Hūd

اُوْلَئِكَ الَّذِينَ خَسِرُوا أَنفُسَهُمْ وَضَلَّ عَنْهُم مَا كَانُوا يَفْتَرُونَ

لا جَرَمَ أَنَّهُمْ فِي الاَخِرَةِ هُمُ الاَخْسَرُونَ

21. “These are they who have lost their own selves, and that which they used to invent has failed them.”
22. “Assuredly, they will be the greatest losers in the Hereafter.”

In Islamic culture, the world is compared to a marketplace where people are salesmen and the purchasing group consists of Allah, the Satan, one’s passionate self, etc., the number of which is numerous. The merchandise is the soul, property and performance. This merchandise is on offer at an expensive or cheap price. Hence the words /’ajr/ (recompense), /awab/ (reward), /di‘f/ and /’id‘af/, are used frequently in the Qur’an to mean recompense; while the terms /xusr/ (loss) and /xusranun mubin/ (manifest loss) and /axsarin/ (the most losers) are used about damage.

The important warning is that we know that every loss can be compensated except the passage of one’s lifetime which cannot be redeemed. The holy verse says:

“These are they who have lost their own selves, and that which they used to invent has failed them.”

Sometimes, wealth and property, position and power or one’s social status are lost. At other times, man himself and his humanity are lost which is the greatest of all losses. Therefore, worldly losses can be compensated but losses incurred in the Hereafter cannot be replaced. The verse says:

“Assuredly, they will be the greatest losers in the Hereafter.”