذَٰلِكَ And likewise
  • زَيَّنَ made pleasing
  • لِكَثِيرٖ to many
  • مِّنَ of
  • ٱلۡمُشۡرِكِينَ the polytheists
  • قَتۡلَ (the) killing
  • أَوۡلَٰدِهِمۡ (of) their children
  • شُرَكَآؤُهُمۡ their partners
  • لِيُرۡدُوهُمۡ so that they may ruin them
  • وَلِيَلۡبِسُواْ and that they make confusing
  • عَلَيۡهِمۡ to them
  • دِينَهُمۡۖ their religion
  • وَلَوۡ And if
  • شَآءَ (had) willed
  • ٱللَّهُ Allah
  • مَا not
  • فَعَلُوهُۖ (would) they have done so
  • فَذَرۡهُمۡ So leave them
  • وَمَا and what
  • يَفۡتَرُونَ they invent
And likewise, to many of the polytheists their partners1 have made [to seem] pleasing the killing of their children in order to bring about their destruction and to cover them with confusion in their religion. And if Allāh had willed, they would not have done so. So leave them and that which they invent.
Footnotes
1 - Their evil associates.
And thus, in the same way that what is mentioned was adorned for them, those associates of theirs, from among the jinn, have adorned for many of the idolaters the slaying of their children, by burying them alive (shurakaa'uhum, 'those associates of theirs', is read in the nominative as the subject of the verb zayyana, 'adorned'; an alternative reading has the passive [zuyyina, 'it has been adorned'], with qatlu, 'the slaying', in the nominative [as the subject of this passive verb], awlaadahum, 'their children', in the accusative on account of it [being the direct object of qatlu, 'the slaying'], and shurakaa'ihim in the genitive as an annexation to qatlu, so that the object in this case intervenes between the two elements of the annexation [qatlu awlaadahum shurakaa'ihim, 'their associates killing the children'] - this is acceptable [syntactically] - and the annexation of qatlu to shurakaa'ihim [in this latter reading] is on account of them [the associates] commanding [the idolaters to do] this), that they may destroy them and to confuse, to make obscure, their religion for them. Had God willed, they would not have done so; so leave them and that which they fabricate.