Surah At-Taghabun Ayat 9 (64:9 Quran) With Tafsir

Ala-Maududi

(64:9) (You shall come to know that) when He will assemble you on the Day of Gathering.^[19] That shall be the Day (to determine) mutual gains and losses.^[20] Whoever believes in Allah and acts righteously,^[21] Allah will have his evil deeds expunged and will admit him to Gardens beneath which rivers flow. Therein they shall abide forever. That is the supreme triumph.

19. The Day of Gathering: the Resurrection, when all human beings born in the world from the beginning of creation till the Last Day will be gathered together simultaneously. This theme has been fully explained in the Quran at several places; e.g. in Surah Houd it has been said: That will be the Day when all the people shall gather together and will witness everything that will happen there. (Surah Houd, ayat 103). And in Surah Al-Waqiah: Say to them; Surely, the former and the latter, all shall be gathered together one day, the hour of which has already been appointed. (Surah Houd, ayat 50).

20. The word yaum-ut-taghabun as used in the original is too vast in meaning to be explained in a word, or even a sentence, of any other language. Of all the names of the Resurrection that occur in the Quran, this name probably is the most meaningful. Therefore, an explanation is necessary to understand its meaning.

Taghabun is from ghabn, which can be pronounced both as ghabn and as ghaban. Ghabn is mostly used concerning commercial and business transactions and ghaban concerning opinion. Lexically, it has other meanings also, e.g. heedlessness, forgetfulness, a person’s being deprived of his share, a man’s harming another inadvertently in business or mutual dealing, etc.

The derivative taghabun implies the occurrence of ghabn between two or more persons. Thus, taghabun-al-qaum means some people’s treating others fraudulently, or a person’s harming another person and the other’s being harmed and damaged by him, or one’s taking away the share of another and the other’s being deprived of his share, or a person’s incurring loss in business and another’s gaining a profit, or some people’s proving heedless or weak-minded in comparison to others.

Now consider that in this verse it has been said about the Resurrection: That will be a Day of taghabun (mutual loss and gain) among the people. These words automatically give the meaning that in the world taghabun is a common thing, but this taghabun is superficial and deceptive, not the real and factual taghabun, the real taghabun will take place on the Day of Resurrection. There it will become manifest as to who actually incurred the loss and who actually earned the profits, who actually was deceived and who proved to be prudent and sensible, who actually had invested all his life capital in a wrong bargain and become bankrupt and who had invested all his energies and abilities, wealth and time, in a good bargain and earned all the benefits and gains, which the former also could have earned had he not been deceived in understanding the truth about the world.

The commentators while explaining the meaning of youmut- taghabun have given several meanings of it, which are all correct, and throw light on different aspects of its meaning. Some commentators have explained that on that Day the dwellers of Paradise will take away that share of the dwellers of Hell which they would have had in Paradise had they done good deeds in the world as did the dwellers of Paradise and the dwellers of Hell will take away that share of the people of Paradise, which they would have had in Hell had they done evil deeds is the world. This is supported by a Hadith, which Bukhari has related in kitab ar-Riqaq, on the authority of Abu Hurairah, saying that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: Whoever goes to Paradise will be shown the place which he would have had in Hell had he done evil deeds in the world so that he may give more and more thanks to God; and whoever goes to Hell will be shown the place which he would have had in Paradise had he done good deeds in the world so that he may feel more and more remorseful.

Some other commentators say that on that Day, the wronged one will take away so many of the good deeds done by the wrongdoer as may be a suitable compensation for the wrong suffered, or the wrongdoer will be equal in weight with his usurped rights. For on the Day of Resurrection man will not possess any wealth which he may give to make up for the wrong done, there the only commodity worth exchange will be one’s conduct. Therefore, whoever had wronged another in the world, will have to make up for the wrong done by surrendering some of his own good deeds in his favor, or by taking some of his sins on himself and suffering the punishment for them. This theme also has been reported from the Prophet (peace be upon him) in Ahadith. In Bukhari (Kitab ar-Riqaq) a tradition has been related from Abu Hurairah, saying that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: Whoever bears a burden of a wrong done to his brother, should compensate him for it here, for in the Hereafter no one will have any wealth or money for compensation. There, some of his good deeds will he taken from him and given away to the wronged person, or if he did not have enough good deeds, some of the sins of the wronged person will be transferred to him. Likewise, in Musnad Ahmad there is a tradition from Jabir bin Abdullah bin Unais, saing that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: No dweller of Paradise will enter Paradise and no dweller of Hell will enter Hell until he will have compensated the other person for the wrong done to him so much so that one will have to compensate even for a slap given to another person. We asked; How will this compensation be made when on Resurrection we shall be naked and penniless? The Prophet (peace be upon him) replied: Compensation will be made by means of the good deeds and the evil deeds. In Muslim and Musnad Ahmad there is a tradition from Abu Hurairah, saying that the Prophet (peace be upon him) once asked the people sitting in his assembly: Do you know who is poor. The people replied: He who has nothing to possess. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: In my ummah the poor is he who appeared before his God on the Day of Resurrection with his acts of the Prayer and the Fast and the payment of the Zakat, while he had abused some one, usurped the property of another, and shed blood or hit still another. Then his good deeds were taken away and given over to each of the wronged and when nothing was left of his good deeds to make compensation, some of the sins of each wronged one were transferred to him and he was east into Hell. In another Hadith which Muslim and Abu Daud have related on the authority of Buraidah, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: If in the absence from home of a soldier for the cause of Allah, a person treats his wife and the people of his house treacherously, the person would be made to stand before the soldier on the Day of Resurrection, and the latter would be asked to take away whatever he liked from his good deeds. Saying this, the Prophet (peace be upon him) turned to us and said: Then what do you say. That is, what do you think he would leave with him.

Some other commentators say that tile word taghabun is mostly used concerning commerce and business, and in the Quran at several places the attitude that the believer and the unbeliever adopt in their worldly lives has been compared to trade and commerce. If the believer giving up disobedience adopts obedience and invests his life and wealth and effort for the cause of God, he is giving up a bad bargain and investing his capital in a business which will fetch him much gain and profit in the end. On the contrary, if an unbeliever abandons the way of obedience and invests his entire capital in the way of disobedience to God, he in fact, is a trader who has purchased deviation for guidance, and will incur loss in the end. The gain and the loss of both will become manifest on the Day of Resurrection. It may well so happen in the world that the believer appears to be the loser and the disbeliever the gainer. But in the Hereafter they will see who actually had made the right bargain and who the wrong bargain This theme has occurred at many places in the Quran, e.g. in (Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayat 16); (Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayat 175); (Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayat 207); (Surah Al-Imran, Ayat 77); (Surah Al-Imran, Ayat 177); (Surah An-Nisa, Ayat 74); (Surah At-Taubah, Ayat 111); (Surah An-Nahl, Ayat l95); (Surah Fatir, Ayat 29); (Surah As-Saff, Ayat 10).

Yet another from of taghabun is that in the world the people go on cooperating with one another in unbelief and sin, injustice and wickedness, with full peace of mind with the confidence that they are enjoying fully mutual love and friendship. The mutual intrigues and comradeship of the members of wicked families’ immoral guides and their followers, gangs of thieves and robbers, alliances of corrupt and unjust officers and officials, groups of dishonest traders, industrialists and land owners, groups established to spread deviation, error and mischief, and nations and governments which support and uphold injustice and wickedness in the world, is based on the same confidence. The individuals belonging to each of these groups harbor the impression that they are good companions of one another and their mutual cooperation is proving very successful. But when these people reach the Hereafter, they will suddenly wake up to the realization that they had been grievously mistaken and deceived. Each one of them would feel that the one whom he considered his best father, brother, wife, husband, child, friend, companion, leader, guide, disciple or supporter and helper, had been, in fact, his worst enemy. Every kind of relationship and friendship and bond of love and reverence will change into enmity. They will all abuse and curse each other and each one will desire that maximum responsibility of his crimes be laid an the other and will strive to get him severely punished. This theme also has occurred at many places in the Quran, e.g. in (Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayat 167); (Surah Al-Aaraf, Ayat 37-39); (Surah Ibrahim, Ayat 21-22); (Surah Al-Mominoon, Ayat 101); (Surah Al-Ankabut, Ayat 12-13) & (Surah Al-Ankabut, Ayat 25); (Surah Luqman, Ayat 33); (Surah Al-Ahzab, Ayat 67-68); (Surah Saba, Ayat 31-33); (Surah Fatir, Ayat 18); (Surah As-Saaffat, Ayat 27-31); (Surah Suad, Ayat 59-61); (Surah HaMim As-Sajdah, Ayat 29); (Surah Az-Zukhruf, Ayat 67); (Surah Ad-Dukhan, Ayat 41); (Surah Al-Maarij, Ayat 10-14); (Surah Abasa, Ayat 34-36).

Ibn-Kathir

The tafsir of Surah At-Taghabun verse 9 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Taghabun ayat 7 which provides the complete commentary from verse 7 through 11.