In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. [Out of ignorance, the disbelievers of Quraish invited the Prophet Muhammad – peace be upon him – to worship their deity one year, and in exchange, they will worship the deity of Muhammad the next year, so this chapter was revealed ]

1. Say, “O disbelievers.

Listen O disbelievers -anywhere and anytime- who thought that there could be points of conciliation between Islam - the creed of monotheism – and the doctrine of the disbelievers.

2. I do not worship what you worship.

I do not worship the idols, statues, and deities that you worship besides Allah, instead I sincerely worship Allah alone now and at all times.

3. Nor do you worship what I worship.

Your object of worship – O disbelievers – is not the same as my object of worship. For you -even though you believe that Allah is the creator and gives provision – yet you took others besides Him as deities whom you love and submit to as you love and submit to Allah, and by that you are not sincere to Allah and thus depart from our ways of sincerely worshiping, submitting and loving Allah alone.

4. Nor do I serve what you serve.

When it comes to the method of worshiping then my way to worship Allah and get closer to Him is through the method that Prophet Muhammad -peace be upon him- came with, and that is different from the ways that you follow to get closer to your deities.

5. Nor do you serve what I serve.

For your method of worship does not follow Allah’s commands that He let humankind know through sending Messengers, instead you yourselves have invented ways to worship your deities that are based on guess works, and just following the desires of your own souls. As long as you do so, then we depart in our methodologies and we cannot reconcile now nor in the future.

6. You have your way, and I have my way.”

Your way is based on worshiping deities besides Allah through methods of worship based on guess works and following own desires, be it (the corrupted forms of) Judaism, Christianity or other types of paganism. To the contrary, my way is the way of Islam that is based on worshipping Allah alone with the method that Allah is pleased with and let us know through the message of Prophet Muhamad – peace be upon him.