قُلْ يَا أَيُّهَا الْكَافِرُونَ
SAY: "O you who deny the truth! (1)
لَا أَعْبُدُ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ
"I do not worship that which you worship, (2)
وَلَا أَنْتُمْ عَابِدُونَ مَا أَعْبُدُ
and neither do you worship that which I worship. (3)
وَلَا أَنَا عَابِدٌ مَا عَبَدْتُمْ
"And I will not worship that which you have [ever] worshipped, (4)
وَلَا أَنْتُمْ عَابِدُونَ مَا أَعْبُدُ
and neither will you [ever] worship that which I worship. (5)
لَكُمْ دِينُكُمْ وَلِيَ دِينِ
"Unto you, your moral law, and unto me, mine!" (6)
- and neither do you worship that which I worship!1
- 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).
- Nor will ye worship that which I worship.6290
- 6290 Verses 2-3 describe the conditions as they were at the time when this Surah 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.
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Nor will ye worship that which I worship.
— Abdullah Yusuf Ali -
Nor worship ye that which I worship.
— Marmaduke Pickthall -
Nor do you serve Him Whom I serve:
— M. Habib Shakir -
"Nor will you worship that which I worship.
— Taqiuddin Hilali and M. Mohsin Khan -
Nor are ye the worshippers of that which I worship.
— Abdul-Majid Daryabadi -
nor do you worship what I worship.
— Hasan Qaribullah and Ahmed Darwish -
nor do you serve what I serve,
— Ayub Khan -
Nor do you worship as I worship.
— Sher Ali -
and neither do you worship that which I worship.
— Muhammad Asad -
and you are not serving what I serve,
— Arthur Arberry -
neither do you worship Him Whom I worship;{{3}}
— Abu'l Ala Maududi