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.

Those who devour that is those who seize by way of usury which is an excess levied in transactions of money or foodstuffs either on their value or on credit shall not rise again from their graves except rising as one whom Satan has made prostrate demented from touch through madness min al-mass ‘from touch’ is semantically connected to yaqūmūna ‘they rise’; that which befalls them is because of the fact that they say ‘Trade is like usury’ in terms of permissibility this statement is a type of reversed simile used for intensity sc. ‘usury is like trade’ is the expected word order. God responds to them saying that God has permitted trade and forbidden usury. Whoever receives an admonition from his Lord and desists from devouring it he shall have his past gains those made before the prohibition and which cannot be reclaimed from him and his affair with regard to pardoning him is committed to God; but whoever reverts to devouring it treating it like trade in terms of lawfulness — those are the inhabitants of the Fire abiding therein.

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.

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.