137

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 (shurakā'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], awlādahum, 'their children', in the accusative on account of it [being the direct object of qatlu, 'the slaying'], and shurakā'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 awlādahum shurakā'ihim, 'their associates killing the children'] - this is acceptable [syntactically] - and the annexation of qatlu to shurakā'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 Allahu ta’ālā willed, they would not have done so; so leave them and that which they fabricate.