Al-An‘ām 6:139

The issue

In the current Arabic Qur’ān the word khālis. a (“specially reserved”) is used in the

feminine, while the word muh. arram (“forbidden”) is used in the masculine. The question then becomes, why did these two descriptions, “specially reserved” and “forbidden,” come in two forms of the language—one in feminine and the other in masculine?

The scholars have given various linguistic reasons for writing, “specially reserved” in

the feminine:

• What is in the belly of these cattle is feminine, just like the mother cow. The word

“what” refers to the embryos.

• In Arabic, the last letter in the word khālis. a, which makes it feminine, is for

hyperbole.

The scholars have said that the reason the word “forbidden” is written in the masculine

form is because it refers to the word “what,” so “it was mentioned in reference to that

word, but, had the meaning been considered, it should have read as feminine”.

It seems that Ibn Mas‘ūd saw a defect in the verse, so he wrote in his version of the

Qur’ān the word khālis. (“specially reserved”) as masculine.

It is worth noting that whenever the Muslim scholars encountered a written linguistic

error, they came up with explanations and justifications for the error. This justification

does not reinforce the rhetoric of the Qur’ān but shows arbitrariness in the use of the

language, as well as a skewing of the text.

The Qur’ān’s editing committee (‘Uthmān’s committee) could have saved the interpreters a tremendous effort had they followed the codex of Ibn Mas‘ūd, which reads khālis (“specially reserved”) in the masculine form.