Taghut
\r\n Al-Baqara (The Cow) Chapter 2: Verse 257 (partial)
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"Those who choose the path of defiance become subservient to the minions of taghut."
The word taghut mean excess and transgression. Anyone who exceeds all legitimate limits would be called taghut. In the Quran taghut refers to a person who exceeds his position as a servant of God and sets himself up as a sovereign and compels the people to render him complete obedience. There are three stages in man's rebellion against God:
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- First, when he agrees in principle to obey but disobeys in practice. This amounts to violation or fisq. \r\n
- Second, when he abandons the agreement in principle also and asserts his freedom to choose his own masters. This is defiance, kufr. \r\n
- Third, when he rebels against God and establishes his own rule over land and people and forces them to carry out his commands even though they may conflict with the commands of God. By then he has turned into taghut. It is essential for a true believer to denounce and resist taghut in all forms and manifestations. \r\n
Satan is the first taghut who misleads man by offering him all kinds of temptations. The second taghut is man's own self which diverts him from the right path and makes him a slave of his own desires and impulses. Then there are innumerable manifestations of taghut including friends, relatives, family, tribe, society, nation, leaders, and men of authority. Each one of them uses man for his own purpose and having once succumbed to their control man wastes his whole life in abject subservience, never being able to satisfy all his masters fully. Taghut refers as much to an attitude of mind as to a person or a group of persons. If man is the vicegerent of God taghut is the representative of Satan.
\r\nCompiled From:
\r\n "Translations from The Quran" - Altaf Gauhar, pp. 90 - 92