Tafseer Ibn Kathir of AL KAAFIRUUN [1]

1. Say: ”O disbelievers!'' 2. ”I worship not that which you worship.'' 3. ”Nor will you worship whom I worship. 4. ”And I shall not worship that which you are worshipping.'' 5. ”Nor will you worship that which I worship. 6. ”To you be your religion, and to me my religion. This Surah is the Surah of disavowal from the deeds of the idolators. It commands a complete disavowal of that. Allah's statement,

(Say: ”O disbelievers!'') includes every disbeliever on the face of the earth, however, this statement is particularly directed towards the disbelievers of the Quraysh. It has been said that in their ignorance they invited the Messenger of Allah to worship their idols for a year and they would (in turn) worship his God for a year. Therefore, Allah revealed this Surah and in it

(I worship not that which you worship.) meaning, statues and rival gods.

(Nor will you worship whom I worship.) and He is Allah Alone, Who has no partner. So the word Ma (what) here means Man (who). Then Allah says,

(And I shall not worship that which you are worshipping. Nor will you worship whom I worship.) meaning, `I do not worship according to your worship, which means that I do not go along with it or follow it. I only worship Allah in the manner in which He loves and is pleased with.' Thus, Allah says,

(Nor will you worship whom I worship.) meaning, `you do not follow the commands of Allah and His Legislation in His worship. Rather, you have invented something out of the promptings of your own souls.' This is as Allah says,

(They follow but a guess and that which they themselves desire, whereas there has surely come to them the guidance from their Lord!) (53:23) Therefore, the disavowal is from all of what they are involved. For certainly the worshipper must have a god whom he worships and set acts of worship that he follows to get to him. So the Messenger and his followers worship Allah according to what He has legislated. This is why the statement of Islam is ”There is no God worthy of being worshipped except Allah, and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.'' This means that there is no (true) object of worship except Allah and there is no path to Him (i.e., way of worshipping Him) other than that which the Messenger came with. The idolators worship other than Allah, with acts of worship that Allah has not allowed. This is why the Messenger said to them,

(To you be your religion, and to me my religion.) This is similar to Allah's statement,

(And if they belie you, say: ”For me are my deeds and for you are your deeds! You are innocent of what I do, and I am innocent of what you do!'') (10:41) and He said,

(To us our deeds, and to you your deeds.) (28:55) Al-Bukhari said, ”It has been said,

(To you be your religion.) means disbelief.

(and to me my religion.) means, Islam. This is the end of the Tafsir of Surat Qul ya Ayyuhal-Kafirun.