al-Kāfirūn 109:5 commentary

109/5

وَلَا أَنتُمْ عَابِدُونَ مَا أَعْبُدُ

Wa lā antum ʿābidūna mā aʿbud "Nor are you ones who serve what I serve."

The text is identical with the third verse; its analysis was made above.

Here let us look only at the balance the sūra has built up to this point. Four verses, two sides, two sentences each:

	Me	You
At the level of the act	Verse 2: lā aʿbudu	—
At the level of the attribute	Verse 4: lā ana ʿābidun	Verses 3 and 5: lā antum ʿābidūn

Note: no verbal sentence at all is constructed for the other side. Their sentences are nominal sentences both times. As an attempted reading — this is my own inference, not a transmitted report — this arrangement may show the following: the speaker declares on his own side both his act and his identity; about the other side he makes only an assessment of state, and does not speak about their acts. Of himself he can say "I do not do it"; of another, only "you are not such".