Thus, His words:

“I do not worship what you worship, nor are you worshippers of what I worship”

entail dissociation from everything described as an object of their worship. For whatever a disbeliever worships must be disavowed, since no disbeliever’s object of worship can be the God whom the believer worships. If He were his object of worship, he would be a believer, not a disbeliever. This entails several things.

First: it necessarily entails disavowing the very beings whom they worship besides Allah.

Second: when they worship Allah and others, their object of worship is that combination. He does not worship that combination; he worships Allah alone. He worships Him with exclusive devotion, not by associating others with Him in worship. This clarifies the distinction between this passage and the words of Abraham, Allah’s close friend:

“Indeed, I am free of whatever you worship, except the One who created me,”

and his words:

“Have you considered what you have been worshipping—you and your forefathers? They are enemies to me, except the Lord of all worlds.”

The distinction may be explained as follows: here, worship of the combination is negated, but that does not negate worship of the One who is Allah. Abraham, however, disavowed the whole, which entails disavowing each individual member; hence he made an exception.

Alternatively, one may say: Abraham disavowed all the objects of worship of all those people, so the Lord of all worlds had to be excepted. Thus, since an exception had already been made at the beginning of the passage, in His words: