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qad khasira lladhīna qatalū ʾawlādahum safahan bi-ghayri ʿilmin wa-ḥarramū mā razaqahumu llāhu ftirāʾan ʿalā llāhi qad ḍallū wa-mā kānū muhtadīna
They are certainly losers who slay their children foolishly without knowledge, and forbid what Allah has provided them, fabricating a lie against Allah. Certainly, they have gone astray and are not guided.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Al-‘An’am, Verse 140
140. "Indeed are lost those who slay their children foolishly without knowledge, and forbid what Allah has provided them, forging falsehood against Allah . They have certainly gone astray and they are not guided aright."
Ibn-' Abbas has said that whoever wishes to know the quantity of the ignorance of the peoples at the time of pre Islamic ignorance, may recite the verses of Surah Al- 'An'am, (Those very verses that were previously discussed). The ignorant Arabs, imagining becoming nigh to the idols, or on the supposition that they would protect honour and nobility, sacrificed their daughters before idols or buried them alive. Once there happened that a man came to the Prophet (S) and explained the cause of his worriedness to him. The man said that at the Age of Ignorance Allah had given him a daughter. He wanted to kill her but her wife severely hindered him from committing that action.
That girl matured and there came a solicitor for her. His zeal did not let him to accept the situation. On the other hand, it was not appropriate for her to remain without husband, either. One day, he brought her to a field outside the town and dropped her down into a well. Whatever more she moaned, he did not care. At this time, the messenger of Allah wept and said:
Explanations
1. Superstitions are condemned with the most intensive statements.
2. Ignorance and foolishness are the causes of loss. (These losses may be like losing a child, damage in emotion, the absence of lawful (halal) bounties, Hell, and Allah’s punishment.)
3. The greatest damage is the sacrificial state of man in the way of falsehood, whether to be sacrificed for idols or to be sacrificed by false imaginations and undue zeals.
4. Banning something needs either canonical evidence or a rational demonstration.
5. The undue banning of lawful things is a belie forging against Allah; and it is forbidden.