لَا أَعْبُدُ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ
Root: ع-ب-د. The concrete field of the root needs dwelling on, because the English word "worship" has narrowed over time and now suggests hardly anything beyond ritual.
The root sense is bending the neck, being under obedience. ʿAbd: slave, servant. And there is this usage in the language: طريق مُعبَّد (ṭarīq muʿabbad) — a road much trodden, levelled and softened by being walked over and over. That is, beneath the root lies the picture of being softened by treading, letting go of one's resistance.
The conclusion that follows is this: service is, before it is a series of acts performed, a position — placing oneself beneath a will. The rituals are the expression of that position, not the thing itself.
This distinction is necessary for understanding the sūra. Quraysh's offer was an exchange at the level of ritual: "you bow before ours, we shall bow before yours." The sūra's refusal is at the level of position: it is impossible to place oneself beneath two separate wills at once.
The verse says mā taʿbudūn: "the thing you serve". In Arabic, مَنْ (man, who) is normally used for rational beings; مَا (mā, what) is for non-rational beings and objects.
Using mā for idols conforms to this rule: they are objects. But in the third and fifth verses the sūra uses mā for God as well: mā aʿbud — "what I serve". This is a situation that calls for explanation, and the exegetes offer several:
| Explanation | Account |
|---|---|
| Mushākala (formal matching) | Because the two sides are set out in symmetrical sentences, the same particle has been used for both. Such matching is common in Arabic in paired sentences |
| Mā maṣdariyya | Mā turns the verb after it into a verbal noun: "I do not perform the service you perform / you do not perform the service I perform". On this reading the issue is not the object of service but the form of the service |
| Mā can be used for an attribute | In Arabic mā can also be used of rational beings in the sense of "of what quality". Contexts in which a quality is being asked about are given as examples of this use of mā |
The second explanation is especially interesting, because it moves the sūra somewhere else: the issue becomes not only "who is being worshipped" but "how is worship being done". A service that is mediated, shared, arrangeable in turns is not the same act as an exclusive service. The two explanations do not exclude one another.
This verse is a verbal sentence, and the verb is in the imperfect (muḍāriʿ — the form covering habitual, present and future): lā aʿbudu.
1. The verbal sentence. In Arabic a verbal sentence conveys ḥudūth — coming-to-be, occurrence, renewal. It speaks of whether an act happens or not.
2. The imperfect. Lā + imperfect covers the present and the future. It does not reach back into the past.
So what this verse says is: "From this moment on I do not serve what you serve, and I shall not serve it." The offer concerned the future ("for a year you serve ours"), and the answer cuts off the future.
The movement of the sūra from here on is to close the gaps this sentence leaves. Because to say that an act will not be done is not the same as saying that the act will never have been done. That difference is established in the fourth verse.