Surah 6. Al-An'am, Ayah 143

Lit., "eight [in] pairs - of sheep two and of goats two" (the two other pairs are mentioned in the next verse). This is an outstanding example of the ellipticism often employed in the Qur'an: a mode of expression which cannot be correctly rendered in any other language without the use of explanatory interpolations. The term zawj denotes a pair of things as well as each of the two constituents of a pair: hence my rendering of thamaniyat azwaj (lit., "eight [in] pairs") as "four kinds of cattle of either sex". The particular superstition to which this and the next verse refer is probably identical with the one mentioned in 5:103 .

Lit., "tell me with knowledge" - i.e., not on the basis of guesswork but of knowledge acquired through authentic revelation. The preceding and subsequent ironical questions are meant to bring out the vagueness and inconsistency which characterizes all such superstitious, self-imposed prohibitions.

The superstitions referred to in vi. 139 and v. 106 are further ridiculed in this verse, and the next.