Chapter 109:
Al-Kafirun
The Unbelievers
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In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
- Say: O disbelievers,
- I serve not what you serve,
- Nor do you serve Him Whom I serve,
- Nor shall I serve that which ye serve,
- Nor do you serve Him Whom I serve.
- For you is your recompense and for me my recompense.
This chapter was revealed at Makkah and in it we are presented
with a perfect conception of the Oneness of Allah in a practical
manner. We are told that a true believer is not merely a lip professor
of beliefs but rather he is such a person whose practical life is
clothed in the true concept of the Oneness of Allah as he seeks
to win the pleasure of the Almighty.
To appreciate fully the idea of the perfect Oneness of Allah we
must first understand what worship means. Man is said to
worship something when he either hopes for some benefit from it
or fears some injury from it. It is solely because of these two
reasons that the world worships other gods besides Allah, whether
they be elements of nature, or heavenly bodies, or trees, rocks,
human beings, animals, past saints, prophets, shrines or some other
force. In order to negate the alleged divinity of these false deities,
the Holy Quran appeals to the inner nature of man as it asks: Say:
Shall we call besides Allah, on that which profits us not, nor harms
us… (6:70). In other words, whatever things you worship in the
hope of gaining some benefit or in the fear of receiving some injury,
in reality has no power whatever, and there is not need, therefore,
to worship them.
However, behind the worship of all these gods there is another
hidden reality, and that is, in adoring all these false deities
besides Allah, the real objective of man is to gain some advantage
for himself or to save himself from loss. In other words, at the
back of all these devotions and sacrifices lies man’s ego which
is the greatest of all hidden idols. It was indeed the duty of the
Holy Quran to disclose the reality of this false god and so it does
in the verse: Seest thou him who takes his desire for his god…
(45:23). Thus according to the Holy Quran, perfect acceptance of
the Oneness of Allah entails not only the abandonment of all expectations
of benefit or harm from anything except Allah but also the sacrifice
of all egoistic pleasures and desires which incite man to worship
false gods either for gain or through fear of injury. The first
requirement of the belief in the Oneness of Allah is that man should
hope for benefit only from Allah, Most High, and should fear harm
only from Him. And in the depth of his heart he should be convinced
that nothing in creation and no human being can profit or harm him
without the permission of Allah.
This is no doubt an advanced stage in the belief in the Unity of
Allah, but it has not yet reached perfection, for among the things
that are worshipped besides Allah, so far, only worldly concerns
and interests are relinquished. Not yet achieved is the extinction
of the ego in which the hope for benefit or the fear of loss still
exists. True belief in the Oneness of Allah demands that together
with worldly ambitions and wealth, interests connected with the
“self” are also sacrificed.
In other words, any desire for personal gain or fear of injury
must be totally expunged from the heart to such an extent that the
servant of Allah should not demur in sacrificing his personal aggrandizement
for the sake of the pleasure of his Lord. In the pursuit of this
pleasure, he should display no reluctance even if he has to endure
the severest of trials and difficulties. It is only then that the
concept of the Unity of Allah can reach perfection in him.
This is what Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani in his book, Futuh al-Ghaib,
meant when he wrote that genuine Unity of Allah is only attained
when man sacrifices the world and his own self for the sake of his
Lord: when, as regards the world he entertains no hope of gain and
fears no danger from anything besides Allah, and when, as regards
his own concerns, he sacrifices all personal benefits and fear of
injury only for the pleasure of his Master. This is the perfect
conception of the Oneness of Allah which the Holy Quran has taught
and which, in this chapter, Al-Kafirun (The Unbelievers),
has been perfectly exhibited in the practical life of the Holy Prophet
Muhammad (sas).
The command is given to the Holy Prophet to say to the unbelievers
who rejected his message concerning the Unity of Allah and thus
refused to believe in the Prophet’s God:
La ‘abudu ma ta‘budun
I do not (and shall not) worship that which you worship.
To grasp fully the deep import of this verse it is necessary to
cast a cursory glance at the Holy Prophet’s life which was the epitome
of dedication to the worship of One God. His teaching concerning
the Oneness of Allah had raised such a commotion in Makkah that
the unbelievers, impelled by these disturbances, approached the
Holy Prophet for a mutual consultation and presented the purportedly
conciliatory proposition to him, that both parties should take turns
in worshipping each other’s gods for a year (to determine which
one was better and so maintain peace in Makkah).
This was the time in the Holy Prophet’s life when all the physical
persecutions the unbelievers had wreaked on him had come to an end.
But with one stroke of the sword of the Unity of Allah in the form
of the verse, I do not (and shall not) worship that which you
worship, he slayed and put to rest all gods besides Allah
those of nature and those of the ego. He thus categorically negated
not only the worship of every other god besides Allah but even those
things which could have brought comfort to himself and from which
he could have expected benefit, he sacrificed completely only for
the sake of the pleasure of this Lord and for the establishment
of His Unity. Indeed this was an unprecedented event in world history.
Having failed in this plan, the Makkan unbelievers came up with
another strategy. Addressing the Holy Prophet, they said: “If you
desist from condemning our gods, and if you desire sovereignty over
us, we are more that prepared to make you our king. If it is wealth
that you want we are willing to amass however much you may wish.
If it is some beautiful maiden that you will like to have, then
give the command and we will be only too happy to marry you to the
most beautiful damsel.”
Thus they appealed to the three most powerful desires in the heart
of a human being honour and power, wealth and riches and
beautiful women and offered them all to him. However, he
laid low all those false gods with the sword of the Unity of Allah
and displayed to the world the most exalted example of perfect conviction
in the Oneness of Allah. His steadfast response was: I do not
worship and I shall never worship that which you worship, or
as he explained in his own words:
“For the sake of the pleasure of my Lord I have already
killed all those desires of the lower self with which you tempt
me so that even if you place the sun in my right hand and the
moon in my left, I cannot refrain from rejecting your false gods
even if I have to face the most frightful dangers or perish in
the attempt.”
Whereupon this categorical rejection ushered in the season of oppression
which was an inevitable result of this repudiation as the unbelievers
unleashed persecution after persecution on him and even blockaded
him in a valley in Makkah. They also inflicted all kinds of pains
and indignities on his companions they killed some and forced
others into exile. But he never budged an inch in the face of all
these calamities and perils and the only words that he uttered were:
I do not (and shall not) worship that which you worship.
Is there a more heart-inspiring example of the belief in the Oneness
of Allah than this?
There is another matter worthy of consideration. It is natural
for the disposition and ideas of man to change in accordance with
the conditions of the time. For example, a person may be living
a righteous life but if he has a case in the courthouse he may see
no other solution to his predicament than giving false evidence.
However, let us look for a moment at how perfect was the Holy Prophet
Muhammad’s faith in Allah. There was no trial that he ever faced
in life but whatever the condition in which he found himself his
faith never suffered even an atom’s weight of loss. In the Battle
of Uhud, for instance, he was under the severest pressure. He had
only a handful of his companions around him whilst in front of him
stood a large army of unbelievers cutting off all avenues of help
or escape. Showers of arrows together with the incessant attacks
of the enemy left no place safe from danger when suddenly Abu Sufyan,
the leader of the enemy forces shouted out to the besieged Muslims:
“Is Muhammad alive?” Receiving no reply, he asked again: “Is Abu
Bakr with you?” Still receiving no answer, he inquired: “Is Umar
with you?” On each occasion the Holy Prophet forbade his companions
from responding for the time was such when silence was indeed golden.
However, when Abu Sufyan, thinking that all of them were dead,
in an uncontrollable upsurge of joy and ecstasy shouted at the top
of his voice the triumphal war cry: “Long live Hubal!” (Hubal was
the chief idol of the Arabs), the Holy Prophet’s sense of honour
for the Oneness of Allah could not permit him to remain silent to
this taunt. And throwing caution to the winds and risking his life
even in the face of frightful dangers, he ordered his companions
to reply thus: “Allah is the Triumphant, the Lord of Glory and Honour.”
Again, Abu Sufyan cried out: “We have Uzza with us and you have
no Uzza!” (Uzza was a most beloved goddess of the Arabs.) Once more,
the Holy Prophet asked his companions to respond: “Allah is our
Patron and you have no Patron.”
Can we find in the history of religion a greater exemplification
of the truth of the verse: I do not worship and shall never worship
that which you worship?
Let us now turn our attention to the temptations of comfort and
luxury. Within a few years Makkah was conquered and the whole of
Arabia lay under the Holy Prophet’s control, yet the same simplicity,
the same hatred for the adornment and splendour and the comfort
and luxury of worldly life, the same toil, and diligence, worship,
generosity, compassion for the poor and the needy, the very meekness,
humility, courtesy and generosity that he practised in the time
of penury, those very same he displayed in his regal status. When
his wives, for whose love and honour his blessed heart overflowed,
saw that in the train of victories even rank and file Muslims were
enjoying wealth and property, they, too, sought of him some of the
wealth and property and adornment and fineries of this world. He
replied that he was willing to grant them their request but on one
condition - that henceforth all connection with him would be severed
and through divorce they would be given their freedom, for as he
explained further, the wealth and property were public property
and an indispensable provision for the poor and the needy.
His beloved daughter, Fatimah, overcome by physical and mental
distress through drawing water with her own hands, and using the
hand-mill to grind grain, asked him for a maid or a slave to help
her, but he responded thus: “The needs of the poor and the needy
have not yet been fulfilled. After every salah (prayer) you
should recite: Subhan-allah and Al-Hamdu-li-llah thirty-three
times each and Allahu Akbar thirty-four times and you will
not be overtaken by fatigue.”
Provisions for comfort, wealth and power he had all at his disposal,
but he never seized the opportunity to satisfy his own personal
desires through them, which, if he had done was his legal right.
However, he never did so because the sublime status of his faith
in Allah had already eradicated the love for these concerns. This
constituted a practical manifestation of the Oneness of Allah which
had already been proclaimed to the world in the verse: I do not
worship those whom you worship. And the verse: You do not
worship Him Whom I worship addresses those unbelievers and deniers
who obstinately persisted in worshipping their false gods and rejecting
the true God of the Prophet Muhammad (sas). That is why they
were spoken to in the words of the above verse, that is, You
do not worship Him Whom I worship.
We now come to the next two verses of the chapter:
- Nor shall I worship that which you worship,
- nor do you worship Him Whom I worship.
By speaking to them in the present tense: I do not worship that
which you worship, the Holy Prophet is telling the unbelievers
that throughout his life, even from the very beginning, he had never
been a worshipper of those gods which they adored. This is clear
evidence that even from his childhood days our Holy Prophet’s faith
in one God was firmly established and that the worship of idols
was repugnant to him.
At first sight, it would appear that the Holy Prophet should have
mentioned his past rejection of those gods first, and then spoken
of his present repudiation of them. However, the sequence was changed
because at the time of speaking, the unbelievers’ opposition to
the Holy Prophet was at its peak and the Holy Prophet and his companions
were being subjected to the most cruel forms of persecution and
they were even hatching plots to kill him. So, because of the importance
of the current state of affairs, the Holy Prophet addressed the
present situation first and told them: “Try your utmost against
me if you wish, but I will never worship those false gods that you
worship.”
He then turned to the evidence of his past life as he reminded
them that he had always hated their gods and had never ever worshipped
them before. “It has become even more impossible for me to do so,”
he continued, “for I have found My Lord Who has chosen me and clothed
me in the mantle of prophethood and has sent me to the world as
His messenger.”
As regards the unbelievers, one will notice that they are addressed
twice in the same words: Nor do you worship Him Whom I worship.
This is for the sake of emphasis and also to underline the point
that they were stubbornly following a deviant path.
The last verse of the chapter reads thus:
Lakum dinukum wa liya din
To you, your recompense and to me, mine.
Here the meaning of din is recompense or retribution
as it is in the phrase: Maliki yaumid-din (Master of the
Day of Retribution).
In the above verse a clear and decisive sequel has been promised
concerning the matter between the Holy Prophet Muhammad (sas)
and the unbelievers. The former was steadfastly sticking to the
worship of One God and the latter obstinately holding on to their
gods and goddesses with both parties being antagonistic to each
other in terms of Who or what was to be worshipped, so it was necessary
that a definitive judgement on the way of life of these two contending
groups to emerge so that when they clashed head on the question
of whose God was true and was the Possessor of triumph and power
and really held sway over the Universe and Whose worshippers possessed
triumphant power and success and whose gods were false and whose
devotees faced destruction and humiliation, would be settled once
and for all.
And so it happened. When the devotees of false gods came face to
face with Muhammad (sas) the worshipper of One God, so clearly
did the world see the respective end of each party that a clear
differentiation between the true God and the false gods finally
came to pass. And when Abu Sufyan, the erstwhile enemy of truth
and leader of the pagans entered into the fold of Islam at the conquest
of Makkah, and was asked by the Holy Prophet what was the reason
he joined the faith and what signs of truth really influenced his
heart to accept the truth, he replied: “The fact of the matter is
that in order to save my gods I opposed you with all the power at
my command and in order to destroy you I left no stone unturned.
We were many and you stood alone. Yet in spite of this you emerged
victorious and we suffered defeat. I thought to myself that if our
gods possessed any power or any authenticity then they would have
come to my assistance and I on the other hand should not have had
to help them all the time. In fact, they should have been able to
save themselves at least. So what power could they have against
that One God Whose followers gained such an unprecedented victory
over a whole nation in just a few years?”
From the above example of the practical application of faith in
One God which the Holy Prophet (sas) demonstrated in his
lifetime, we can see clearly that unless faith in Allah takes root
in the day to day lives of Muslims, a clear distinction between
Muslims and non-Muslims cannot emerge in the way it did in the Holy
Prophet’s time. So those who pay lip-profession to faith in Allah,
but who are in reality enmeshed in the curse of worshipping graves
and shrines and who swear unswerving loyalty to their religious
leaders and are blind followers who worship ceremonies and rituals
etc; or those for whom the love for wealth and property or power
and honour, or fame and reputation, and women and children takes
precedence over the pleasure of Allah and obedience to Him; or those
who so revere customs and traditions and fear the wrath of men so
that they are afraid to incur their displeasure even if it means
their disobeying Allah Himself; or those who, influenced by the
vicissitudes of time or fluctuating circumstances of ease and adversity,
or who in trials, lose faith and slacken in their steadfastness
and their dependence and reliance on Allah, these indeed really
belie their professed faith in Him by their very actions. This is
why the Mujaddid of the Age found it necessary to include
in his oath of allegiance the condition: “I shall put religion above
the world.” His aim was to instill in the lives of Muslims a practical
manifestation of their faith in Allah.
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