ﱁ ﱂ ﱃ ﱄ ﱅ ﱆ ﱇ ﱈ ﱉ ﱊ ﱋ ﱌ ﱍ ﱎ ﱏ ﱐ ﱑ ﱒ ﱓ ﱔ ﱕ ﱖ ﱗ ﱘ ﱙ
Have you seen he who has taken as his god his [own] desire, and Allah has sent him astray due to knowledge and has set a seal upon his hearing and his heart and put over his vision a veil? So who will guide him after Allah? Then will you not be reminded?
Tafsir
Verse range: 45:23
"Have you seen him who takes his own desire as his god?" Meaning: He is obedient to the whims of his soul, following whatever it calls him to, as if he worships it just as a man worships his deity.
It is also recited as: "his desires as gods" (plural), because he would deem a stone beautiful and worship it, but if he saw something more beautiful, he would reject the first for the second. Thus, it is as if he took his desires as various gods, worshipping one of them at every moment.
"And Allah has led him astray despite knowledge" He left him away from guidance and grace, and abandoned him despite knowledge—knowing that this [guidance] would not benefit him, and that he is among those for whom there is no grace. Or, it means: despite His [Allah's] knowledge of the paths of guidance and His encompassing of the various types of grace that bring about and draw one near [to Him].
"So who will guide him after Allah?" After He has led him astray.
"And they say, 'There is not but our worldly life; we die and live, and nothing destroys us except time.' And they have of that no knowledge; they are only assuming."
