Surah Al-Kafirun: Meaning, Translation and Transliteration (Qul Ya Ayyuhal Kafirun)

Surah Al-Kafirun, which many people know by its opening words Qul yā ayyuhal-kāfirūn, is six short verses near the end of the Quran. It is one of the four surahs that begin with Qul, "Say", and it is often recited together with Surah Al-Ikhlas: in the sunnah prayers before Fajr and after Maghrib, in witr, after tawaf, and before sleep.

This article gives the full surah in Arabic, a transliteration and the English translation, then explains why it was revealed, what each verse means, why some of its verses seem to repeat, and what its last line, "For you is your religion, and for me is my religion", does and doesn't mean.

The full surah

قُلۡ يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلۡكَٰفِرُونَ لَآ أَعۡبُدُ مَا تَعۡبُدُونَ وَلَآ أَنتُمۡ عَٰبِدُونَ مَآ أَعۡبُدُ وَلَآ أَنَا۠ عَابِدٞ مَّا عَبَدتُّمۡ وَلَآ أَنتُمۡ عَٰبِدُونَ مَآ أَعۡبُدُ لَكُمۡ دِينُكُمۡ وَلِيَ دِينِ

Transliteration

1. Qul yā ayyuhal-kāfirūn
2. Lā aʿbudu mā taʿbudūn
3. Wa lā antum ʿābidūna mā aʿbud
4. Wa lā ana ʿābidum-mā ʿabadtum
5. Wa lā antum ʿābidūna mā aʿbud
6. Lakum dīnukum wa liya dīn

English translation (Saheeh International)

Say, "O disbelievers, I do not worship what you worship. Nor are you worshippers of what I worship. Nor will I be a worshipper of what you worship. Nor will you be worshippers of what I worship. For you is your religion, and for me is my religion." (109:1-6)

If you learned to read the Quran in the IndoPak script, here is the same surah as it appears in a South Asian mushaf:

قُلۡ يٰۤاَيُّهَا الۡكٰفِرُوۡنَۙ لَاۤ اَعۡبُدُ مَا تَعۡبُدُوۡنَۙ وَلَاۤ اَنۡـتُمۡ عٰبِدُوۡنَ مَاۤ اَعۡبُدُ​ ۚ وَلَاۤ اَنَا عَابِدٌ مَّا عَبَدۡتُّمۡۙ وَ لَاۤ اَنۡـتُمۡ عٰبِدُوۡنَ مَاۤ اَعۡبُدُ ؕ لَـكُمۡ دِيۡنُكُمۡ وَلِىَ دِيۡنِ

You can read and listen to Surah Al-Kafirun with its translation, or read it with the Urdu translation.

About the surah

Al-Kafirun is the 109th surah of the Quran and sits in the 30th juz. Most scholars count it as Meccan, revealed before the Hijrah, when the Muslims were a small and pressured minority in Makkah. Its name, "The Disbelievers", comes from its first verse, and it is also known by its opening words, Qul yā ayyuhal-kāfirūn. You will see the name spelled Kafirun, Kafiroon or Kafiroun; they are all the same surah.

Why it was revealed

The commentators, among them Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī and Ibn Kathīr, report that a group of leaders of Quraysh came to the Prophet ﷺ with an offer. Ibn Isḥāq names some of them: al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah, al-ʿĀṣ ibn Wāʾil, al-Aswad ibn al-Muṭṭalib and Umayyah ibn Khalaf. They proposed a compromise: worship our gods for a year, and we will worship your God for a year. In some versions, they asked him only to touch their idols, or to stop criticising them, and they would leave him in peace.

The surah was the answer. It doesn't argue or negotiate. It tells the Prophet ﷺ to say, plainly and publicly, that there will be no trade in worship: not now, not later.

Verse by verse

Verse 1: "Say, O disbelievers"

قُلۡ يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلۡكَٰفِرُونَ

Say, "O disbelievers, (109:1)

The surah begins with qul, "say". The Prophet ﷺ isn't giving his own view here; he is told what to say, and the word qul is kept in the recitation. It is a reminder that this answer comes from Allah, not from a personal quarrel.

The address, "O disbelievers", is direct. Many commentators, including al-Qurṭubī, say it was addressed first to the particular leaders who made the offer, people Allah knew would die without believing. That is part of why verses 3 and 5 can say "nor are you worshippers of what I worship" as a fact about them. It is not a statement that no disbeliever will ever accept Islam; many of the Quraysh later did.

Verses 2 and 3: "I do not worship what you worship"

لَآ أَعۡبُدُ مَا تَعۡبُدُونَ وَلَآ أَنتُمۡ عَٰبِدُونَ مَآ أَعۡبُدُ

I do not worship what you worship. Nor are you worshippers of what I worship. (109:2-3)

The offer was to share worship. The reply is that worship can't be shared. The Prophet ﷺ worships Allah alone; they worship idols alongside or instead of Him. Even when the Quraysh did turn to Allah, they gave Him partners, so what they worshipped was not what he worshipped.

Verses 4 and 5: "Nor will I be a worshipper of what you worship"

وَلَآ أَنَا۠ عَابِدٞ مَّا عَبَدتُّمۡ وَلَآ أَنتُمۡ عَٰبِدُونَ مَآ أَعۡبُدُ

Nor will I be a worshipper of what you worship. Nor will you be worshippers of what I worship. (109:4-5)

These two verses sound like verses 2 and 3 again. Why the repetition is one of the best-known questions about this surah, and it gets its own section below.

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

لَكُمۡ دِينُكُمۡ وَلِيَ دِينِ

For you is your religion, and for me is my religion. (109:6)

The surah ends by drawing a clear line: your way of worship is yours, and mine is mine. The word order in Arabic puts "for you" and "for me" first, which gives the sense of "yours is yours, and mine is mine alone". The final word, dīn, is pronounced without its last letter in recitation; in full it is dīnī, "my religion".

Why do the verses repeat?

Verses 2–3 and 4–5 look almost the same. Scholars have given several explanations, and they can all be true together.

• Emphasis. Repeating a refusal makes it final. The Quraysh had asked more than once, in more than one form, and the answer is given more than once. Al-Ṭabarī and others mention this view.
• Present and future. Verse 2 uses a present-tense verb, lā aʿbudu, "I do not worship", while verse 4 uses a noun and a past-tense verb, lā ana ʿābidun mā ʿabadtum, "nor am I one who would worship what you have worshipped". Read this way, the first pair rejects the offer now, and the second rejects it for all time. Saheeh International reflects this by translating verses 4 and 5 with "will".
• What is worshipped, and how. Ibn al-Qayyim, in Badāʾiʿ al-Fawāʾid, discusses reading the second mā as "the way in which": I don't worship the gods you worship, and I don't worship in the way you worship. The Prophet's ﷺ worship was by revelation; theirs was by custom and invention.

The repetition is a large part of what the surah does: it closes every door the offer tried to open.

What "For you is your religion" does and doesn't mean

The last verse is often quoted on its own, sometimes in ways the surah doesn't support. Two readings go wrong in opposite directions.

It doesn't mean every religion is equally true. The whole surah is a refusal to blend worship, and it was revealed to reject exactly that kind of compromise. Muslims believe Islam is the truth; this verse is not an exception to that.

It also doesn't mean hostility or forcing anyone. The verse leaves people with their own choice, which fits the principle stated elsewhere in the Quran, "There shall be no compulsion in [acceptance of] the religion" (2:256). Muslims lived alongside people of other faiths, traded with them, and treated them justly, while keeping their worship separate.

So the line is about worship and belief, not about whether Muslims can be good neighbours, colleagues or friends to people of other faiths. One can say clearly, "I don't worship what you worship", and still be kind, honest and fair. Some early scholars held that the verse was abrogated by later verses on fighting, but most hold that it is a statement of fact about belief, not a command, and so it stands.

Al-Kafirun and Al-Ikhlas

The Prophet ﷺ often recited these two surahs together, and scholars have pointed out that they complement each other. Ibn al-Qayyim and others describe them as the two halves of tawḥīd, the oneness of Allah:

• Al-Ikhlas declares who Allah is: One, the Eternal Refuge, neither begetting nor begotten, with none equal to Him. It is tawḥīd in belief.
• Al-Kafirun declares that worship belongs to Him alone, and rejects worshipping anything else. It is tawḥīd in practice.

Some early scholars called them al-muqashqishatān, "the two that cure", because together they free a person from shirk.

Virtues and when to recite it

A quarter of the Quran

A hadith in al-Tirmidhi says that Qul yā ayyuhal-kāfirūn equals a quarter of the Quran (al-Tirmidhi 2893). Scholars differ on the strength of this narration. Those who accept it explain it by meaning: much of the Quran is about belief, worship, law and stories, and this surah gives the foundation of worship in six verses.

Before sleep

Nawfal al-Ashjaʿī reported that the Prophet ﷺ told him: "Recite Qul yā ayyuhal-kāfirūn, then sleep at the end of it, for it is a declaration of freedom from shirk" (Abu Dawud 5055; al-Tirmidhi 3403). Many Muslims make it the last thing they recite before sleeping, alongside Surah Al-Mulk and Ayatul Kursi.

In the sunnah prayers

• Before Fajr. Abū Hurayrah reported that the Prophet ﷺ recited Qul yā ayyuhal-kāfirūn and Qul huwa Allāhu aḥad in the two rak'ahs before Fajr (Sahih Muslim 726).
• After Maghrib. ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd said he could not count how often he heard the Prophet ﷺ recite these two surahs in the two rak'ahs after Maghrib and the two before Fajr (al-Tirmidhi 431).
• In witr. In a three-rak'ah witr, the Prophet ﷺ would recite Surah Al-A'la in the first, Al-Kafirun in the second and Al-Ikhlas in the third (Abu Dawud 1423; al-Tirmidhi 462).
• After tawaf. In Jābir's long description of the Prophet's ﷺ Hajj, he prayed two rak'ahs behind Maqam Ibrahim after tawaf and recited these two surahs in them (Sahih Muslim 1218).

Word by word

Arabic	Transliteration	Meaning
قُلۡ	qul	say
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا	yā ayyuhā	O you
ٱلۡكَٰفِرُونَ	al-kāfirūn	disbelievers
لَآ أَعۡبُدُ	lā aʿbudu	I do not worship
مَا تَعۡبُدُونَ	mā taʿbudūn	what you worship
وَلَآ أَنتُمۡ	wa lā antum	nor are you
عَٰبِدُونَ	ʿābidūna	worshippers
مَآ أَعۡبُدُ	mā aʿbud	of what I worship
وَلَآ أَنَا۠ عَابِدٞ	wa lā ana ʿābidun	nor will I be a worshipper
مَّا عَبَدتُّمۡ	mā ʿabadtum	of what you have worshipped
لَكُمۡ دِينُكُمۡ	lakum dīnukum	for you is your religion
وَلِيَ دِينِ	wa liya dīn	and for me is my religion

Living by Surah Al-Kafirun

• Keep your worship for Allah alone. The surah's point is that worship isn't negotiable. In daily life that can mean not letting anything, from money to status to other people's approval, take the place in your heart that belongs to Allah.
• Be clear and kind at once. You can be firm about what you believe and still be gentle with people who believe otherwise. The surah doesn't insult anyone; it simply states the difference.
• Recite it before sleep. It is short enough to add to your night routine tonight, and the Prophet ﷺ described it as a declaration of freedom from shirk.
• Pair it with Al-Ikhlas in the sunnah of Fajr and Maghrib, as he ﷺ did.

At six verses, it is one of the easiest surahs to memorise. Open Surah Al-Kafirun and listen to the recitation a few times while following the words.