109
Muhammad Asad
AL-KAFIRUN (THOSE WHO DENY THE TRUTH)
THE HUNDRED-NINTH
SURAH
Total Verses: 6
Introduction
REVEALED shortly after surah 107
IN THE NAME OF
GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE:
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF
GRACE:
(1) SAY: "O you who deny the truth!
(2) "I do not worship that which you worship,
(3) and neither do you worship that
which I worship! 1
(4) "And I will not worship ~hat which you have [ever] worshipped,
(5) and neither will you [ever] worship
that which I worship. 2
(6) Unto you, your moral law, and unto me, mine !" 3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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).
2 Sc., "so
long as you are unwilling to abandon the false values which cause you to deny
the truth ".
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.