…Have you not seen those who were given a share of the Scripture yet believe in the jibit and the taghut and say to the disbelievers, “These people are better guided than the believers’ way” (Q 4:51)? – this verse concerns the Jews. About the hypocrites He, exalted, says: “Have you not seen those who claim to believe in what was sent down to you and what was sent down before you, yet they wish to seek judgment from the taghut, although they were commanded to reject it” (Q 4:60). And in Surat al-Nahl He, majestic and sublime, declares: “We have indeed sent to every community a messenger [saying]: Worship Allah and shun the taghut” (Q 16:36). The word taghut comes from tughyan (overstepping the limit); it is said of water “tagha” when it rises above its banks. Allah says: “When the water overflowed, We carried you in the sailing vessel” (Q 69:11). [78] In the legal sense, as Ibn al-Qayyim explains—and as the shaykh cites here—taghut is whatever causes a servant to transgress his allotted bounds. A servant has limits by virtue of his servitude, limits Allah has set and commanded him not to exceed. Whoever crosses them is a taghut; therefore anyone who surpasses the limits Allah established for His servants is, by definition, a taghut.