Surah Kafirun Ayat 2 (109:2 Quran) With Tafsir

Ala-Maududi

(109:2) I do not worship those that you worship^[2]

2. This includes all those deities whom the disbelievers and the polytheists have been, and are still, worshipping everywhere in the world, whether they are the angels, the jinn, prophets, saints, spirits of the living or dead men, or the sun, the moon, stars, animals, trees, rivers, idols and imaginary gods and goddesses. One may say that the pagans of Arabia also acknowledged Allah as a deity and the other pagans of the world also have never disacknowledged Allah as a deity till today. As for the followers of the earlier scriptures, they also acknowledge Allah alone as the real deity. How then can it be correct to exonerate oneself from the worship of all the deities of all those people, without exception, when Allah too is included among them?

The answer is that if Allah is worshipped along with others regarding Him as a deity among other deities, the believer in Tauhid will inevitably express his immunity from this worship, for in his sight Allah is not a deity out of a collection of deities, but He alone is the real deity, and the worship of the collection of deities is no worship of Allah, although worship of Allah is also included in it. The Quran has clearly stated that Allah’s worship is only that which does not have any tinge of the worship of another and in which man makes his worship exclusively Allah’s. And the only command they were given, was to worship Allah, making their religion sincerely His, turning all their attention towards Him. (Surah Al-Bayyinah, Ayat 5).

This subject has been explained at many places in the Quran forcefully; for example, see (Surah An-Nisa, Ayats 145-146); Surah Al-Aaraf, Ayat 29); (Surah Az-Zumar Ayat 2, 3, 11, 14, 15); (Surah Al-Mumin, Ayat 14, 64-66). It has been further explained in a Hadith Qudsi (i.e. divine word revealed through the mouth of the Prophet) in which the messenger of Allah says: Allah says, I am Self-Sufficient of the association of every associate most of all. Whoever performed an act in which he also associated another with Me, I am free of it, and the entire act is for him who was associated. (Muslim, Musnad Ahmad, Ibn Majah). Thus, acknowledging Allah as one of the two, three or many gods and serving and worshipping others along with Him is, in fact, the real kufr, declaration of immunity from which is the object of this Surah.

Ibn-Kathir

The tafsir of Surah Kafirun verse 2 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Kafirun ayat 1 which provides the complete commentary from verse 1 through 6.