Surah 109. Al-Kafirun

SAY: "O you who deny the truth!¹

  - Mohammad Asad

in the above rendering, the particle ma ("that which") alludes, on the one hand, to all positive concepts and ethical values - e.g., belief in God and the believer's self-surrender to Him - and, on the other, to false objects of worship and false values, such - as man's belief in his own supposed "self-sufficiency" (cf. {96:6-7}), or his overriding, almost compulsive "greed for more and more" (surah {102}).

Say: O unbelievers!

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Say, 'O Prophet,' 'O you disbelievers!

  - Mustafa Khattab

Say: O disbelievers!

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Say: O ye that reject Faith! ⁶²⁸⁹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Faith is a matter of personal conviction, and does not depend on worldly motives. Worship should depend on pure and sincere Faith, but often does not: for motives of worldly gain, ancestral custom, social conventions or imitative instincts, or a lethargic instinct to shrink from enquiring into the real significance of solemn acts and the motives behind them, reduce a great deal of the world's worship to sin, selfishness, or futility. Symbolic idols may themselves be merely instruments for safeguarding the privileges of a selfish priestly class, or the ambitions, greed, or lust of private individuals. Hence the insistence of Islam and its Prophet on the pure worship of the One True God. The Prophet firmly resisted all appeals to worldly motives, and stood firm to his Message of eternal Unity.

"I do not worship that which you worship,

  - Mohammad Asad

I worship not that you worship,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

I do not worship what you worship,

  - Mustafa Khattab

I worship not that which ye worship;

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

I worship not that which ye worship

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

and neither do you worship that which I worship.

  - Mohammad Asad

nor will you worship that which I worship.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

nor do you worship what I worship.

  - Mustafa Khattab

Nor worship ye that which I worship.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Nor will ye worship that which I worship. ⁶²⁹⁰

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Verses 2-3 describe the conditions as they were at the time when this Sura was revealed, and may be freely paraphrased: 'I am a worshipper of the One True God, the Lord of all, of you as well as of myself; but you on account of your vested interests have not the will to give up your false worship, of idols and self'. Verses 4-5 describe the psychological reasons: I, being a prophet of Allah do not and cannot possibly desire to follow your false ancestral ways; and you, as custodians of the false worship, have not the will to give up your ways of worship, which are wrong'. The "will" in the translation represents less the future tense than the will, the desire, the psychological possibility: it tries to reproduce the Arabic noun-agent.

"And I will not worship that which you have [ever] worshipped,

  - Mohammad Asad

I shall never worship those gods whom you worship,

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

I will never worship what you worship,

  - Mustafa Khattab

And I shall not worship that which ye worship.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And I will not worship that which ye have been wont to worship

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

and neither will you [ever] worship that which I worship.²

  - Mohammad Asad

Sc., "so long as you are unwilling to abandon the false values which cause you to deny the truth".

nor it appears will you ever worship Allah, whom I worship.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

nor will you ever worship what I worship.

  - Mustafa Khattab

Nor will ye worship that which I worship.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

Nor will ye worship that which I worship.

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

"Unto you, your moral law, and unto me, mine!"³

  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "unto me, my moral law". The primary significance of din is "obedience"; in particular, obedience to a law or to what is conceived as a system of established - and therefore binding - usages, i.e., something endowed with moral authority: hence "religion", "faith" or "religious law" in the widest sense of these terms (cf. first half of note [249] on 2:256 ); or simply "moral law", as in the above instance as well as in 42:21 95:7 , 98:5 or 107:1 .

to you be your religion, and to me mine.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

You have your way, and I have my Way.'

  - Mustafa Khattab

Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

To you be your Way and to me mine. ⁶²⁹¹

  - Abdullah Yusuf Ali

'I, having been given the Truth, cannot come to your false ways: you, having your vested interests, will not give them up. For your ways the responsibility is yours: I have shown you the Truth. For my ways the responsibility is mine: you have no right to ask me to abandon the Truth. Your persecutions will be vain: the Truth must prevail in the end'. This was the attitude of Faith then: but it is true for all time. Hold fast to Truth, "in scorn of consequence".