Surah Kafirun (Disbelievers) is the first of the surah from the famous 4 Quls. It is the 109^th surah of the Qur’an and consists of 6 verses made up of 27 (98 letters). The surah was revealed Makkah and is an answer to the disbelievers.

Hadith on Surah Kafirun

1. Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) has related that on many an occasion he heard the Prophet recite surah Kafirun and surah Ikhlas in the two sunnah rakahs before the fardh of Fajr and in the two rakahs after the fardh of Maghrib. (Imam Ahmad, Tirmidhi, Nasai, Ibn Majah)
2. Umar ibn Khattab* said that The Prophet ﷺ said to me: when you lie down in bed to sleep, recite surah Kafirun and this was the Prophet’s own practice also; when he lay down to sleep, he would recite this surah.” (Bazzar, Tabarani)
3. According to Ibn Abbas, the Holy Prophet ﷺ said to the people: “Should I tell you the word which will protect you from polytheism? It is that you should recite surah Kafirun when you go to bed.”(Abu Ya’la, Tabarani).
4. Fardah bin Naufal and Abdur Rahman bin Naufal have stated that their father, Naufal bin Muawiyah al-Ashjai, said to the Holy Prophet ﷺ: “Teach me something which I may recite at the time I go to bed.” The Holy Prophet replied: “Recite surah Kafirun to the end and then sleep, for this is immunity from polytheism.” (Musnad Ahmad, Aba Da’ud).

Reason why Surah Kafirun was revealed

When the Prophet ﷺ began his preaching the disbelievers at first did not take him seriously but as people began coming towards Islam and the effects of the Prophet’s ﷺ preaching began impacting on the wider society, the disbelievers became concerned and tried to counter it. At first, they offered the Prophet money to stop attacking their religion and idols. They even offered to make him their political leader and offered him the hand of any woman he wished. However, when the Prophet ﷺ heard of these offers he proclaimed, “Those foolish people have not yet truly recognised me! If you were to put the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left, my preaching of oneness of my lord would not slacken one little bit!”

Later the polytheists offered a compromise which was that one year they would all worship the Prophet’s God and the following year they would all worship the gods of the polytheists and would continue alternating like this. They did not doubt in the entity of Allah (Dhat) but they doubted his attributes (Sifat) and differed in how Allah’s attributes are to understood. The polytheists said that they only worship other gods to get closer to Allah.

The polytheists said, “O Muhammad, you worship who we worship, and we will worship who you worship, and we will become united in this matter.” One narration is that he remained silent to this offer and waited for his Lord by saying, “I will see what command comes from Allah”, and this surah was revealed. Some scholars say that The Prophet ﷺ did not reject their proposal but referred it to Allah because, with the light of prophethood, he knew that a complete surah was to be revealed on this matter.