بِسمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحمٰنِ الرَّحيمِ
قُل يا أَيُّهَا الكافِرونَ
Say: ‘O faithless ones!
EXEGESIS
The chapter opens by clearly indicating who the intended audience is. Most commentators believe the al in al-kāfirūn indicates recognition (al-ʿahd) and not universality. Thus, the verse is being addressed to a known group of disbelievers and not all the disbelievers of Mecca. What strengthens such a view, apart from the occasion of revelation, is the fact that the proceeding verses explicitly state that these disbelievers would never become Muslims, yet we know that after the conquest of Mecca many of the Meccan disbelievers accepted Islam. As such, it is more probable that the verse is referring to a group of stubborn disbelievers who would never accept Islam until they die.
Ṭūsī suggests that the al can possibly be understood as indicating generality, and in response to the above point of many disbelievers joining Islam, it could be said that the generality is attached to the condition in the following verse. Therefore, the meaning would be: O disbelievers (in general), you will never worship what I worship whilst maintaining your condition that I should worship your deities. However, it would be possible for you to later believe in my God once this condition is lifted.
The question also arises as to why this group was addressed as kāfirūn (faithless) and not as mushrikun (polytheists), or ‘O people’ or ‘O Quraysh’. There are possible reasons for this. It could be that the term kāfirūn is used to convey condemnation; or, they are described as such because the message that will be conveyed to them has a causal relation with such a description. In other words, the reason why the Holy Prophet would not accept their proposal and would distance himself from them is because they are disbelievers; kufr (disbelief) is the reason for the Prophet’s rejection. Another suggestion is that since the term kāfir is wider in scope than mushrik (polytheist), the verse intends to address anyone who rejects the message of the Prophet even if they be Jews or Christians. As such, to maintain the generality of the import of the verse, the word kāfirūn has been used.
EXPOSITION
The command Say appears 332 times in the Quran and five chapters begin with it: al-Ikhlāṣ, al-Falaq, al-Nās, al-Kāfirūn, and al-Jinn. This command of Say has been the subject of much debate and discussion. Some have even opined that it is a mistake in the compilation of the Quran for it does not make sense for the Prophet to repeat the command Say, which was told to him by Gabriel. It has been attributed to Muammar Gaddafi – the former leader of Libya – that he wanted to remove the word qul from the Quran, or at least from some of the chapters, such as Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ.
At first sight, it may seem redundant to start the verse with Say, as it seems that there would be no difference in meaning if we were to omit this word. However, considering the occasion of revelation, we see that the disbelievers had directly offered the Prophet to join their religion and thus the reply of negating this offer must come from him. It is for the Prophet to say ‘I shall not worship that which you worship’. If the chapter did not begin with the word Say, the verses would seem to be a reply from God, and in which case statements such as I do not worship what you worship in verse 2 would seem out of place, for it could be understood as God saying that He does not worship that which the disbelievers worship.
Secondly, it is noteworthy that God never addresses the disbelievers directly in the Quran and it is only the believers who have the honour of being direct recipients of the message of God. The only verse where the term O you who disbelieve is used is in 66:7. However, even in that verse, though the addressees are the disbelievers on the Day of Judgement, the verse seems to indicate that it would be the angels speaking to them on that day, and thus even then Allah will not address them directly. The use of the word Say in this chapter highlights that God does not deem it appropriate to address the disbelievers directly. The Prophet is made an intermediary when addressing them, and thus he is commanded to Say to them.
According to some Sunni and Shia exegetes, even though the command Say is addressed to the Prophet, this command is also directed at every Muslim in that they should denounce themselves from the disbelievers and their gods. Such an understanding is based on narrations from the Ahl al-Bayt that proclaim that verses are constantly flowing in their application (jary), and if a verse was only restricted to a certain individual and that individual were to die, the verse would also die in that it no longer has any application in the external world. Certain Sunni exegetes have also reached the same conclusion that these narrations indicate, and thus argue that limiting these verses to a group of the Quraysh in the past makes the verses redundant.
Yet others add that the reason why some verses begin with the word Say is to indicate to man that these are matters about which a believer must openly state his stance. As such, the believer ought to openly denounce from disbelief and its related values and actions. Furthermore, a declaring of renouncement can at times be more severe than the actual denouncement, for such open declarations may encourage others to follow suit.
REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE
Rāzī has ingeniously come up with forty-three different possible reasons as to why the chapter begins with Say. Whilst most of these reasons seem quite farfetched and thus do not warrant mention, a brief allusion will be made to some of them that seem more reasonable:
- The Holy Prophet was always commanded to approach the disbelievers in a gentle manner and converse with them in a polite tone and not a harsh one (see 3:159, 9:128, 21:107, and 16:125). However, addressing them as O faithless ones may have been seen as harsh and thus the verse began with the command Say to indicate that this was a command from God, and it was not the Prophet speaking of his own accord.
- When the disbelievers spoke ill of the Prophet regarding his lack of progeny, God replied with 108:3: Indeed it is your enemy who is without posterity. Thus, in this case it is as if God is saying ‘When they spoke ill of you, I responded, and now that they are speaking ill of Me by ascribing partners to Me, you should respond’.
It has also been argued that mentioning the word Say is an indication of the trustworthiness of the Holy Prophet that he did not alter a single word from what Gabriel told him, and thus when Gabriel recited to him the verse beginning with the word Say, he did not even omit this word when reciting the verse to the people. This preciseness and trustworthiness of the Prophet has been indicated to in 10:15: those who do not expect to encounter Us say: ‘Bring a Quran other than this, or alter it.’ Say: ‘I may not alter it of my own accord. I follow only what is revealed to me.’
Rāzī has compared this verse with verse 7 of Sūrat al-Taḥrīm: O those who disbelieved! Do not make any excuses today. You are only being requited for what you used to do. This verse does not begin with the command ‘say’, and instead of calling them disbelievers as in the verse under discussion, it uses the past tense of the verbal form (those who disbelieved). According to Rāzī, these differences can be explained by the fact that the verse of Sūrat al-Taḥrīm is an address to the disbelievers on the Day of Judgement whereby the Prophet would not be acting as a messenger to them on that day and thus there is no command of ‘say’ on that day to the Prophet. Furthermore, on that day they would all be obedient and thus it would be more prudent to use the past tense of the verb disbelieve.
[1] Amthal, 20/508.
[2] Tibyan, 10/422.
[3] Ibn Ashur, 30/510.
[4] Maududi, p. 588 [English translation].
[5] Haider Hobbollah, Commentary on Sūrat al-Kafirun: https://www.iqraonline.net/commentary-on-surah-al-kafirun-part-1/.
[6] Amthal, 20/509.
[7] Najafī, al-Kawthar fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān, 10/317; Maududi, p. 587 [English translation].
[8] Kafi, 1/192, h. 3.
[9] Maududi, p. 589 [English translation].
[10] Mudarrisi, 18/402.
[11] Razi, 32/323.
[12] Amthal, 20/509.
[13] Razi, 32/329.