Surah Al-Hashr (59) — Ayah 19

(Ayah 19) ➊ { وَ لَا تَكُوْنُوْا كَالَّذِيْنَ نَسُوا اللّٰهَ … :} After commanding the believers to fear Allah and prepare for the Hereafter, He forbade them from neglect and heedlessness regarding His commands, because its result is wickedness and disobedience. For this, He used the style of forbidding them from becoming like those people who abandoned acting upon Allah’s commands, so that such people and their outcome remain before them and they keep avoiding following in their footsteps. This is just like after {’’ صِرَاطَ الَّذِيْنَ اَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ ‘‘}, He said {’’ غَيْرِ الْمَغْضُوْبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَ لَا الضَّآلِّيْنَ ‘‘}.
As for who are those people about whom Allah Almighty is saying: « نَسُوا اللّٰهَ » that they forgot Allah, these words have come in the Qur’an regarding the hypocrites, as He said: « اَلْمُنٰفِقُوْنَ وَ الْمُنٰفِقٰتُ بَعْضُهُمْ مِّنْۢ بَعْضٍ يَاْمُرُوْنَ بِالْمُنْكَرِ وَ يَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمَعْرُوْفِ وَ يَقْبِضُوْنَ اَيْدِيَهُمْ نَسُوا اللّٰهَ فَنَسِيَهُمْ اِنَّ الْمُنٰفِقِيْنَ هُمُ الْفٰسِقُوْنَ » [ التوبۃ : ۶۷ ] “The hypocrite men and hypocrite women, some of them are from others, they enjoin evil and forbid good and withhold their hands. They forgot Allah, so He forgot them. Surely, the hypocrites are the defiantly disobedient.” Besides them, these words have also come regarding the Jews, Christians, and polytheists. Thus, regarding the Jews, He said: « يُحَرِّفُوْنَ الْكَلِمَ عَنْ مَّوَاضِعِهٖ وَ نَسُوْا حَظًّا مِّمَّا ذُكِّرُوْا بِهٖ » [ المائدۃ : ۱۳ ] “They distort words from their places and forgot a portion of that by which they were reminded.” And regarding the Christians, He said: «وَ مِنَ الَّذِيْنَ قَالُوْۤا اِنَّا نَصٰرٰۤى اَخَذْنَا مِيْثَاقَهُمْ فَنَسُوْا حَظًّا مِّمَّا ذُكِّرُوْا بِهٖ » [ المائدۃ : ۱۴ ] “And from those who said, ‘Indeed, we are Christians,’ We took their firm covenant, then they forgot a portion of that by which they were reminded.” And regarding the polytheists, He said: « الَّذِيْنَ اتَّخَذُوْا دِيْنَهُمْ لَهْوًا وَّ لَعِبًا وَّ غَرَّتْهُمُ الْحَيٰوةُ الدُّنْيَا فَالْيَوْمَ نَنْسٰىهُمْ كَمَا نَسُوْا لِقَآءَ يَوْمِهِمْ هٰذَا » [ الأعراف : ۵۱ ] “Those who took their religion as amusement and play and the worldly life deceived them, so today We will forget them as they forgot the meeting of this Day of theirs.” In this surah, since before this the Jews of Banu Nadir and the hypocrites who incited them to treachery are mentioned, apparently here by {’’ كَالَّذِيْنَ نَسُوا اللّٰهَ ‘‘} these two are meant, although in the generality of the words, every disbeliever and hypocrite is included.

➋ {فَاَنْسٰىهُمْ اَنْفُسَهُمْ اُولٰٓىِٕكَ هُمُ الْفٰسِقُوْنَ :} That is, as a consequence of forgetting Allah and abandoning His worship, Allah made them forget to care for their own selves. Thus, they became heedless even of their own good and bad, neither did they arrange for the well-being of their souls in this world, nor did they try to save themselves from the punishment of the Hereafter, and because of this, they remained involved in sins and disobedience.

➌ Here, forgetfulness means abandoning acting upon Allah’s commands. See Surah Ta Ha (115, 126).

19. 1. That is, as a recompense, Allah made them so that they became heedless of those actions which were beneficial for them and through which they could have saved themselves from the punishment of Allah. In this way, a person, from forgetting God, reaches the point of forgetting himself.

19. And do not be like those who forgot Allah [25], so He made them forget their own souls. Such are the defiantly disobedient.

[25]
The Inevitable Result of Forgetting Allah is Self-Forgetfulness:

That is, the inevitable result of forgetting or neglecting Allah is self-forgetfulness. In other words, it is only through the recognition of Allah that a person attains self-recognition. The person who does not reflect on what the reality of Allah is in this universe and what his own status is, always falls into wrong paths and ruins his hereafter. He should always keep in mind that both this universe and he himself have been created by Allah Almighty. He alone is the Creator, Owner, and Sustainer of all things, and man is His creation, His possession, and in need of Him. Therefore, He alone is worthy of all kinds of worship and devotion. He alone is the fulfiller of needs and remover of difficulties. No one else can be, because all other things are also, in the same way, the creation, possession, and in need of Allah. In this respect, they are equal to man. But since man has been created as the noblest of creation, in this respect, he is superior to all other creation. Now, if a superior creation worships a creation like itself or even inferior to itself, or accepts its authority, or considers it as the fulfiller of needs and remover of difficulties, then it is as if he has humiliated and insulted the rank of humanity. This is the mutual relationship between Creator and creation. If he keeps this in mind, he will never be disobedient to Allah. And if he forgets this relationship, his life will be spent on wrong paths, in sin and immorality, and he will remain unaware and heedless of his ultimate end. Therefore, in order to remain steadfast on the right path, it is necessary that he always remembers his Lord. As soon as he becomes heedless of Him, he will forget himself and his end, and become involved in sin and immorality.