Today's verse

بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيْم

Chapter 109
ﺳﻮﺭﺓ ﺍﻟﻜﺎﻓﺮﻭﻥ
Sūrat al-Kāfirūn
The Disbelievers

Verse 5

Arabic

ﻭَﻟَﺎ ﺃَﻧﺘُﻢْ ﻋَﺎﺑِﺪُﻭﻥَ ﻣَﺎ ﺃَﻋْﺒُﺪُ

Transliteration:

Wa laa antum 'aabiduuna maa a'abud

Meaning:

5. “Nor will you worship
Whom I worship,"
Tafsir:

Verses 2 - 5

2. “1 worship not what you
worship,"
3. “Nor do you worship Whom
I worship,"
4. “Neither shall I worship
what you worship,"
5. “Nor will you worship
Whom I worship,"

The polytheists of Quraysh offered to worship Allah for a year if the Prophet (s) and his followers worshipped their idols the next year in return. This led to the revelation of this Surah. Here the Prophet (s) was instructed to tell the polytheists that he would not worship their gods, even if they did not worship Allah. Then the same statement has been repeated that "I am not going to worship what you worship and you are not going to worship Whom I worship". The Prophet (s) was asked to say with full determination that he would not worship Allah and that too in the way He (Allah) likes and he had been shown. Allah, through His Prophet (s) says that the polytheists would not worship Allah alone because they have invented their own ways of worship and created images of their own gods. At another place, the Qur'an says:

" They follow but a guess and that which they themselves desire, whereas there has surely come to them the guidance from their Lord." Q53:23.

Then the Prophet (s) totally repudiated the idols of the polytheists and their worship. It is natural that every worshipper would have a dirty to worship. The Prophet (s) and his followers worship Allah alone and that too was in the way taught by the Prophet (s) according to the instructions which had been revealed to him.

Tafsir Ibn Kathir