وَقَالَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ لِلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ٱتَّبِعُوا۟ سَبِيلَنَا وَلْنَحْمِلْ خَطَٰيَٰكُمْ وَمَا هُم بِحَٰمِلِينَ مِنْ خَطَٰيَٰهُم مِّن شَىْءٍ
"Those who disbelieve said to those who believe: 'Follow our way, and let us carry your sins.' Yet they will carry nothing at all of their sins."
The offer is built not with a threat but with a guarantee: wa'l-naḥmil khaṭāyākum — "let us carry your sins."
| Sentence | What it says |
|---|---|
| Wa mā hum bi-ḥāmilīna min khaṭāyāhum min shayʾ | They cannot carry them |
| Wa la-yaḥmilunna athqālahum wa athqālan maʿa athqālihim (13) | Their own loads increase |
So the offer is not merely empty — when it is accepted, it increases the load of the one who makes it.
And this is an application of the principle of the load treated across the series: al-Najm 53/38, al-Zumar 39/7, Fāṭir 35/18 and Luqmān 31/33. The same principle in five places, in five different scenes.
The addition in Fāṭir is of use here: there even a near kinsman could not carry the load. Here there is someone who offers to carry it — and the invalidity of the offer is settled by the same principle.
And the second verse draws a distinction: wa athqālan maʿa athqālihim — "other loads along with their own loads." That is, the load of the one who leads astray increases; but the one who goes astray also goes on carrying his own. The two sentences complete one another.