One of the verses which denote that polytheists used to...

One of the verses which denote that polytheists used to slaughter animals in the name of idols is: “You are prohibited carrion, blood, the flesh of swine, and what has been offered to other than Allah, and the animal strangled or beaten to death, and that which dies by falling or is gored to death, and that which is mangled by a beast of prey barring that which you may purify [^2] —and what is sacrificed on stone alters [to idols], and that you should divide by raffling with arrows.

All that is transgression.” [^3] This verse enumerates forbidden foods. One of the foods whose eating is forbidden is “…what has been offered to other than Allah” . This means an animal slaughtered in the name of other than Allah, in the name of an idol.

“And they say, ‘These cattle and tillage are a taboo: none may eat them except whom we please,’ so they maintain, and there are cattle whose backs are forbidden and cattle over which they do not mention Allah’s name, fabricating a lie against Him. Soon He will requite them for what they used to fabricate.” [^4] It can be deduced from the above quoted verse that idolaters never used to slaughter four legged animals in the name of Allah, but in the name of idols.

b) Cutting and/or slitting the ears of animals One of the idolatrous beliefs was cleaving and/ or slitting the ears of animals.

The following verse proves this: “They invoke none but females [^5] besides Him, and invoke none but a froward Satan, whom Allah has cursed, and who said, ‘I will surely take of Your servants a settled share, and I will lead them astray and give them [false] hopes, and prompt them to slit the ears of cattle’.” [^6] “Whoever takes Satan as a guardian instead of Allah has certainly incurred a manifest loss.” [^7] In this verse, Satan threatens to deprave and corrupt the children of Adam (i.e.

mankind) by making them cut and/or slit the ears of animals. c) Slaughtering animals with the intention of gaining proximity to idols One of the special rituals of idolaters was slaughtering animals with the intention of gaining proximity to idols.