Website: www.aaiil.uk
Does the Quran say
that Muslims and non-Muslims worship different Gods?
Friday
Khutba by Dr Zahid Aziz,
for Lahore
Ahmadiyya UK, 11 April 2025
|
“Say: O disbelievers, I do not
serve what you serve, nor do you serve Him Whom I serve, nor shall I serve what
you serve, nor do you serve Him Whom I serve. For you is your recompense and
for me my recompense.” — ch. 109, Al-Kāfirūn, The
Disbelievers. |
قُلۡ یٰۤاَیُّہَا
الۡکٰفِرُوۡنَ
ۙ﴿۱﴾ لَاۤ
اَعۡبُدُ
مَا
تَعۡبُدُوۡنَ
ۙ﴿۲﴾ وَ
لَاۤ
اَنۡتُمۡ
عٰبِدُوۡنَ
مَاۤ اَعۡبُدُ
ۚ﴿۳﴾ وَ
لَاۤ اَنَا
عَابِدٌ
مَّا
عَبَدۡتُّمۡ
ۙ﴿۴﴾
وَ
لَاۤ
اَنۡتُمۡ
عٰبِدُوۡنَ
مَاۤ
اَعۡبُدُ ؕ﴿۵﴾ لَکُمۡ
دِیۡنُکُمۡ
وَلِیَ دِیۡنِ
٪﴿۶﴾ |
I have recited a well-known short
chapter of the Holy Quran, consisting of six short verses, entitled ‘The
Disbelievers’. This was a very early revelation of the Holy Prophet, addressing
the Arab idol-worshippers of his own people and community. On the basis of the
statements made here by the Holy Prophet, as commanded by Allah, that he does
not worship what they, his people, worship, and they do not worship what he
worships, it has been alleged by some critics of Islam that the Quran is declaring
to all unbelievers in the world that the God which they worship and the God
which the Holy Prophet worships are not the same. According to these critics,
Islam teaches that God as presented to people by the Holy Prophet, for them to worship,
is an entirely different and new Being that no one had heard of or worshipped
before the Holy Prophet’s time, and that people had been worshipping false gods
previously.
This is a completely wrong
interpretation and wrong understanding. First, let us take the case of the Arab
idol-worshippers. The Quran repeatedly describes them as worshipping gods
“besides Allah” or “taking others as partners with Allah”. It says:
“And they serve besides Allah that which can neither
harm them nor benefit them, and they say: These are our intercessors (or
go-betweens) with Allah” (10:18).
It also says about them:
“And those who choose protectors besides Him (say): We
serve them only that they may bring us nearer to Allah” (39:3).
The Holy Prophet is told to declare:
“Say: O people, if you are in doubt as to my religion,
(know that) I do not serve those whom you serve besides Allah, but I serve
Allah, Who causes you to die; and I am commanded to be one of the believers, and
that you set yourself for the religion, being upright; and do not be of those
who set up partners (with Allah)” (10:104–105).
And again:
“Say: I am commanded only to serve Allah and not set
up partners with Him. To Him do I invite (you), and to Him is my return”
(13:36).
This makes it abundantly clear that
the statements in Sūrah al-Kāfirūn, “I do not serve what
you serve” and “nor shall I serve what you serve”, refer to what these people
were worshipping in addition to Allah, whom they made into partners of
Allah and believed that without these partners Allah could not function.
Similarly, the statement made twice about them in this chapter, “nor do you
serve Him Whom I serve”, means not that they were not at all worshipping Allah,
but that they were not worshipping Allah alone, without adding partners to Him.
The partners were in their eyes inseparable from Allah. The Quran says about
such people:
“And most of them do not believe in Allah without
setting up partners (with Him)” (12:106), i.e., without committing shirk.
It is also clear from the Quran that,
under some circumstances, the idol-worshippers did turn to Allah alone. It
says:
“And when distress afflicts you in the sea, away go
those whom you call on except He; but when He brings you safe to the land,
you turn away. And man is ever ungrateful” (17:67).
Several translators of the Quran put
it this way, that all the others you call upon and worship are forgotten by
you, except for Allah. In another place the Quran asks them that if they face
some calamity sent by Allah “will you call on others than Allah, if you are
truthful?” And it gives the answer:
“No, Him you call upon, so He removes that (trouble) for
which you pray, if He pleases, and you forget what you set up as partners (with
Him)” (6:40–41).
The Quran even says that when facing
distress the same idol-worshippers call upon Allah in humility and with
sincerity:
“Say: Who is it that delivers you from the calamities
of the land and the sea? (When) you call upon Him, in humility and in secret:
If He deliver us from this, we will certainly be of the grateful ones. Say:
Allah delivers you from this and from every distress, yet you set up partners
(with Him)” (6:63–64).
Again:
“He it is Who makes you travel by land and sea; until,
when you are in the ships, and they sail on with them in a pleasant breeze, and
they rejoice at it, a violent wind overtakes them and waves surge in on them
from all sides, and they think they are surrounded. Then they pray to Allah, being
sincere to Him in obedience: If You deliver us from this, we will certainly
be from among the grateful ones. But when He delivers them, lo! they are
unjustly rebellious in the earth. O people, your rebellion is against
yourselves — (you take) a provision (only) of this world’s life. Then to Us is
your return, so We shall inform you of what you did” (10:22–23).
Their praying to Allah, “being
sincere to Him in obedience”, to be saved from drowning is mentioned twice
more in the Quran (29:65, 31:32). It is therefore a gross distortion to allege
that the Quran says that people before Islam were worshipping something
different from the God Who revealed the Quran, and that only Muslims worship
the real God while non-Muslims worship something else which is not God.
Leaving aside the Arab
idol-worshippers, and moving on to the followers of the previous scriptures, it
is even more clear from the Quran that essentially they worship the same God as
Muslims. The prophet Jacob was given the name Israel, and on that name the
Israelites or Bani Isra’īl were named. According to the Quran, when Jacob
was dying:
“he said to his sons: What will you serve after me?
They said: We shall serve your God and the God of your fathers, Abraham and
Ishmael and Isaac, one God only, and to Him do we submit” (2:133).
Clearly, that God Whom the Jews
worshipped from that time onwards was the same God Whom the Muslim worshipped
after they accepted the message of Islam. Only a little later, the Quran tells
us that Jews and Christians say to Muslims “Be Jews or Christians, you will be
on the right course” (2:135). The Quran replies to them:
“Say: Do you dispute with us about Allah, and He is
our Lord and your Lord, and for us are our deeds and for you your deeds; and we
are sincere to Him?” (2:139).
In another place also the Holy
Prophet is told to say to them:
“Allah is our Lord and your Lord. For us are our
deeds, and for you your deeds. There is no contention between us and you. Allah
will gather us together, and to Him is the eventual coming” (42:15).
Another verse says:
“And do not argue with the People of the Book except
by what is best, save such of them as act unjustly. But say: We believe in what
has been revealed to us and revealed to you, and our God and your God is One,
and to Him we submit” (29:46).
This directs us to conduct our
arguments with followers of earlier scriptures, which principally means the
Jews and the Christians, in a spirit of goodwill and reconciliation, using the
best arguments and in the best behaviour, and to point out to them that the
same God Who revealed the scriptures that they believe in, has revealed our
scripture, the Quran. In further clarifying the words here “our God and your
God is One” some translators have added “and the same”, so that it becomes: “our
God and your God is One and the same”. Nothing could be clearer than this.
There is also the well-known verse in
the Quran:
“Surely those who believe, and those who are Jews, and
the Christians, and the Sabians, whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day and
does good, they have their reward with their Lord, and there is no fear for
them, nor shall they grieve” (2:62).
A similar statement occurs in chapter
5, verse 69. The meaning is that Muslims (“those who believe”), Jews,
Christians and the other smaller religion mentioned, and also other religions
might be included, all claim to believe in God and the Day of Judgment, and in
doing good, as the basis of their religion. They also have the same Lord, as He
is called here as “their Lord”. The “reward from their Lord” depends on how
pure and correct are their beliefs. If their belief in God includes adding
partners to God, or blindly obeying priests as if they are God’s appointed
agents, then they will not be able to achieve acceptance from Allah.
The statements in chapter Al-Kāfirūn
about whom you worship may have another interpretation. These statements might
not be referring to worshipping God but might be about what human beings hanker
after in order to achieve the aim of their lives. You will recall the
well-known incident that the Quraish opponents of the Holy Prophet, in the
early years of his mission, offered him various worldly inducements if he would
agree to give up preaching the oneness of God. They said to him: If you want wealth,
we will gather as much wealth for you as you want, if you want a position of
honour we will accept you as our ruler, and if you want to marry a beautiful
woman we are prepared to give you in marriage whichever woman you wish. He
rejected all these offers. This is one meaning of the words in this chapter: “I
do not serve what you serve, … nor shall I serve what you serve”. They
worshipped their worldly desires and they imagined that the Holy Prophet might
also worship the same and he could be stopped from preaching the oneness of God
in exchange for wealth, power or woman. But he gives them the straight reply
that, neither now nor in the future, will I bow down to worldly inducements. And
the other words of this chapter: “nor do you serve Him Whom I serve”, mean that
my object in life is not your object in life. Mine is to find contentment and
satisfaction by a close connection with God and by the service of humanity.
Yours is material gain.
The last verse of this chapter is: “For
you is your dīn and for me my dīn.” This is most often
translated as: You have your religion (meaning, idol-worship) and I have my
religion (meaning, Islam or worship of One God). Maulana Muhammad Ali writes
that dīn here does not mean religion but recompense, or what you
earn in the end as a result. It is just as, in Sūrah
Fātiḥah, the words yaum-id-dīn do not mean the day
of religion but the day when you finally find the result of your deeds. So the
meaning of this last verse is: You will meet the result of worshipping what you
worship and I will meet the result of worshipping God Whom I worship.
So may Allah enable us to clarify and
correct the wrong concepts that people, through ignorance or malice, attribute
to Islam — Ameen.
Website: www.aaiil.uk