His words, “We have indeed sent to every nation a messenger, saying, ‘Worship Allah and shun the tāghūt’” (an-Nahl 36).
baʿathnā (We sent): We dispatched.
every ummah: every group, generation, and cohort of people.
rasūlan: a messenger—one to whom a law has been revealed and who is commanded to convey it.
ʿubudū Allāh: devote all worship exclusively to Allah.
wa-jtanibū: keep away from, part company with.
al-ṭāghūt: derived from ṭughyān (overstepping the limits); anything that is worshipped instead of Allah and is pleased with that worship is a tāghūt.
Overall meaning of the verse: Allah, exalted is He, informs us that He has sent to every group and era of humanity a messenger who calls them to worship Allah alone and to abandon the worship of everything else. From the moment shirk first appeared among the children of Adam in the time of Noah until He sealed the line of messengers with Muhammad ﷺ, He continued to dispatch messengers with this very call.
Connection of the verse to the chapter: The summons to pure monotheism and the prohibition of shirk constitute the mission of all the messengers and their followers.
Lessons drawn from the verse:
- The purpose for which messengers were sent is to call people to tawḥīd and to forbid shirk.
- The religion of all the prophets is one: dedicating worship solely to Allah and abandoning shirk, even