Overall meaning : The Almighty states that out of the crops and livestock that He himself has created, the idolaters, who associate partners with Him, assign a portion to Him and a portion to their false gods. If a part of what they set aside for their false gods is transferred accidentally to the portion they set aside for Allah, they would take it back to the portion they assign to their false deities. If, on the other hand, a part of what they set aside for Allah is accidentally transferred to the portion they assign to their false deities, they would leave it there. Evil, indeed, is their judgment!
Just as the devils have made assigning a portion of what He himself has created to Him seem fair to these idolaters, so, too, they have made their killing their own children seem equally fair and right to them, thereby seeking to bring them to ruin and confuse them in their religion. Had Allah willed, they would not have done so. But He willed that everybody should be allowed to pursue his own choice. Allah then instructs His Prophet to leave them alone with their false inventions.
They declare certain types of livestock and crops forbidden and that only those they allow may eat of them, so they assert without referring to any authority or permission from Allah. They also declare some grazing livestock forbidden to ride, and there are some others over which they do not pronounce Allah’s name upon slaughtering them, thus inventing lies against Allah by falsely attributing such legislation to Him. He will surely punish them, He declares, for the lies they have forged.
They also falsely claim that whatever is in the bellies of these grazing livestock (milk or foetus) is exclusively for their males and is unlawful for their females. That is, if the foetus is born alive. If, however, it is stillborn, all their males and females are allowed to eat of it. Almighty Allah affirms that He will punish them for making what He has declared lawful forbidden and what He has declared forbidden lawful, thus forging lies about Him by falsely attributing such legislation to Him. Surely, He is All-Wise, All-Knowing.
These idolaters, Allah further states, are absolute losers in this life and in the life to come for killing their children out of sheer ignorance and foolishness and for making unlawful what Allah has bestowed upon them, thus inventing falsehoods about Allah and attributing them to Him. By so doing, they have strayed from the right path, and are not in the slightest rightly guided.