قُلِ اللَّهَ أَعبُدُ مُخلِصًا لَهُ ديني
فَاعبُدوا ما شِئتُم مِن دونِهِ ۗ قُل إِنَّ الخاسِرينَ الَّذينَ خَسِروا أَنفُسَهُم وَأَهليهِم يَومَ القِيامَةِ ۗ أَلا ذٰلِكَ هُوَ الخُسرانُ المُبينُ
Say: ‘[Only] Allah do I worship, making religion pure for Him.
You worship whatever you wish besides Him.’ Say: ‘Indeed the losers are those who lose themselves and their families on the Day of Resurrection.’ Look! That is a manifest loss!
EXEGESIS
Verse 14 states the Prophet’s acceptance of God’s command to him in verse 11: Say: ‘Indeed I have been commanded to worship Allah, making religion pure for Him.’ Since the main aspect of that command was to only worship God, here Allah is mentioned first, implying ‘I worship Him alone’. This exclusive worship of God is further emphasised by making religion pure for Him, which shows the importance of sincerity and purity of worship, such that one does not associate anyone with God, not even in the subtlest way.
In verse 15, anfusahum can be translated as either ‘themselves’ or ‘their souls’. Both would result in the same meaning, but the addition of their families makes it clear that the first meaning is intended. The same is true with most other verses in the Quran that have the same context.
Khusrān is the loss of money or capital. To lose oneself is equivalent to wretchedness and eternal misfortune. It is to lose one’s spiritual potentials for eternal happiness. Worldly losses of wealth, power, and position are relatively minor and insignificant, because they are often reversible, and are short-lived at any rate. However, a loss on the Day of Resurrection is severe and eternal: That is a manifest loss.
EXPOSITION
Following God’s command in the previous verses, the Prophet is told to declare his utter sincerity in worshipping God. Then the audience is left to decide for themselves whom they want to worship. You worship whatever you wish besides Him is a threat and a last word, intended to make the audience stop, ponder upon their way, and not blindly follow the path of their ancestors. The general idea of Act as you wish (41:40) is seen in various forms in the Quran (73:19, 74:55, 76:29, 78:39, 80:12, 81:28), and it has a strong psychological effect as it makes the audience take responsibility for their decisions. This also shows that if one is not purely dedicated to God alone, then it does not matter whom he serves and worships: You worship whatever you wish besides Him. That is because Indeed Allah does not forgive that any partner should be ascribed to Him (4:48, 4:116).
… those who lose themselves: based on the first part of the verse, it can be deduced that those who set partners for God and worship other than Him are those who lose themselves and their families on the Day of Resurrection. This is more explicitly confirmed by the following verse: Who is more astray than him who invokes besides Allah such as would not respond to him until the Day of Resurrection, and who are oblivious of their invocation? (46:5).
One point to note is that the verse is about losing oneself, not about losing one’s possessions, bounties, and privileges. One apparent meaning for losing oneself is to spend one’s life in this world without acquiring any benefit in exchange. This is because one’s lifetime is his capital with which he must trade and earn profit. This meaning is confirmed by the mention of the Day of Resurrection in the verse because it implies that the losers wasted their life in this world without having any gain in the next world. It is also confirmed by a narration by Imam Ali (a): ‘Indeed you are only a number of days [that you live]: every day that elapses, it takes a part of you with it.’ Say: ‘Shall we inform you about the biggest losers in regard to works? Those whose endeavour goes awry in the life of the world, while they suppose they are doing good’ (18:103-104). This complies with an interpretation by Mujāhid and Ibn Zayd, that the loss of their families means that their families cannot benefit or save them on that day (60:3).
Another meaning for losing oneself is losing one’s reality, which is the existential aspect and the perfection with which one is endowed. This is essentially one’s connection and proximity to the only source of existence and perfection. Therefore, our first and foremost asset – rather, our identity and reality – is the divine spirit that God blew into us (15:29, 32:9, 38:72). Thus, any detachment and distance from that source would be a loss of our identity and reality: the loss of oneself. The cause of detachment is any transgression against God’s will and command. This can be referred to as wrongdoing (ẓulm) in the most general sense, as per the following verse: Indeed the losers are those who have ruined themselves and their families on the Day of Resurrection. Look! The wrongdoers are indeed in lasting punishment (42:45).
There are many verses in the Quran that identify people of various vices and misdeeds as losers (al-khāsirūn) (2:26-27, 2:121, 7:178, 8:37, 9:69, 16:106-109, 29:52, 39,63, 58:15-19, 63:9). There are also other verses that describe the qualities and actions of those who have ruined and lost themselves, khasirū anfusahum (6:12, 6:20, 7:9, 11:18-19, 23:110, 42:44-45). These verses do not contradict one another because each of them could be a cause of loss and misfortune, or because they concern different aspects and types of loss. They present various examples and instances of vices that distance people from their Lord and render them empty-handed on the Day of Resurrection.
… and their families: the idea that they lose their families can be looked at from three angles: 1. It indicates the great influence that one usually has on the family of which he is in charge. Therefore, when one loses and ruins oneself by his wrong beliefs and practices, it is often accompanied by misguiding and spoiling one’s family as well. The bond and influence is so strong that the loss of oneself and the loss of one’s family are mentioned as inseparable from one another. This would be a failure to act upon God’s command: O you who have faith! Save yourselves and your families from a fire whose fuel is people and stones (66:6). It is for this trend and tendency that Prophet Noah (a) described the disbelievers as follows: they will beget none except vicious ingrates (71:27). This verse shows that one is primarily responsible for his own rectitude, then for his family’s, and then for others.
- Those who associate partners with God will certainly lose their families because their families are either disbelievers like themselves, in which case both groups are lost and ruined, and neither will avail another, or their families are believers – in which case the faithful will go to paradise and will be separated from the faithless. This is evocative of certain narrations that talk about how one can cause others to go to paradise by providing them with some wealth or knowledge that they use in God’s way, while the provider goes to hell because he did not act upon that knowledge himself, or because he earned that wealth through unlawful means. Such people are sometimes described as ‘the people of greatest regret on the Day of Judgement’.
- Losing their families could also refer to the heavenly spouses and servants that are prepared and created for everyone, and for which everyone has a potential to achieve. It would then be evident that if one is a wrongdoer and disbeliever, he will lose these bounties and heavenly families. This interpretation has been offered by many early exegetes. What strengthens this meaning is that worldly family ties will be disconnected in the hereafter for everyone (6:94, 23:101, 60:3, 80:34-37); therefore it is more likely that families in this verse are otherworldly families because the verse talks about those who lose their families on the Day of Resurrection.
… on the Day of Resurrection: true loss or failure is that which occurs on the Day of Judgement. Otherwise, the gains and losses of this world are only tests and trials, and are insignificant in comparison to those of the eternal abode (9:38, 13:26, 29:64, 89:15-16). Imam Ali (a) said: ‘Indeed wealth and poverty are only after exposure to God [for reckoning], exalted is He.’
Look! That is a manifest loss: this statement involves a few emphases. This is the greatest and the most manifest loss because not only have they failed to earn any gain or profit in return for their lives and bounties, but they have actually earned disbelief and misdeeds through these endowments.
[1] Zamakhshari, 4/119; Tabrisi.J, 3/451.
[2] Alusi, 12/240.
[3] Mizan, 17/248-249.
[4] Qaraati, 8/154.
[5] Ghurar, 3028.
[6] Tabrisi, 8/770.
[7] Zamakhshari, 4/119; Razi, 26/433.
[8] Nahj, saying 416; Kafi, 2/299-230; Uddah, p. 104; Kanz, 10/209.
[9] Tibyan, 9/15; Suyuti, 5/324.
[10] Mizan, 17/249.
[11] Qaraati, 8/154.
[12] Nahj, saying 452.
[13] Razi, 26/433.