Some interpreters of the Holy Qur’an have said that...

Some interpreters of the Holy Qur’an have said that ‘compeers’ means leaders and elders of any community who are obeyed and followed by their community. There is a hadīth transmitted from Imām al-Bāqir ( ‘a ) that ‘compeers’ means oppressive leaders and their followers. It is clear that ‘compeers’ does not exclusively mean leaders of a community, but also includes others, such as idols, which are followed by human beings.

According to the second possibility, the above quoted verse will be interpreted in this way, “Some people love and obey their leaders in the same way that they love and obey Allah.” It has thus been written in “ Tafsīr al-Mīzān ”, “‘Compeers’ does not mean idols only, but also includes angels and human beings whom people have taken as their leaders and whom they obey without Allah’s permission.

The following verse proves this assertion: “When those who were followed will disown the followers, and they will sight the punishment while all their means of recourse will be cut off.” [^3] It can be deduced that because verse 166 pertains to leaders of a community and the people who follow them, verse 165 also refers to leaders of a community and does not exclusively pertain to idols.

This is also confirmed by the aforementioned hadīth transmitted from Imām al-Bāqir ( ‘a ) that all oppressive leaders are conceived as ‘compeers’.[^4] According to the meaning of the verse, as has also been mentioned in “ Tafsīr al-Mīzān ”, every person who is followed besides Allah is considered a compeer [of Allah], and obeying him is polytheism, even if he is an ordinary person and not a leader of the community, and even if we obey him besides Allah only on one instance.

Second verse: “As for those who stay clear of the worship of the Rebel and turn penitently to Allah, there is good news for them. So give good news to My servants who listen to the word [of Allah] and follow the best [sense] of it.

They are the ones whom Allah has guided, and it is they who posses intellect.” [^5] It has thus been written in “ Majma‘ al-Bayān ”, “The Rebel [in the above quoted verse] means idols and Satan, and other interpreters of the Holy Qur’an have said that the Rebel [ tāghūt ] denotes every individual who leads people to other than Allah.