Az-Zumar (The Groups)

17. Those who avoid false deities [powers antithetical to God] by not worshipping them and turn to Allah, for them are glad tidings; so announce the good news to My servants.

18. Those who listen to the Word and follow the best thereof, those are [the ones] whom Allah has guided and those are men of understanding.

One of the characteristics of sincere believers and God’s servants is their avoidance from false deities, since it is a prelude to attentiveness to God.

These Verses compare and contrast biased and obdurate polytheists for whom Hell fire is in store with truth seeking servants of God, saying:

“Those who avoid false deities [powers antithetical to God] by not worshipping them and turn to Allah, for them are glad tidings; so announce the good news to My servants.”

Since the word bushra is used in the broad sense of the word, it encompasses all kinds of

“good tidings”

for Divine Bounties, material and spiritual; however such inclusive good tidings solely belongs to those who avoid from worshipping false deities and turn toward God as it embraces faith and doing righteous good deeds.

Furthermore, the word taghut is taken from tughiyan indicating transgression of bounds.

Therefore, the word is applied to any object of worship other than God Almighty, e.g. Satan and tyrants. It is worthy of note that it is used both in the singular and the plural.

“Avoidance from taghut,”

employed in its broad sense, indicates any kind of polytheism, idolatry, concupiscence, Satan worship, and submission to tyrant rulers.

“Turning toward Allah” (inaba ila Allah)

embraces fear of God, piety, and faith. It is needless to say that such people deserve the good tidings.

It is worthy of note that worshipping Taghut is not restricted to bowing down and prostration in worship, but it includes any kind of obedience as well.

According to a tradition narrated from Imam Sadiq (as):

“One who obeys a tyrant ruler, he worships him.1

Thus the elite servants of God are represented:

‘Announce the good news to My servants.’”

Verse 18 says:

“Those who listen to the Word and follow the best thereof, those are [the ones] whom Allah has guided and those are men of understanding.”

These two Verses have turned to an Islamic slogan demonstrating Muslim freethinking and selectiveness in different issues.

According to Verse 17,

“so announce the good news to My servants,”

then these servants are presented as people who listen to the words irrespective of the speakers’ characteristics and make use of their intellection to select the best of them. They are devoid of any kind of bias or obduracy, nor is their thought limited by anything.

They seek truth and turn toward it wherever they find it. They drink their fill of the pure springhead of truth. They are not only after truth and good words, but also are they selective between good and better and choose the latter. This is the characteristic of a true Muslim and a truth seeking believer.

Regarding the word:

qawl (“word”)

in the clause:

yastami’un al-qawl (“[They] listen to Word”),

exegets present different exegeses.

Some maintain that

“Word”

indicates the Holy Qur’an and whatever is included in It in terms of obedience and lawfulness and regard following the best to indicate obedience to God Almighty.

Some others hold that the word is employed in the broad sense of Divine Command irrespective of being mentioned in the Holy Qur’an or elsewhere. However, there exists no argument to substantiate such restricted exegeses, since the apparent meaning of the Verse includes any kind of word.

The faithful servants of God select the best from amongst all the words and follow the same and act upon it.

It is worthy of note that as per the blessed Verse, those following Divine Guidance are solely considered to be amongst such people as men of understanding solely belong to such people.

It makes a reference to the fact that such people are outwardly and inwardly guided; in other words, they are outwardly guided through intellection and understanding and inwardly through Divine Light and Assistance. Such truth seeking freethinkers may solely take pride in the twain.