وَقَالُواْ هَـذِهِ أَنْعَامٌ وَحَرْثٌ حِجْرٌ لاَّ يَطْعَمُهَا إِلاَّ مَن نّشَاء بِزَعْمِهِمْ وَأَنْعَامٌ حُرِّمَتْ ظُهُورُهَا وَأَنْعَامٌ لاَّ يَذْكُرُونَ اسْمَ اللّهِ عَلَيْهَا افْتِرَاء عَلَيْهِ سَيَجْزِيهِم بِمَا كَانُواْ يَفْتَرُونَ

138. (Putting some of the produce and cattle to one side,) they say: "These animals and crops are taboo; none can eat of them save those whom we will – so they assert – and there are cattle whose backs they declare are forbidden (to bear loads), and cattle over which they do not pronounce God's Name. This (their attributing these customs to God) is a lie against Him. He will soon recompense them for all that they fabricate in attribution to God.²⁹

29. Just as the recompense or punishment mentioned can come in the Hereafter, it may also come in this world. This can be understood from the fact that the verse uses a tense that indicates the near future. Those who make false attributions to God, or fabrications, may lose their dominion, positions, wealth, or even their lives, or they may be subject to certain natural-seeming calamities, or their system may be replaced by a new one. Muslims have been suffering the same punishments for their neglect in practicing Islam and for not paying due respect to it.