Consecrated Livestock

The bahira, the sa'iba, the wasila and the hami: livestock the Jahiliyya people venerated and forbade themselves the use of, as an innovation — which the Qur'an disavowed.

Amr ibn Luhayy instituted for the Jahiliyya people the sacralising of kinds of livestock: the bahira, a she-camel whose ear is slit and which is freed if she yields after five pregnancies; the sa'iba, freed for a vow; the wasila, a ewe joined in dedication if she bears male and female; and the hami, a camel sire protected once a fixed count issues from his loins ¹.

They would assign the idols shares of crops and livestock which they brought to nothing else, and would claim "this is forbidden" over whatever beasts and crops they wished ².

He Almighty said: "God made no bahira, no sa'iba, no wasila and no hami; but the unbelievers fabricate lies against God" (al-Ma'ida 103); and He disavowed the dividing of crops and livestock between God and the idols in Surat al-An'am ².