1. Al haaku mut takathur أَلْهَاكُمُ التَّكَاثُرُ The mutual rivalry for piling up (the good things of this world) diverts you (from the more serious things), |
2. Hatta zurtumul-maqaabir حَتَّىٰ زُرْتُمُ الْمَقَابِرَ Until ye visit the graves. |
3. Kalla sawfa ta'lamoon كَلَّا سَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ But nay, ye soon shall know (the reality). |
4. Thumma kalla sawfa ta'lamoon ثُمَّ كَلَّا سَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ Again, ye soon shall know! |
5. Kalla law ta'lamoona 'ilmal yaqeen كَلَّا لَوْ تَعْلَمُونَ عِلْمَ الْيَقِينِ Nay, were ye to know with certainty of mind, (ye would beware!) |
6. Latara-wun nal jaheem لَتَرَوُنَّ الْجَحِيمَ Ye shall certainly see Hell-Fire! |
7. Thumma latara wunnaha 'ainal yaqeen ثُمَّ لَتَرَوُنَّهَا عَيْنَ الْيَقِينِ Again, ye shall see it with certainty of sight! |
8. Thumma latus alunna yauma-izin 'anin na'eem ثُمَّ لَتُسْأَلُنَّ يَوْمَئِذٍ عَنِ النَّعِيمِ Then, shall ye be questioned that Day about the joy (ye indulged in!). |
Recitation by Mishary Al-Alfasy
The words alhakum at-takathur of the original are too vast in meaning to be
fully explained in a passage. Alhakum is from lahv which originally means
heedlessness, but in Arabic this word is used for every occupation which
engrosses man so completely that he becomes heedless of the more important
things in life.
When the word alhakum is made from this root, it will
mean that man has become so obsessed with some occupation that he has lost sight
of everything more important than it. He is preoccupied with it, is wholly lost
in pursuit of it and this obsession has rendered him heedless of everything else
in life. Takathur is from kathrat, which has three meanings:
(1) That man
should strive to gain more and more of everything.
(2) That the people should
vie with one another for gaining more and more.
(3) That they should brag and
boast of possessing greater abundance of things than others.
Therefore,
alhakum at-takathur would mean: Takathur (greed for more and more) has so
occupied you that its pursuit has made you heedless of every higher thing in
life. In this sentence it has not been indicated as to abundance of what is
meant in takathur, heedlessness of what is implied in alhakum, and who are the
addressees of alhakum. In the absence of such an explanation, the words become
applicable in their most general and extensive meaning. Thus, takathur does not
remain restricted in meaning and application but applies to all the gains and
benefits, pleasures and comforts, the passion for acquiring more and more means
of power and authority, vying with others in pursuit of these and bragging and
boasting of their abundance. Likewise, the addressees of alhakum also do not
remain limited but the people of all ages, in their individual as well as
collective capacity, become its addressees. It gives the meaning that the
passion for acquiring more and more of the worldly wealth, vying with others in
pursuit of it and bragging and boasting of its possession has affected
individuals as well as societies. Likewise, since in alhakum at-takathur it has
not been pointed out as to which people are engrossed in acquisitiveness and of
what they are rendered heedless, it has also become very extensive in meaning.
It means that the passion for piling up more and more has made the people
heedless of everything more important than it. They have become heedless of God,
of the Hereafter, of the moral bounds and moral responsibilities, of the rights
of others and of their own obligations to render those rights. They are only
after raising the standard of living and do not bother even if the standard of
humanity be falling. They want to acquire more and more of wealth no matter how
and by what means it is acquired. They desire to have more and more means of
comfort and physical enjoyment and, overwhelmed by this greed, they have become
wholly insensitive as to the ultimate end of this way of living. They are
engaged in a race with others to acquire more and more of power, more and more
of forces, more and more of weapons, and they have no idea that all this is a
means of filling God’s earth with tyranny and wickedness and of destroying
humanity itself. In short, takathur has many forms, which have engrossed
individuals as well as societies so completely that they have become heedless of
everything beyond the world, its benefits and pleasures.
That is, you
spend your whole life in the same craze and endeavor, until the time comes when
you must die and leave the world.
That is, you are under the delusion
that the abundance of the worldly goods and surpassing others in it is real
progress and success, whereas the opposite is the case. Soon you will know its
evil end and you will realize that it was a stupendous error in which you
remained involved throughout your life. Soon may mean the Hereafter. That is,
for the Being Whose sight comprehends all ages, from eternity to eternity, a few
thousand years or a few hundred thousand years can only be a short span of the
eternal time. Soon it can also mean death, for death is not very far away from
any man, and soon after death man will come to know whether the occupations
which engaged him throughout life were a means of good fortune and success for
him, or of misfortune and failure.
“Then” in this sentence does not
mean that accountability will be held after the culprits have been cast into
Hell, but it means: Then We give you the news that you will be questioned about
these comforts of life, and obviously this questioning will be held at the time
of accountability in the divine court. Its main argument is that in several
Ahadith it has been reported from the Prophet (peace be upon him) that the
believers and the disbelievers, both will have to account for the blessings
granted by Allah. However, the people who did not show ingratitude but spent
their lives as grateful servants of Allah, will come out successful from the
accountability, and those who proved thankless to Allah for His blessings and
committed ingratitude by word or by deed, or by both; will emerge as failures.
Jabir bin Abdullah says: The Prophet (peace be upon him) once visited us and
we served him with fresh dates and gave him cool water to drink. Thereupon he
said: These are of the blessings about which you will be questioned. (Musnad
Ahmad, Nasai, Ibn Jarir, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Marduyah, Abd bin Humaid, Baihaqi
in Ash-Shuab).
Abu Hurairah has reported that the Prophet (peace be upon
him) once asked Abu Bakr and Umar to accompany him to the place of Abul-Haitham
bin at-Taihan Ansari. Thus, he took them to the oasis of Ibn at-Taihan. The
latter brought a bunch of dates and placed it before them. The Prophet (peace be
upon him) said: Why didn’t you pluck the dates yourself? He said: I thought you
would yourselves select and eat dates of your choice. So, they ate the dates and
drank cool water. At the end, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: By Him in
Whose hand is my life: this is of the blessings about which you will be
questioned on the Resurrection Day, the cool shade, the cool dates, the cool
water. (This tradition has been narrated in different ways by Muslim, Ibn Majah,
Abu Daud, Tirmidhi, Nasai, Ibn Jarir, Abu Yala and others, on the authority of
Abu Hurairah. In some of which the name of the Ansari companion has been
mentioned and in some he has been referred to as a person from among the Ansar.
This incident has been related with several details by Ibn Abi Hatim from Umar
and by Imam Ahmad from Abu Asib, the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) freed slave.
Ibn Hibban and Ibn Marduyah have related a tradition from Abdullah bin Abbas,
which shows that an almost similar thing had happened in the house of Abu Ayyub
Ansari.
These Ahadith make it explicit that not only the disbelievers but
the righteous believers too will be questioned. As for the blessings which Allah
has bestowed on man, they are unlimited and countless. There are many blessings
of which man is not even conscious. The Quran says: If you try to count the
blessings of Allah, you will not be able to calculate them. (Surah Ibrahim, Ayat
34). Countless of them are the blessings which Allah has granted directly to
man, and a large number of these are the blessings which man is granted through
his own skill and endeavor. About the blessings that accrue to man in
consequence of his own labor and skill, he will have to render an account as to
how he acquired them and in what ways he spent them. In respect of the blessings
directly bestowed by Allah, he will have to give an account as to how he used
them. And in respect of all the blessings, on the whole, he will have to tell
whether he had acknowledged that those blessings had been granted by Allah and
whether he had expressed gratitude for them to Allah with his heart, and by word
and deed, or whether he thought he had received all that accidentally, or as a
gift from many gods, or whether he held the belief that although those were the
blessings of One God, in their bestowal many other beings also had a part, and
for that very reason he had taken them as his gods and worshipped and thanked
them as such.