Surah 109. Al-Kafirun

SAY: "O you who deny the truth!¹

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}).

"I do not worship that which you worship,

and neither do you worship that which I worship.

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

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

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

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

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 .