TÂGHÛT – طَّاغُوتُ

 

The rebellious. The shaytan. Any false and bâtil idols and Ilahs. Anything that drives man to be rebellious to Allah.

Tâghût denotes, primarily, anything that is performed ‘ibâdah instead of Allah and, thus, all that may turn man away from Allah and lead him to evil.

A name of a certain idol, worshipped by the Arab pagans of Mecca before Islam.

 

“KNOW, O FRIEND, that for 30 years I have struggled against two tâghûts: the ana in human, and nature in al-‘âlam. I have seen the former as a shadowy mirror reflecting someone other than itself. But people view it as having an independent existence, showing itself and so becoming a Nimrod or Pharaoh.

I have seen nature as a work of Ilahî art, a painting of Ar-Rahmân. However, as a result of viewing it by ghaflah, it has come to be seen by materialists as an Ilah, self-originated and existing by itself, and made into the source of kufr an-ni’mah that results to kufr. Shukr to Allah and hamd to Him, for through the help of Al-Ahad Who is Samad, and the faydh of the glorious Qur’an, my struggle has ended in the death of these two tâghûts, the smashing of these two idols.

..a conscious work of Ilahî art, a conscious Rabbânî Sharî’ah of fitrah has appeared behind the veil of nature. Ana has broken into pieces, and behind it has emerged ‘huwa’ jalla jalâluhu لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِه۪ شَىْءٌۚ 1 ” Al-Mathnawi al-Nuri (171)