Surah At-Takathur is a Meccan Surah having eight verses. Takathur means “The Mutual Rivalry”. The Surah takes its name from the word at takathur in the first verse.
There’s difference of opinion of this Surah to be Makki or Madini, but correct view is that it’s a Meccan Surah considering its style and content. The subject mentioned in the Surah about competing one another in worldly matters, the and self-glorification, boasting etc is customarily, referring to the tribes of Quraish who used to boast to each other, in vain, about worthless affairs, without having a thought of Akhirah.
Surah Takathur is all about the love of dunia!
In it the people have been warned of the evil consequences of world worship because of which they spend their lives in acquiring more and more of worldly wealth, material benefits and pleasures, and position and power, till death, and in vying with one another and boasting about their acquisitions. This one pursuit has so occupied them that they are left with no time or struggle for pursuing the higher things in life.
After warning the people of blind love of dunia and its evil end they have been told that these blessings which you are amassing and enjoying thoughtlessly, are not mere blessings but are also a means of your trial. For each one of these blessings and comforts you will surely be called to account in the Hereafter.
This verse talks about the heedlessness of a man. Alhakum at-takathur means any thing which engrosses man so completely that he becomes heedless of the more important things in life.
Takathur means all these three:
So Allah points out at man that the worldly greed for more and more has so trapped you that its pursuit has made you heedless of every higher thing in life means the real goal of Akhirah for which the man was sent down. The want of abundance is not mentioned specifically whether money, houses, lands etc, so this term is general and very vast. It includes any worldly thing which deviates a man from its purpose, anything for which a man runs after blindly ignoring his real purpose. Even no age is specified for it, if a young graduate is busy running after degrees and degrees of worldy education to be at top of the list than others and has no plan for Quran knowledge, even that track is targeted here. Any extreme of world related stuff that makes you forget the real aim.
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.
That the man has become heedless of Allah, of the Hereafter, of the moral bounds and responsibilities, of the rights of others and of his own obligations to render those rights. He is only after raising the standard of living and do not bother even if the standard of humanity be falling. He wants to acquire more and more of wealth no matter how and by what means it is acquired. 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.
Allah says here that you were so engaged in entertaining yourself for worldly purposes that you had literally forgotten the death. You expend your whole life in the same craze and endeavor, until the time comes when you must die and leave the world. When you were so busy gaining more and more of dunia, when you used to go every where, parks, shopping malls, countries for trips, markets etc — but that’s one place you didn’t visit i.e. The graves! Which could remind where the end of man be.
A graveyard is an awakening site to open up our eyes, it’s a place of silence and reflection, that once they lived and died and so we shall cover the same path.
In Arab, the tribes used to boast at each other of different things and they used to be proud over their deceased. They often would let down other tribes by showing them graves of their ancestors or great personalities lived amongst them in past claiming we had so-&-so. So they are also pointed out that you people even going to graves, do not seek what lesson should be sought and you persist on your boasting and showing-off.
In general all humanity is condemned of their heedless nature towards their death in love of Takathur! So a man tiredly efforts and runs for improving levels in dunia until he reaches his final destination, his grave.
Now Allah says this delusion of yours is not going to last, no way at all! You will realize this ignorance soon and when you will actually wake up, you’ll say what have I done Alas! We often see people who are so deluded and lost in this dunia that even if we call them to straight path they wont listen, for us they become hopeless cases. But Allah says there will come a time when they will realize but that will be after they have died as a looser. The verse says very soon you will come to know means the death is very close.
One questioning will be in grave and the second questioning will be in Akhirah which is more powerful, so the repetition of verses put much emphasis on it. Allah repeats the same warning so that we get alert and wake up and take these reminders seriously. It’s like Allah telling us I’m warning you again and again!
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 clear error in which you remained involved throughout your life.
“Soon” may mean the Hereafter, for a few thousand years or a few hundred thousand years can only be a short span of the eternal time. But 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 stuff which engaged him throughout life were a means of success for him, or of misfortune and failure.
Allah now says if you had knowledge of certainty you shouldn’t have adopted wrong track. Certainty (Yaqeen) means a higher level of knowledge, it’s more than just knowing. Ilm-al-Yaqeen means solid conviction, when one is fully convinced and clear about a matter, it’s a state higher than Imaan. If a person is certain about the Akhirah his track will change for sure in dunia, he would definitely strive for good deeds and building his Hereafter. But those who are condemned here by Allah are apparently showing from their struggles and efforts also that deep down inside their heart they have no Ilm-al-Yaqeen so their tracks never change.
Yaqeen is also used for death because death is for sure. People may deny Akhirah, accountability but no one can deny death, that’s an absolute reality so Yaqeen replaces the word death also.
Now Allah says that you people will definitely and for sure see the Hell Fire. This is the general reference to all humanity. There will not be any one of us who will atleast pass by the Hell, though the believers will see and pass by whereas the transgressors will be thrown into it. But the humanity is going to experience the truth and warning Allah had been repeatedly alerting about us in Dunia. The believer will be shown Hell because to give him an idea what evil place he has just escaped through Allah’s Mercy. But the verse actually addresses the disbelievers who were totally lost in dunia piling it up as mentioned in start of the Surah.
Moreover when the criminal will see the Hell with his own eyes, he will be convinced because now he will see with the eye of certainty what he had been denying throughout his life. This is the second stage of Yaqeen mentioned here, Ayn-ul-Yaqeen (Conviction of sight).
Here Allah says that as now you have come to a point of conviction as you’ve seen with your own eyes what you were previously wanrned about, so now you will be questioned thoroughly about the blessings We had blessed you in life. There’s too much emphasis in this verse about how strictly and for sure we will be brought to account, and the scariest part is not seeing the Hell but the questioning we will have to face with Allah about how we had been using the blessings and resources in dunia.
Blessings and luxuries we get from Allah itself is not haraam, but how it is used makes a lot of difference. Hazrat Jabir bin Abdullah says: “The Holy Prophet 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)
One can imagine through this hadith, that Prophet pbuh called water and few dates as An-Naeem (The blessings of Allah) which will be asked about, and think of what luxurious food we have on our tables nowadays, our clothing, our houses, our style everything is in it’s kind a luxury Allah blessed us with, so this idea is like re-wiring the concept in a mind of a Momin that how carefully we need to use these comforts of life for Allah.
This verse 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. 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.
The modern religious world thinks the more dunia you have, the more Allah loves you. This is the confusion, as this dunia was not the sign how much Allah loves you, but rather a test!
An-naeem also includes constant blessings, like we open the tap and water comes out easily, we open eyes and have vision. Even to this level we will be asked. The Islam, the Quran is also a blessing for a believer for which he will be asked about that what did he do with the greatest blessing of Islam?
So the Takathur mentioned in first verse directly ends up at An-Naeem, that the abundance deviated you and what was this abundance, the Blessings and comforts of life! Now its upto you what way to use!
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