Overview (Verse 60)

Those in the Worst Position of All
 
The sūrah then refers to some events pertaining to the history of the people of earlier revelations, their past attitude towards their Lord and the painful punishment awaiting them: “Say: ‘Shall I tell you who, in God’s sight, deserves an even worse retribution than these? They whom God has rejected and who have incurred His anger, and whom He has turned into apes and pigs, and who worship false gods. These are yet worse in station and they have gone farther astray from the right path.” (Verse 60)
 
Here we are face to face with the Jews and their history. It is they whom God has rejected and who have incurred His anger, and whom He has turned into apes and pigs for worshipping false gods. The first three points to which reference is made here are mentioned elsewhere in the Qur’ān. Their worship of false gods needs to be explained here because it has particular significance in the context of this sūrah.
 
The expression “false gods” refers in the Qur’ānic context to every authority that is not derived from God’s own authority, every system of government that does not have God’s law as its basis, and to every aggression exceeding the boundaries of what is right. The worst type of aggression which the Arabic term ţāghūt, rendered here as “false gods”, relates is that made against God’s authority, and His Godhead. The people of earlier revelations did not worship rabbis and monks, but they followed their rule in preference to that of God’s. Therefore, God describes them as their worshippers and terms them polytheists. It is to this fine point that reference is made here. They worshipped false gods in the sense that they obeyed tyrannical authorities in so far as they exceeded their rightful limits. They worshipped them not in the sense of bowing and prostrating themselves before them, but by simply obeying and following them. This is, indeed, a type of worship which removes its perpetrator from the ranks of God’s worshippers who follow His faith.
 
God directs His Messenger to confront the people of earlier revelations with this history and the punishment they have incurred, as if they are one generation, since they all share the same deviant nature. The Prophet is directed to tell them that the result of such an attitude is much worse: “Say: Shall I tell you who, in God’s sight, deserves an even worse retribution than these?” (Verse 60) This means that they incur something much worse than those people of earlier revelations who preceded them. Incomparable indeed is God’s anger and His retribution. Here, we have His verdict that those people of earlier revelations have turned away from the right path: “They whom God has rejected and who have incurred His anger, and whom He has turned into apes and pigs, and who worship false gods. These are yet worse in station and they have gone farther astray from the right path.” (Verse 60)