The Quran

Preface

اتَّخَذوا أَحبارَهُم وَرُهبانَهُم أَربابًا مِن دونِ اللَّهِ وَالمَسيحَ ابنَ مَريَمَ وَما أُمِروا إِلّا لِيَعبُدوا إِلٰهًا واحِدًا ۖ لا إِلٰهَ إِلّا هُوَ ۚ سُبحانَهُ عَمّا يُشرِكونَ

Yusuf Ali

They take their priests¹ and their anchorites to be their lords in derogation of God,² and (they take as their Lord) Christ the son of Mary; yet they were commanded to worship but One God. there is no god but He. Praise and glory to Him:³ (Far is He) from having the partners they associate (with Him).

Ahb'ar. doctors of law; priests; learned men. Cf. 5:44, where they are associated with Rabbis. Ruhban: monks, ascetics, anchorites, men who have renounced the world; where there is a celibate clergy, the term can be applied to them as well as to members of monastic orders. It is also permissible to apply the term to “saints”, where they are deified or credited with divine powers, or where people pray to them as they do in the Roman Catholic Church.
Priest worship, and the worship of saints and ascetics is a form of superstition to which men have been prone in all ages. The growth of Jewish superstition is shown in the Talmud, and of Christian superstition in the doctrine of papal infallibility and the worship of saints. The mere idea of a separate order of priesthood to stand between God and man and be the exclusive repository of God’s secrets is derogatory to the goodness and all-pervading grace of God. The worship of “lords many and gods many” was not confined only to the Pagans. The deification of the son of Mary is put here in a special clause by itself, as it held (and still holds) in its thrall a large portion of civilised humanity.
Cf. 6:100.