Al-Kafirun

Al-Kafirun: the cards as text

Qur'an and Tafsir. Draft written with AI help: awaiting scholar review.

  1. Card 1

    Makkah offered to share its gods. The answer took six lines.

  2. Card 2

    A deal on the table

    The commentators report that leading men of Quraysh, the ruling tribe of Makkah, came to Muhammad ﷺ with a compromise. Worship our gods for a year, and we will worship your God for a year. The surah opens with the reply: "Say".

  3. Card 3

    Qur'an 109:1

    قُلۡ يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلۡكَٰفِرُونَ ۝١

    1 Say, "O disbelievers,

  4. Card 4

    Not one offer but several

    The reports do not agree on the offer. A year each. Wealth, a marriage and the leadership of Makkah, if he stopped criticising the idols. Or just touch one of our gods. Ma'ariful Qur'an suggests that Quraysh tried several times.

  5. Card 5

    Lesson: Quraysh offered to share. The message was that worship cannot be shared.

  6. Card 6

    Four lines that sound like two

    The answer comes in four short lines. I do not worship what you worship. You do not worship what I worship. Then the same two again, slightly changed. Commentators have asked for centuries why it is said twice.

  7. Card 7

    Qur'an 109:2

    لَآ أَعۡبُدُ مَا تَعۡبُدُونَ ۝٢

    2 I do not worship what you worship.

  8. Card 8

    Why say it twice? Three answers

    Why does al-Kafirun refuse twice? One reading: not now, and not ever. Ibn Kathir's reading: we do not share a god, and we do not share a way of worshipping. A third: it is repeated for force, because Quraysh kept asking.

  9. Card 9

    Lesson: The refusal is said twice, and the second time is not just an echo.

  10. Card 10

    "For you your religion"

    The surah ends: for you is your religion, and for me is my religion. It is one of the most quoted lines in the Qur'an. Commentators agree it marks a boundary. They differ on how much more it says.

  11. Card 11

    Qur'an 109:6

    لَكُمۡ دِينُكُمۡ وَلِيَ دِينِ ۝٦

    6 For you is your religion, and for me is my religion."

  12. Card 12

    Was this line later replaced?

    Some commentators held that "for you your religion" was replaced by later rulings on war. Ma'ariful Qur'an says most scholars disagreed: the line never approved of idol worship, so there was nothing to cancel. It refuses mixed worship, not peace.

  13. Card 13

    Lesson: The surah ends the bargaining without a threat: your way is yours, and mine is mine.

  14. Card 14

    Reflect: What was the offer behind al-Kafirun, according to the commentators?

    Answer: Taking turns worshipping each other's gods. To take turns: a year worshipping their gods, a year worshipping his.

  15. Card 15

    The end of Al-Kafirun.

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