2. Al-Baqara

If you proclaim, make manifest, your voluntary almsgivings, that is, your supererogatory deeds, it is a fine thing, to show them; but if you conceal them, and give them to the poor, that is even better for you, than making them manifest or giving it to the rich. As regards the obligatory almsgiving, it is better to make it manifest, so that it serves as an example and so that one is not accused [falsely of not giving]; as regards giving it to the poor, this is obligatory; and it will absolve you of, some of, your evil deeds (read yukaffir, ‘it will absolve’, or nukaffir, ‘We will absolve’, either in apocopated form [with no final vowel, yukaffir, nukaffir], being a supplement to the locus of fa-huwa, ‘that is’, or with nominative inflection [yukaffiru, nukaffiru], indicating the beginning of a new sentence). God is aware of what you do, knowing its inner and outer aspects, nothing of it being hidden from Him.

When the Prophet (s) was prohibited from giving voluntary alms to idolaters [as an incentive] for them to embrace Islam, the following was revealed: You are not responsible for guiding them, that is to say, for people, that they should embrace Islam, [you are responsible] only for conveying the Message [to them]; but God guides, with His guidance, whomever He will, to embrace Islam. And whatever good, property, you expend is for yourselves, since the reward is for you; for then you are expending, desiring only God’s Face (this clause is the predicate, denoting a prohibition), that is to say, His reward and not any other transient object of this world, and whatever good you expend, its requital, shall be repaid to you in full, and you will not be wronged, you will not suffer any diminishment of it (both [of the last two] sentences emphasise the first one).

For the poor (this is the predicate of the missing subject, al-sadaqāt, ‘voluntary almsgiving’), who are constrained in the way of God, those who have confined themselves [in preparation] for the struggle: this was revealed concerning the people of Suffa, consisting in some four hundred of the Emigrants (muhājirūn), set apart [from the other Muslims] for the study of the Qur’ān and to take part in raids; and they are unable to journey (darban, means safaran) in the land, to engage in commerce and earn their living, since they are fully engaged in the struggle; the ignorant man supposes them, on account of the way they behave, rich because of their abstinence, that is, their refraining from asking for things; but you, the one being addressed, shall know them by their mark, by the signs of their humility and exertion; they do not beg of men, and make urgent demands, importunately, that is to say, they do not beg in the first place, so there is no question of persistence. And whatever good you expend, surely God has knowledge of it, and will requite it accordingly.

Those who expend their wealth night and day, secretly and openly, their wage awaits them with their Lord, and no fear shall befall them, neither shall they grieve.

God effaces usury, diminishing it and eliminating any blessing in it, but He augments voluntary almsgivings with interest, increasing them, making them grow and multiplying their reward. God loves not, that is to say, He will requite, any guilty, profligate devouring it, ingrate, who deems usury licit.

Those who believe and perform righteous deeds, and establish the prayer, and pay the alms — their wage awaits them with their Lord, and no fear shall befall them, neither shall they grieve.

O you who believe, fear God, and give up, abandon, the usury that is outstanding, if you are believers, true to your faith, since it is expected of the believer that he adhere to God’s command: this was revealed when some of the Companions, after the prohibition, wanted to reclaim some of the usury from before.

But if you do not, do what you have been commanded, then be warned, have knowledge, of war from God, and His Messenger, against you: herein is a grave threat for them. When it was revealed, they said, ‘What power can we have in a war against Him!’ Yet if you repent, and forgo it, you shall have your principal sums, the original amounts, not being unjust, by charging interest, and no injustice being done to you, by way of any diminution.

And if any man, in debt, should be in difficulties, then, let him have, respite, a postponement, till things are easier (read maysara or maysura, meaning ‘a time of ease’); but that you should give (tassaddaqū, where the second tā’ of the softened form, tatasaddaqū, has been assimilated with the sād), the one in difficulty, a voluntary almsgiving, by waiving his debt, is better for you, did you but know, [if you know] that it is better for you, then do it. In a hadīth it is said, ‘Whoever gives respite to one in difficulty, or waives his debt, God will place him under His shade, on a day when there shall be no shade except God’s’, as reported by Muslim.