Explanations are simplified from tafsirs by Ibn Kathir, Mufti Muhammad Shafi, and Maulana Wahiduddin Khan. Spot an inaccuracy? Let us know.
بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
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1
١
alhākumu l-takāthuru
Competition in [worldly] increase diverts you
2
٢
ḥattā zur'tumu l-maqābira
Until you visit the graveyards.
3
٣
kallā sawfa taʿlamūna
No! You are going to know.
4
٤
thumma kallā sawfa taʿlamūna
Then, no! You are going to know.
5
٥
kallā law taʿlamūna ʿil'ma l-yaqīni
No! If you only knew with knowledge of certainty...
6
٦
latarawunna l-jaḥīma
You will surely see the Hellfire.
7
٧
thumma latarawunnahā ʿayna l-yaqīni
Then you will surely see it with the eye of certainty.
8
٨
thumma latus'alunna yawma-idhin ʿani l-naʿīmi
Then you will surely be asked that Day about pleasure.
Surah At-Takathur (The Rivalry in world increase) — Full Text
Ayah 1
أَلْهَىٰكُمُ ٱلتَّكَاثُرُ
Competition in [worldly] increase diverts you
This surah opens with a hard truth: the race to have more — more money, more clout, more followers, more stuff — has completely distracted you from what actually matters. It's not just about wealth either; it includes flexing your status, your connections, even your family size. The word "alhakum" means it's consumed your attention so deeply that you've forgotten the bigger picture entirely. Basically, the grind became the whole identity instead of a means to something greater.
Ayah 2
حَتَّىٰ زُرْتُمُ ٱلْمَقَابِرَ
Until you visit the graveyards.1
And this rat race doesn't stop until you literally end up in the grave. You keep chasing more and more, thinking "once I get this next thing I'll be set," but that finish line keeps moving until death shows up and the game is over. The Quran uses the phrase "visiting the graves" to describe death — like your grave was always your destination and you just didn't realize you were heading there the whole time. The only thing that truly fills that void of "never enough" is the dust of the grave itself.
Ayah 3
كَلَّا سَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ
No! You are going to know.
Here Allah hits the brakes hard — "No! You will come to know." It's a stern wake-up call, like someone grabbing you by the shoulders and saying snap out of it. The reality you've been ignoring — that there's a Day of Judgment where everything gets weighed — is coming whether you prepared for it or not. This isn't a suggestion; it's a promise.
Ayah 4
ثُمَّ كَلَّا سَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ
Then, no! You are going to know.
And then the exact same warning is repeated: "No, again! You will come to know." When something gets repeated in the Quran, it's not filler — it's emphasis that you really need to pay attention. The repetition is meant to shake you even harder, like when someone says "I'm serious, I'm actually serious." The tone is escalating because the consequences are that severe.
Ayah 5
كَلَّا لَوْ تَعْلَمُونَ عِلْمَ ٱلْيَقِينِ
No! If you only knew with knowledge of certainty...1
Now the surah shifts to a conditional that hits deep: if you truly knew with certainty what's coming, you would never have wasted your life chasing things that don't last. The phrase "knowledge of certainty" means understanding something so deeply in your heart that it changes how you live. It's the difference between knowing fire is hot because someone told you and knowing it because you've been burned. If that level of conviction about the afterlife lived in your heart, the rat race would lose all its appeal overnight.
Ayah 6
لَتَرَوُنَّ ٱلْجَحِيمَ
You will surely see the Hellfire.
The tone gets even more intense: you will absolutely see the Hellfire. This isn't a maybe or a possibility — it's stated with the strongest form of emphasis in Arabic. Everyone will witness it, and at that point the reality you spent your whole life ignoring will be right there in front of you. All those distractions and accumulations won't mean a thing when you're standing before that scene.
Ayah 7
ثُمَّ لَتَرَوُنَّهَا عَيْنَ ٱلْيَقِينِ
Then you will surely see it with the eye of certainty.1
Then you'll see it with your own eyes — the absolute highest level of certainty there is. Right now, the afterlife is something you believe in conceptually, but on that Day it becomes something you physically witness with zero room for doubt. It's the difference between hearing about an ocean and standing at its shore watching the waves crash. By then, of course, it's too late to go back and reprioritize your life.
Ayah 8
ثُمَّ لَتُسْـَٔلُنَّ يَوْمَئِذٍ عَنِ ٱلنَّعِيمِ
Then you will surely be asked that Day about pleasure.1
The surah closes with the ultimate accountability check: on that Day, you will be questioned about every single blessing you enjoyed. Your health, your eyesight, your hearing, the cold water you drank on a hot day, the roof over your head — all of it. Did you use these gifts with gratitude and purpose, or did you just consume them mindlessly while chasing more? The whole surah comes full circle: you spent your life accumulating, and now you have to answer for every blessing you took for granted along the way.