Tafseer of The Disbelievers · Al-Kaafiroon · 109:4
Nor will I be a worshipper of what you worship.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
Allah — exalted is His remembrance — says to His prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: the polytheists (mushrikīn) from his people had offered him — as is related — that they would worship Allah for one year, on the condition that the prophet of Allah ﷺ would also worship their gods for one year. Thereupon Allah revealed the manner in which His prophet was to answer them:
قُلْ (Say:) — O Muḥammad, say to these polytheists who asked you to worship their gods for one year while they would worship your God for one year —
يَا أَيُّهَا الْكَافِرُونَ (O disbelievers [kāfir] in Allah,)
لا أَعْبُدُ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ (I do not worship what you worship) — namely the gods and idols, now at this present moment —
وَلا أَنْتُمْ عَابِدُونَ مَا أَعْبُدُ (and you do not worship what I worship) — at this present moment.
وَلا أَنَا عَابِدٌ (And I will not worship) — in the future —
مَا عَبَدْتُمْ (what you have worshipped) — in the past —
وَلا أَنْتُمْ عَابِدُونَ (and you will never worship) — in the future, never —
مَا أَعْبُدُ (what I worship) — now and in the future.
The reason that this is expressed in this manner is that Allah's address to His messenger ﷺ pertained to specific individuals among the polytheists of whom Allah knew that they would never believe, and for whom this had already been determined beforehand in His knowledge. Therefore He commanded His prophet ﷺ to deprive them of all hope of what they had craved and had deluded themselves into believing — namely that this would come from him or from them, at any moment. And Allah deprived His prophet ﷺ of all hope of those people's belief and of any prosperity for them ever. So it indeed befell them thus: they did not flourish and did not succeed, until some of them were killed by the sword on the day of Badr, and others died as disbelievers before that.
In accordance with what we have said concerning this, the exegetes of the Qurʾān (ahl al-taʾwīl) also spoke, and so it stands also in the transmitted reports (āthār).
* Mention of who said this:
Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Ḥarashī related to me; he said: Abū Khalf related to us; he said: Dāwūd related to us, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: that Quraysh promised the messenger of Allah ﷺ to give him wealth with which he would become the richest man of Mecca, to marry him to whatever women he wished, and to follow him — and they said to him: "This awaits you with us, O Muḥammad, if you cease to revile our gods and no longer speak ill of them. But if you do not do so, then we offer you one thing that is good for you and for us." He said: "What is that?" They said: "You worship our gods for one year — al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā — and we worship your God for one year." He said: "Let me wait until something comes to me from my Lord." Then the revelation descended from the Preserved Tablet (al-Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ):
قُلْ يَا أَيُّهَا الْكَافِرُونَ (Say: O disbelievers) — the entire sūra — and Allah also revealed:
قُلْ أَفَغَيْرَ اللَّهِ تَأْمُرُونِّي أَعْبُدُ أَيُّهَا الْجَاهِلُونَ (Say: Do you then command me to worship someone other than Allah, O ignorant ones?) — up to His word: فَاعْبُدْ وَكُنْ مِنَ الشَّاكِرِينَ (So worship and be among the thankful).
Yaʿqūb related to me; he said: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq; he said: Saʿīd ibn Mīnā — freedman of al-Bakhtarī — related to me; he said: Al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīra, al-ʿĀṣ ibn Wāʾil, al-Aswad ibn al-Muṭṭalib, and Umayya ibn Khalaf met the messenger of Allah ﷺ and said: "O Muḥammad, come, let us worship what you worship, and you worship what we worship, and we will take you as a partner in all our affairs. For if that which you have brought is better than what we hold in our hands, then we have shared in it and taken our portion of it; and if that which we hold in our hands is better than what you have, then you have shared in our affair and taken your portion of it." Whereupon Allah revealed:
قُلْ يَا أَيُّهَا الْكَافِرُونَ (Say: O disbelievers) — until the sūra came to its end.
