Al-Kafirun

See ayat 6 for tafseer.

See ayat 6 for tafseer.

See ayat 6 for tafseer.

See ayat 6 for tafseer.

See ayat 6 for tafseer.

The narrations state that this sūrah was revealed concerning a specific group of leaders among the polytheists. Among them were al‑Walīd ibn al‑Mughīrah, al‑ʿĀṣ ibn Wāʾil, al‑Ḥārith ibn Qays, and Umayyah ibn Khalaf, and others. They said: “O Muḥammad, come and follow our religion, and we will follow your religion, and we will include you in all our privileges. For one year, you worship our gods, and in another year we will worship your God. If your religion proves better, then we will have shared in it and taken our portion of it; and if our religion proves better, then you will have shared in it and taken your portion of it.” The Messenger of God PBUH & His Pure Progeny replied: “I seek refuge in God from associating anything with Him.” They then said: “At least touch our gods and seek blessing from them, and we will accept what you say and begin worshipping your God.” The Messenger of God PBUH & His Pure Progeny said: “I am waiting for the command of my Lord.” At that moment, the sūrah قُلْ يَا أَيُّهَا الْكَافِرُونَ was revealed. The Messenger of God PBUH & His Pure Progeny then came to the Sacred Mosque while a group of Quraysh leaders were gathered there, and he stood above them and recited this sūrah to its end. When they heard its message, they became utterly hopeless and began to persecute the Messenger of God PBUH & His Pure Progeny and his companions. (Explanatory note: This occasion of revelation, with minor variations in wording, has been reported by many exegetes, including al‑Ṭabrisī in Majmaʿ al‑Bayān, al‑Qurṭubī in his tafsīr, Abū al‑Futūḥ al‑Rāzī in his tafsīr, and al‑Suyūṭī in al‑Durr al‑Manthūr.)

The verses of this sūrah address the Messenger of God PBUH & His Pure Progeny and declare: “Say: O disbelievers” (قُلْ يَا أَيُّهَا الْكَافِرُونَ). “I do not worship what you worship” (لَا أَعْبُدُ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ). “Nor do you worship what I worship” (وَلَا أَنتُمْ عَابِدُونَ مَا أَعْبُدُ). In this manner, complete separation is clearly defined, and it is stated explicitly: “I will never engage in idol worship,” and you, due to your obstinacy, your insistence on blind imitation of your elders, and the numerous illegitimate benefits that accrue to you from idolatry, are likewise incapable of moving from polytheism to pure devotion to God alone. In order to render the idolaters totally despairing of any form of compromise between monotheism and idolatry, it is stated once again: “Nor will I ever worship what you have worshipped” (وَلَا أَنَا عَابِدٌ مَّا عَبَدتُّمْ). “Nor will you worship what I worship” (وَلَا أَنتُمْ عَابِدُونَ مَا أَعْبُدُ). Therefore, do not persist in your baseless insistence on compromise in matters of idol worship, for such a thing is impossible. “Since the matter stands thus, for you is your religion, and for me is my religion” (لَكُمْ دِينُكُمْ وَلِيَ دِينِ). Many exegetes have explicitly stated that the reference to “al‑kāfirūn” here is to a specific group of leading idolaters of Mecca. Accordingly, the definite article in “al‑kāfirūn” is, in technical terms, for specification (ʿahd), not for general inclusion. One of their arguments for this view—apart from what has been mentioned regarding the occasion of revelation—is that many of the Meccan idolaters ultimately embraced faith. Therefore, when it is said, “Neither will you worship what I worship, nor will I worship what you worship,” this necessarily applies to that particular group of leaders of disbelief and polytheism who never accepted faith until the end of their lives; otherwise, at the time of the conquest of Mecca, many polytheists entered Islam in large numbers. Here several questions arise that require clarification.

Would it not have been better to address “O disbelievers” (يَا أَيُّهَا الْكَافِرُونَ) directly, without preceding it with “Say”? In other words, should the Prophet not simply have implemented the divine command and addressed them directly, without repeating the word “Say”? The answer becomes clear when attention is paid to the subject matter of the sūrah. The Arab polytheists had proposed a compromise to the Prophet PBUH & His Pure Progeny regarding idol worship. Consequently, it was necessary for him personally to reject this proposal and declare that he would never comply with it and would never contaminate his worship with polytheism. Had the word “Say” not appeared at the beginning of the sūrah, the statement would have been attributed directly to God, in which case expressions such as “I do not worship what you worship” would lose their coherence and intended meaning. Moreover, since the word “Say” itself formed part of Gabriel’s conveyed message from God, the Prophet PBUH & His Pure Progeny was obligated to preserve the authenticity of the Qur’an by transmitting it verbatim. This itself demonstrates that neither Gabriel nor the Messenger of God PBUH & His Pure Progeny made even the slightest alteration in transmitting revelation, thereby proving in practice that they were messengers who listened only to the divine command. This principle is also affirmed in Sūrat Yūnus, verse 15: قُلْ مَا يَكُونُ لِي أَنْ أُبَدِّلَهُ مِن تِلْقَاءِ نَفْسِي إِنْ أَتَّبِعُ إِلَّا مَا يُوحَى إِلَيَّ, meaning: say, it is not for me to alter it of my own accord; I follow only what is revealed to me.

The idolaters did not, in fact, deny the existence of God at all. According to explicit Qur’anic verses, when they were asked about the Creator of the heavens and the earth, they would respond that it is God: وَلَئِن سَأَلْتَهُم مَّنْ خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ لَيَقُولُنَّ اللَّهُ (Luqmān 25). How, then, does this sūrah declare: “Neither will I worship what you worship, nor will you worship what I worship”? The answer becomes clear when it is noted that the discussion here is not about the issue of creation, but about the issue of worship. The idolaters regarded God as the Creator of the universe, but believed that acts of worship should be directed to idols, either so that these idols might serve as intermediaries in the divine presence, or because they considered themselves unworthy of worshipping God directly and therefore felt compelled to worship tangible, corporeal idols. At this point, the Qur’an decisively rejects these illusions and notions, drawing a firm line through them and affirming that worship is to be directed exclusively to God alone—neither to idols nor to a combination of God and idols.

With regard to the question of why the negation of idol worship by the Prophet and the negation of the worship of God by the polytheists are repeatedly stated in this sūrah, there has been considerable disagreement. One group holds that this repetition serves the purpose of emphasis: to render the polytheists completely hopeless, to separate their path decisively from the path of Islam, and to demonstrate that no reconciliation is possible between monotheism and polytheism. In other words, since the polytheists repeatedly and insistently invited the Messenger of God PBUH & His Pure Progeny toward polytheism, the Qur’an likewise repeats its rejection of their proposal. In one narration it is reported that Abū Shākir al‑Dayṣānī, a skeptic from the time of Imam Jaʿfar al‑Ṣādiq (peace be upon him), asked one of the Imam’s companions, Abū Jaʿfar al‑Aḥwal (Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al‑Nuʿmānī al‑Kūfī, known as Muʾmin al‑Ṭāq), about the reason for the repetition in these verses, and remarked whether it was possible for a rational person to employ such repetition in speech. Since Abū Jaʿfar al‑Aḥwal did not have an answer, he travelled to Medina and asked Imam Jaʿfar al‑Ṣādiq (peace be upon him). The Imam replied that the reason for the revelation of these verses and for the repetition within them was that Quraysh had proposed to the Messenger of God PBUH & His Pure Progeny: one year you worship our gods, and the next year we will worship your God; then again you worship our gods the following year, and we will worship your God the year after. In response to this proposal, these verses were revealed, rejecting all such suggestions in their entirety. When Abū Jaʿfar al‑Aḥwal conveyed this answer to Abū Shākir, he replied: “هٰذَا مَا حَمَلَتْهُ الْإِبِلُ مِنَ الْحِجَازِ” “This is a burden carried by camels from the Ḥijāz,” meaning that this response was not Abū Jaʿfar’s own, but rather the statement of Imam Jaʿfar al‑Ṣādiq (peace be upon him). Others have stated that the repetition exists because one statement refers to the present and the other to the future; that is, I do not worship your gods now, nor will I ever worship them in the future. However, there is no clear textual evidence supporting this interpretation. A third explanation for the repetition is that the first statement refers to the difference in the objects of worship, while the second refers to the difference in the manner of worship. That is, not only do I not worship the beings you worship, but my worship is fundamentally different from yours, for my worship is sincere and free from all forms of polytheism. Your idol worship, by contrast, is based on blind imitation of ancestors, whereas my worship of God is founded upon understanding and gratitude. (According to this interpretation, “ما” in the second and third verses is taken as a relative pronoun, while in the fourth and fifth verses it is taken as a verbal noun. This explanation is reported by Abū al‑Futūḥ al‑Rāzī, vol. 12, p. 192, and is also mentioned by al‑Ṭabrisī under these verses.) Nevertheless, the apparent meaning is that the repetition serves to emphasize the absolute rejection of compromise, as clarified earlier and as explicitly supported by the narration from Imam Jaʿfar al‑Ṣādiq (peace be upon him). A fourth interpretation has also been proposed, namely that the second verse states: I do not worship those whom you are currently worshipping, while the fourth verse indicates: I did not worship your gods even in the past, let alone now. This distinction is supported by the observation that in the second verse the verb “تعبدون” appears in the present tense, while in the fourth verse “عبدتم” appears in the past tense. (Accordingly, “عابد” in the verse should also be understood as conveying past meaning.) Although this interpretation addresses the repetition between the second and fourth verses, the repetition of the third and fifth verses remains fully unresolved. (It should also be noted incidentally that although “ما الموصولية” is generally used for non‑rational beings, it is sometimes applied to rational beings as well, and Qur’anic usage itself bears witness to this fact.)

Sometimes it has been imagined that the final verse of this sūrah, which states: “For you is your religion, and for me is my religion,” conveys a notion of complete conciliation and thus grants them permission to remain upon their own religion, since it does not insist upon their acceptance of Islam. However, this assumption is extremely weak and unfounded, because the tone and context of the verses clearly indicate that this expression functions as a form of reproach and warning. That is, your religion may be yours, but you will soon witness its evil outcome. A similar expression appears in Sūrat al‑Qaṣaṣ, verse 55: وَإِذَا سَمِعُوا اللَّغْوَ أَعْرَضُوا عَنْهُ وَقَالُوا لَنَا أَعْمَالُنَا وَلَكُمْ أَعْمَالُكُمْ سَلَامٌ عَلَيْكُمْ لَا نَبْتَغِي الْجَاهِلِينَ. This indicates that when the believers hear vain or frivolous speech, they turn away from it and say: for us are our deeds and for you are your deeds; peace be upon you (a farewell of separation), for we do not seek the ignorant. Hundreds of verses of the Qur’an testify to this meaning, categorically condemning polytheism in all its forms, regarding it as the most detestable of acts, and describing it as an unforgivable sin. Scholars have offered other responses to this question as well. For example, some have held that there is an ellipsis in the verse, and that the implied meaning is: “For you is the recompense of your religion, and for me is the recompense of my religion.” Others have stated that the word “religion” here is used in the sense of recompense, and thus nothing is omitted in the verse; rather, its meaning is that you will receive your recompense and I will receive mine. (Explanatory note: it should be noted that in the phrase “wa liya dīn,” the word “dīn” is read with a kasrah, indicating an omitted yāʾ, and its original form is “liya dīnī.”) Nevertheless, the first interpretation and the earlier response appear more appropriate and consistent with the overall context.

What is presented in this sūrah in fact expresses the reality that monotheism (tawḥīd) and polytheism (shirk) are two opposing programs and two completely divergent paths, between which there is no resemblance whatsoever. Monotheism connects the human being to God, whereas polytheism alienates the human being from God. Monotheism is a symbol of unity and oneness at every level and in every domain, while polytheism is the source of fragmentation and disintegration in all aspects of life. Monotheism elevates the human being beyond the material world and the realm of nature, linking him to the infinite existence of God beyond nature; whereas polytheism casts the human being down into the pit of nature and binds him to limited, weak, and transient beings. For this very reason, the Messenger of God PBUH & His Pure Progeny and all the great prophets not only refrained from reconciliation with polytheism, but made struggle against polytheism their foremost and most essential mission. Even today, all who walk the path of truth and all scholars and preachers of this religion must follow the same path and openly declare their dissociation and repudiation of every form, level, and manifestation of polytheism and compromise with polytheists. This is the fundamental path of Islam. O God, keep us far from polytheism and from thoughts and actions tainted by polytheism. Our Lord, the insinuations of the polytheists of our time are dangerous; protect us from falling into their traps of deception. O God, grant us such courage, clarity, and decisiveness that, like the Messenger of God PBUH & His Pure Progeny, we may reject every proposal of compromise with disbelief and polytheism. Āmīn, O Lord of all the worlds.