Sura 53, an-Anjm, Mecca 23

The Quranic text and Ali’s version

أَلَّا تَزِرُ وَازِرَةٌ وِزْرَ أُخْرَى ﴿٣٨﴾

53: 38.  Namely, that no bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another;

C5113. Here follows a series of eleven aphorisms.

• The first is that a man's spiritual burden-the responsibility for his sin must be borne by himself and not by another: Cf. 6:164.

There can be no vicarious atonement.

(53:38) that no bearer of burdens shall be made to bear another's burden; 31

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[[ Asad’s note - 31 This basic ethical law appears in the Qur'an five times - in 6:164, 17:15, 35:18, 39:7, as well as in the above instance, which is the oldest in the chronology of revelation. Its implication is threefold: firstly, it expresses a categorical rejection of the Christian doctrine of the "original sin" with which every human being is allegedly burdened from birth: secondly, it refutes the idea that a person's

sins could be "atoned for" by a saint's or a prophet's redemptive sacrifice (as evidenced, for instance, in the Christian doctrine of Jesus' vicarious atonement for mankind's sinfulness, or in the earlier, Persian doctrine of man's vicarious redemption by Mithras); and, thirdly, it denies, by implication, the possibility of any "mediation" between the sinner and God. ]]