10-58 Ahmad ibn Zyad ibn Ja’far al-Hamedany, al-Hussein ibn Ibrahim ibn Ahmad ibn Hisham ibn al-Mo’adab, Ali ibn Abdullah al-Var’raq, Hamzih ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Ja’far ibn Muhammad ibn Zayd ibn Ali ibn al-Hussein ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib (MGB), on the authority of Ali ibn Ibrahim ibn Hashim who in the year 307 A.H. (919 A.D.) narrated that his father quoted Abi Ahmad Muhammad ibn Zyad al-Azodi, Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Nasr al-Bazanty, on the authority of Aban ibn Uthman al-Ahmar, on the authority of Aban ibn Taqlib, on the authority of Abi Ja’far Muhammad ibn Ali al-Baqir (MGB) who said the following regarding the following verse from the Honorable the Exalted God, “Forbidden to you (for food) are: dead meat, blood, the flesh of swine, and that on which hath been invoked the name of other than God; that which hath been killed by strangling, or by a violent blow, or by a headlong fall, or by being gored to death; that which hath been (partly) eaten by a wild animal; unless ye are able to slaughter it (in due form); that which is sacrificed on stone (altars); (forbidden) also is the division (of meat) by raffling with arrows: that is impiety. This day have those who reject faith given up all hope of your religion: yet fear them not but fear Me. This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My favor upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion. But if any is forced by hunger, with no inclination to transgression, God is indeed Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”

The Imam (MGB) replied, “What ‘dead meat, blood, the flesh of swine’ refer to here are well-known already. However, ‘that on which hath been invoked the name of other than God’ refers to what has been slaughtered as an offering for the idols. And ‘that which hath been killed by strangling, or by a violent blow, or by a headlong fall, or by being gored to death’ refers to the fact that the Magians did not eat the meat of animals whose head was cut off. Rather they killed it unlawfully and ate it. They choked cows and sheep and ate them when they died. Sometimes they placed a cloth in front of the animal’s eyes and threw it down from the roof and ate it when it died. At other times they made the ewes fight with each other with their horns, and ate the one that got killed. And ‘that which hath been (partly) eaten by a wild animal; unless ye are able to slaughter it (in due form);’ refers to the fact that sometimes they ate what has been attacked by wolves and lions. God forbade eating such things. And ‘that which is sacrificed on stone (altars);’ refers to what the people used to sacrifice in a fire-house. The Quraysh used to worship trees and rocks and slaughtered for them. Thus ‘(forbidden) also is the division (of meat) by raffling with arrows’ refers to the practice of the Quraysh who divided up a slaughtered camel’s corpse into twenty-eight shares, gathered around it, drew lots with ten arrows, and gave it to men. There were ten lottery arrows. Seven of them had shares and three of them had no shares. The seven that had shares had the names Fach; Tawam; Musbil; Nafis; Hilis; Raqib; Mu’alli. Fach had one share; Tawam had two shares. Musbil had three shares. Nafis had four shares. Hilis had five shares. Raqib had six shares. Mu’alli had seven shares. The last three arrows which did not have any shares were called Samih, Manih, and Waghd, had no share at all. Those who got the arrows which did not have any shares had to pay for the camel. This is considered to be gambling and the Honorable the Exalted God forbade it.”