Surah Al-Kafirun is a Makki (Meccan) surah with six verses. Kafirun means The Disbelievers. The Surah takes its name from the word al-kafirun occurring in the first verse.
There was a time in Makkah when although a storm of opposition had arisen in the pagan society of Quraish against the message of Islam preached by the Prophet pbuh yet the Quraish chiefs had not yet lost hope that they would reach some sort of a compromise with Prophet pbuh. Therefore, from time to time they would visit him with different proposals of compromise so that he accepted one of them and the dispute between them was brought to an end.
The Quraish proposed to the Prophet pbuh, “We shall give you so much of wealth that you will become the richest man of Makkah. We shall give you whichever woman you like in marriage. We are prepared to follow and obey you as our leader, only on the condition that you will not speak ill of our gods. If you do not agree to this, we present another proposal which is to your as well as to our advantage.”
When the Prophet pbuh asked what it was, they said that if he would worship their gods, Lat and Uzza, for a year, they would worship his God for the same space of time. So in reply to their evil thoughts, Allah revealed Surah Al-Kafirun to him. The Quraish had proposed such things to the Prophet pbuh not once, in one sitting, but at different times and on different occasions; and there was need that they should be given a decisive reply so that their hope that he would come to terms with them on the principle of “give and take” was frustrated for ever.
This Surah was revealed in order to exonerate the Muslims from the disbelievers religion, their rights of worship, and their gods, and to express their total disgust and unconcern with them and to tell them that Islam and kufr had nothing in common and there was no possibility of their being combined and mixed into one entity. Although it was addressed in the beginning to the disbelieving Quraish in response to their proposals of compromise, yet it is not confined to them only, but having made it a part of the Quran, Allah gave the Muslims the eternal teaching that they should exonerate themselves by word and deed from the creed of kufr wherever and in whatever form it be, and should declare without any reservation that they cannot make any compromise with the disbelievers in the matter of Faith.
In this Surah first the Prophet pbuh then all the believers are adressed to be aware of the clear distinction between Imaan and Kufr, that these two ideas can never ever be mingled up. It’s like two completely different worlds. A muslim lives on the theme of Tawheed, where there is no room of other gods or dieties.
The word “kafir’ used in Surah implies the one who refuses to believe, or is a disbeliever. It is all those people who do not acknowledge Muhammad pbuh as Allah’s Messenger and the teachings and guidance brought by him as the teaching and guidance given by Allah Himself, whether they be Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians or the disbelievers, polytheists and pagans of the entire world. It is not only restricted to the pagans of Quraish or of Arabia only.
This includes all those deities whom the disbelievers and the polytheists have been, and are still worshiping everywhere in the world, whether they are the angels, the jinn, prophets, saints, spirits of the living or dead men, or the sun, the moon, stars, animals, trees, rivers, idols and imaginary gods and goddesses.
The Quran has clearly stated that Allah’s worship is only that which does not have any tinge of the worship of any other and in which man makes his worship exclusively for Allah. So Prophet pbuh had been commanded to tell such a disbelieving mentality that I do not perform the kind of worship that you perform, i.e. polytheistic worship, and you do not perform the kind of worship that I perform, i.e. worship of One God. And also that You are not worshipers of the Deity who has the attributes of the Deity whom I worship.
And this is the real point on the basis of which the religion of the Prophet Muhammad pbuh is absolutely distinguished from the religions of all kinds of disbelievers, besides the deniers of God, for his God is utterly different from the God of all of them.
So This Surah can simply be stated as…
“My religion is entirely distinct and separate from your religion. I am not a worshiper of your gods and you are not worshipers of my God. I cannot worship your gods and you are not prepared to worship my God, Therefore, you and I can never follow and walk on the same path together.”
This is not a message of tolerance to the disbelievers, but a declaration of immunity, disgust with and dissociation from them as long as they are disbelievers. Its object is to disappoint them absolutely and finally that in the matter of religion the party of Allah’s Messenger and his followers would ever come to terms with them.
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