Volume 6, Book 60, Number 147:
Narrated Said bin Al-Musaiyab:
Bahira is a she-camel whose milk is kept for the idols and nobody is allowed to milk it; Sa’iba was
the she-camel which they used to set free for their gods and nothing was allowed to be carried on it.
Abu Huraira said: Allah’s Apostle said, “I saw ‘Amr bin ‘Amir Al-Khuzai (in a dream) dragging his in –
testines in the Fire, and he was the first person to establish the tradition of setting free the animals
(for the sake of their deities),” Wasila is the she-camel which gives birth to a she-camel as its first
delivery, and then gives birth to another she-camel as its second delivery. People (in the Pre-lslamic
periods of ignorance) used to let that she camel loose for their idols if it gave birth to two she-camels
successively without giving birth to a male camel in between. ‘Ham’ was the male camel which was
used for copulation. When it had finished the number of copulations assigned for it, they would let it
loose for their idols and excuse it from burdens so that nothing would be carried on it, and they
called it the ‘Hami.’ Abu Huraira said, “I heard the Prophet saying so.”
Volume 6 – 1009 / 1700
SAHIH BUKHARI VOLUME 6 > BOOK 60: PROPHETIC COMMENTARY ON THE QUR’AN (TAFSEER OF THE PROPHET (PBUH))