Al-Kafirun 109:1

This chapter of the Quran, containing six verses, was revealed in the last days of the Makkan period. In the beginning the Prophet used to address people as ‘O my people’ or ‘O my community’. But when in spite of completion of the arguments, the people did not accept him, he addressed them as ‘You who deny the Truth’. At this stage, in fact, this is a statement given directly by God. No human being enjoys the right to declare anyone a deniar. God asks the Prophet not to force non-believers into the faith. The Prophet’s duty was only to bear witness to the truth, spreading the message of God to everyone, without imposing it upon anyone. When, after 13 long years of unremitting efforts, people were not willing to believe, then the Prophet was told by God to say to the unbelievers, ‘I do not worship what you worship, nor do you worship what I worship.’ After the Prophet had fully conveyed God’s message to the people, He was exempted from obligation towards those who rejected his call. This chapter teaches us to practice tolerance towards non-Muslims and tells us to treat them with respect. In his mission to invite the people of Makkah to God’s path, the Prophet was filled with a sense of deep concern for the welfare of those he was addressing, and even though they heaped all sorts of oppression on him, he always beseeched God to guide them. The Prophet continued to do this steadfastly throughout the thirteen long years after receiving his prophethood in Makkah. Even after that, he did not refer to these people as kafirs on his own. It was only later that God revealed this commandment: ‘Say, ‘You who deny the truth’. From this it appears that it was only after these thirteen years of the Prophet’s dedicated mission in Makkah that God declared, those whom the Prophet had addressed but who had rejected him, as ‘deniers’, and it was then that God revealed this commandment.