Taghut literally denotes the one who exceeds his legitimate limits. In Qur'anic terminology it refers to the creature who exceeds the limits of his creatureliness and abrogates to himself godhead and lordship. In the negative scale of values, the first stage of man's error is fisq (i.e. disobeying God without necessarily denying that one should obey Him.) The second stage is that of kufr, (i.e. rejection of the very idea that one ought to obey God.) The last stage is that man not only rebels against God but also imposes his rebellious will on others. All those who reach this stage are taghut.