in respect of His being their object of worship; He is exalted above this attribution. He is not, therefore, the object of Jewish worship. Rather, within their natural dispositions are attributes that are not His, which Satan has made appealing to them. They intend to worship the one possessing those attributes, but that is none other than Satan. Thus, the Messenger and the believers do not worship anything the Jews worship, even if they worship the same one. This illustrates the value of the distinction we have mentioned.

Accordingly, His words:

“To you your religion, and to me mine”

address all disbelievers, as the verse itself indicates.

This also reveals the error of those who say that it addresses the polytheists and Christians, but not the Jews, as in Ibn Zayd’s statement concerning:

“To you your religion, and to me mine.”

He said: “It addresses the polytheists and Christians. The Jews worship none but Allah and associate no partners with Him, except that they disbelieve in some of the prophets and what they brought from Allah. They also disbelieve in the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and what he brought, and they killed groups of prophets unjustly and in transgression.”

He said: “Except for the group who made this claim when Nebuchadnezzar came forth; it was said: those who called Ezra ‘the son of Allah,’ yet did not worship him. They did not do as the Christians did, who said, ‘The Messiah is the son of Allah,’ and worshipped him.”

His statement that the Jews do not associate partners with Allah as the Arabs and Christians did is correct. Nevertheless, they do not worship Allah. Rather, they are too arrogant to worship Him and worship Satan; they do not worship Allah. Whoever says that the Jews