Tafsir of Az-Zumar 39:11-18

33

That is, "My mission is not only to exhort others but also to practice what I preach myself: I first myself follow the way which I call others to follow."

34

Bankruptcy is loss of a person's capital and failure of his business so that he is unable to pay his debts in full. This same metaphor Allah has used here for the disbelievers and polytheists, The sum total of whatever man has got in this world-his life, his intellect, body, powers, capabilities, means and opportunities-is in fact, the capital, which he invests in the business of the worldly life. If a person invested this whole capital on the hypothesis that there is no God, or that there are many gods, whose servant he is, and that he is not accountable to anyone, or that someone else will rescue him on Judgment Day, it would mean that he made a losing bargain and lost all his capital. This is his first loss. His second loss is that in everything that he did, on the basis of the wrong hypothesis, he went on wronging himself and many other men, and the coming generations and many other creatures of Allah, throughout his life. Thus, he got into countless debts, but has no money with which he may fully pay his debts. Over and above this, he has not only himself incurred this loss, but has caused the same loss to his children and near and dear once and friends and fellow countrymen by his wrong education and training and wrong example. It is these three losses together which Allah has called khusran-i-mubin (utter bankruptcy) in this verse.

35

Taghut is from tughyan and means rebellion. If someone is called taghut (rebellion) instead of taghi (rebel), it would mean that he is a rebel incarnate. For example, if a person is called husn (beauty) instead of hasin (beautiful), it would mean that he has reached perfection in beauty. The other deities than Allah have been called taghut because it is rebellion to worship others besides Allah, but the one who has others worship him, is a rebel of the worst kind. (For further explanation, see AI-Baqarah: 256, Al-Nisa: 60, 76, An-Naml: 36 and the E.N.'s thereof).

36

This verse can have two meanings: (1) That they do not follow every voice but ponder over what every man says and accept only what is right and true; and (2) that they do not try to give a false meaning to what they hear but adopt its good and righteous aspects.