ٱتَّخَذُوٓا۟ أَحْبَارَهُمْ وَرُهْبَٰنَهُمْ أَرْبَابًا مِّن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ وَٱلْمَسِيحَ ٱبْنَ مَرْيَمَ
Ittakhadhū aḥbārahum wa ruhbānahum arbāban min dūni'llāhi wa'l-masīḥa'bna Maryam; wa mā umirū illā li-yaʿbudū ilāhan wāḥidā; lā ilāha illā hū; subḥānahū ʿammā yushrikūn
"They took their rabbis and their monks as lords apart from God, and the Messiah, son of Mary (Maryam). Yet they were commanded only to serve one God. There is no god but He; He is far above what they associate with Him."
أَحْبَار — the singular is ḥabr or ḥibr. The root ح-ب-ر: to make beautiful, to adorn; and ink (ḥibr). The lexicographers record that the word is used of a scholar of religion, and that it is said to come from its connection with writing and ink. I do not give this derivation as certain.
رُهْبَان — root ر-ه-ب: fear, wariness. Rahba — fear mixed with reverence. Rāhib — one who fears; the word's sense of one who withdraws from the world and shuts himself up in worship comes from here.
What "taking as lords" means has been explained in the classical commentaries, and that explanation must be recorded.
The explanation widely transmitted is this: the "taking as lords" here is not prostrating to them or believing them to be gods. What is meant is the giving over to them of the authority to determine the lawful and the forbidden — that is, accepting as lawful what they count lawful, and as forbidden what they count forbidden.
This explanation is widespread in the classical exegetical tradition. It is also reported to rest on a hadith report; since I cannot give the wording and the source of that report with certainty, I do not transmit it. Per the method (Method): I do not ascribe to a source a saying of which I am not certain.
What can be verified from the wording of the verse itself is this, and I record it as my own reading: the continuation of the sentence is wa mā umirū illā li-yaʿbudū ilāhan wāḥidā — "yet they were commanded only to serve one God." The verse, that is, names what was done within the field of service. And the scope of the word ʿibāda in the Qurʾān is not confined to prostration.
One further limit, per the method (Method): this verse cannot be read as a verse condemning every scholar of religion or every religious authority. What the verse describes is an act: the displacing of authority. Whoever performs that act falls under the description; this issues no wholesale ruling about any community. I record this on the basis of the relevant clause of Method.