Verses 9–11
This section cautions the believers to avoid some of the characteristics which bring about hypocrisy. These are to seek distraction in wealth and children from God’s remembrance, and stinginess.
Commentary
يا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لا تُلْهِكُمْ أَمْوالُكُمْ وَ لا أَوْلادُكُمْ عَنْ ذِكْرِ اللَّهِ وَ مَنْ يَفْعَلْ ذلِكَ فَأُولئِكَ هُمُ الْخاسِرُونَ ٩
(63:9) O you who believe! Let not your wealth, or your children, divert you from the remembrance of Allah; and whoever does that, these are the losers.
The word al-ilhāʾ means “to pre-occupy, to engross.” The meaning of ‘wealth and children diverting one from God’s remembrance’ is these things preoccupying the heart. This occurs by the heart clinging to or cleaving to them such that it causes the heart to turn away from attending to God. This is because wealth and children are the adornments of the life of this world. God says Wealth and children are an adornment of the life of this world... (). A preoccupation with wealth and children entails the heart becoming devoid of God’s remembrance and forgetting Him. This results in nought save speech that is unaccompanied by deeds and heartfelt affirmation. This is while a servant of God forgetting his Lord consequently leads to God forgetting him. God says ...they have forsaken Allah, so He has forsaken them (). Indeed, this is a manifest loss! God says, in describing the hypocrites These are they who buy error for the right direction, so their bargain shall bring no gain, nor are they the followers of the right direction (). It is to this fact that the end part of points, where it says ...and whoever does that, these are the losers.
The principal teaching is to forbid believers from being distracted and preoccupied with wealth and children. This teaching is rendered a substitute for the prohibition of wealth and children. Its substitution for the prohibition of wealth and children is to indicate that it is in the nature of wealth and children to distract and preoccupy (a person from God). Hence, the believers should not cling or cleave to their wealth and children such that these may distract and divert them from God’s remembrance. Thus it is a figurative prohibition rendered emphatic due to its explicitness.
وَ أَنْفِقُوا مِنْ ما رَزَقْناكُمْ مِنْ قَبْلِ أَنْ يَأْتِيَ أَحَدَكُمُ الْمَوْتُ فَيَقُولَ رَبِّ لَوْ لا أَخَّرْتَنِي إِلى أَجَلٍ قَرِيبٍ فَأَصَّدَّقَ وَ أَكُنْ مِنَ الصَّالِحِينَ ١٠
(63:10) And spend out of what We have given you before death comes to one of you so that he should say: My Lord! Why didst Thou not respite me to a near term, so that I should have given alms and been of the doers of good deeds?
The imperative in this verse to spend wealth is more general than (just) spending wealth for obligatory dues such as the zakāt dues and expiation dues (al-kaffārāt) or (just) voluntary spending of wealth, (rather it includes both), while the qualification of this imperative by ... out of what We have given you... is to notify that this imperative is not a request regarding what the believers possess apart from God, rather it is regarding what God has granted them, and it is regarding sustenance that God has sustained them with, and it is regarding a kingdom that He has made them possess without what is granted leaving His suzerainty. (Thus) God is instructing them to spend what is from Him, regarding what He wants. Consequently, it is God who is doing them a favor in every instance!
The statement ...before death comes to one of you... means ‘before death arrives and consequently robs the person of his ability to spend of his wealth in charity in God’s path.’ This is because the time to do so will have been severed. The part of this verse that says ...so that he should say: My Lord! Why didst Thou not respite me to a near term... serves as a conjunction to the previous part of this verse while the qualification of the ‘term’ as ‘near’ is to notify that a person would be content with (even) a little bit of respite, which is the amount of time from his life that is sufficient for him to spend something in charity so that it may ease his reckoning. Further, the qualification is to notify that death, whenever it may come, is near. The Messenger of God said: ‘All that which is coming, is near.’
The verse concludes with ... so that I should have given alms and been of the doers of good deeds? The first person singular present tense verb aṣṣadaqa is in the subjunctive mood because it occurs as the response to the wish statement (jawāb al-tamanniyy) while the first person singular present tense verb akun is in the jussive mood because it is in the meaning of the outcome (or result) of a conditional statement, the implication being: ‘if I had given alms, I would have been of the good doers’.
وَ لَنْ يُؤَخِّرَ اللَّهُ نَفْساً إِذا جاءَ أَجَلُها وَ اللَّهُ خَبِيرٌ بِما تَعْمَلُونَ ١١
(63:11) And Allah does not respite a soul when its appointed term has come, and Allah is Aware of what you do.
This verse serves to cause despair to the one who hopes for a positive response from God for his plea that death is delayed after it has come upon him and after the manifestation of the signs of the advent of the hereafter. The speech of God in the Qur’an repeatedly stresses that the designated time of death is from the instances of certain, inescapable fate. Say: ...when their term comes, they shall not then remain behind for an hour, nor can they go before (their time) ().
The concluding statement ...and Allah is Aware of what you do occurs either as a description of the condition or circumstance (al-ḥāl) of the masculine second person plural pronoun kum (meaning: you all) suffixed to the word aḥad in aḥadakum (one of you) in the previous verse, or as a conjunction to and in which case it serves as an explanatory justification (for these two verses) where the meaning would be: ‘do not let wealth and children distract you from God’s remembrance, and spend in God’s way for surely God is aware and knows your deeds and shall recompense you accordingly.’
Examining Narrations
- He (Abū ʿAbdillāh al-Ṣādiq) was asked about ... so that I should have given alms (fa-aṣṣaddaqa) and been of the doers of good deeds (wa akun min al-ṣāliḥīn) (). He said: ‘(The first person singular present tense verb) aṣṣadaqa (I give alms in charity) is derived from ṣadaqa (charity, alms-giving) (while the phrase) wa akun min al-ṣāliḥīn (and been of the doers of good deeds) means: ‘I go for pilgrimage’ (aḥujju).
Author’s comment: It is apparent that the terminal part of the report (which mentions the pilgrimage) is one example or instance of what it means to be ‘of the good doers.’
- ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās said: ‘There is not a single person who dies and had wealth but did not discharge the zakāt dues liable on it, and was capable of making the pilgrimage but did not do so save that he will plead to come back to life at the moment of death.’ They said: ‘Ibn ʿAbbās, fear God! Will we see this disbeliever asking to come back to life?!’ He replied: ‘I shall recite (a portion of) the Qur’an to you regarding this issue’ and he recited these verses, that is: O you who believe! Let not your wealth, or your children, divert you from the remembrance of Allah; and whoever does that, these are the losers (). And spend out of what We have given you before death comes to one of you so that he should say: My Lord! Why didst Thou not respite me to a near term, so that I should have given alms and been of the doers of good deeds?’ () He said: ‘“Good deeds” here refers to the pilgrimage.’ (Majmaʿ al-bayān)
The same is reported from Abū ʿAbdillāh al-Ṣādiq.
Author’s comment: (Al-Suyūṭī) has transmitted this report in (his Qur’an commentary) Al-Durr al-manthūr, from a number of comprehensive (Sunni) ḥadīth compilations, from Ibn ʿAbbās.
- Abū Jaʿfar al-Bāqir said the following regarding And Allah does not respite a soul when its appointed term has come... (): ‘Surely, with God are books (whose contents are) left pending or in abeyance (kutub mawqūfa). He advances from them what He wishes and delays what He wishes. Thus when it is the night of al-Qadr, He reveals from them everything that shall occur until the following year. That is the meaning of God’s speech And Allah does not respite a soul when its appointed term has come... (). When God reveals it and the heavenly scribes register it, then that is what is not delayed.’