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Al-Hadid Section 2: Charity, A Goodly Loan To God

  • Those Who Do Charity, Lend A Goodly Loan To God

  • The Believers Arc Guided By The Divine Light

  • The Plight Of The Disbelievers While In Suffering

  • Redoubled Reward For The Charitable And The Painful Chastisement For The Disbelievers

Al-Hadid Verses 11- 19

مَنْ ذَا الَّذِي يُقْرِضُ اللَّهَ قَرْضًا حَسَنًا فَيُضَاعِفَهُ لَهُ وَلَهُ أَجْرٌ كَرِيمٌ

“Who is he who would loan unto God a goodly loan? so that He may double it for him, and for him shall be a noble recompense1“ (57:11)

يَوْمَ تَرَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتِ يَسْعَىٰ نُورُهُمْ بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَبِأَيْمَانِهِمْ بُشْرَاكُمُ الْيَوْمَ جَنَّاتٌ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا ذَٰلِكَ هُوَ الْفَوْزُ الْعَظِيمُ

“The Day thou shalt see the faithful men and faithful women, with their light2running before them, and on their right hand (shall be given) glad tidings for you of that Day! Gardens ‘neath which flow rivers, to abide therein; That is the great achievement3“ (57:12)

يَوْمَ يَقُولُ الْمُنَافِقُونَ وَالْمُنَافِقَاتُ لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا انْظُرُونَا نَقْتَبِسْ مِنْ نُورِكُمْ قِيلَ ارْجِعُوا وَرَاءَكُمْ فَالْتَمِسُوا نُورًا فَضُرِبَ بَيْنَهُمْ بِسُورٍ لَهُ بَابٌ بَاطِنُهُ فِيهِ الرَّحْمَةُ وَظَاهِرُهُ مِنْ قِبَلِهِ الْعَذَابُ

“On the Day will say the hypocritical men and the hypocritical women unto those who believe: “Tarry4ye for us, that we may borrow5light from your light;” It shall be said: “Turn6ye back and seek ye (some other) light!” So there will be set between them a wall (a harrier) with a door therein; the inside thereof shall be mercy in it, and outside it, before it shall be chastisement7“ (57:13)

يُنَادُونَهُمْ أَلَمْ نَكُنْ مَعَكُمْ ۖ قَالُوا بَلَىٰ وَلَٰكِنَّكُمْ فَتَنْتُمْ أَنْفُسَكُمْ وَتَرَبَّصْتُمْ وَارْتَبْتُمْ وَغَرَّتْكُمُ الْأَمَانِيُّ حَتَّىٰ جَاءَ أَمْرُ اللَّهِ وَغَرَّكُمْ بِاللَّهِ الْغَرُورُ

“They will cry out unto them: ‘Were we not with you?’ They shall say: ‘Yea! but ye cast yourself into temptation, and ye waited (for us to be beguiled) and ye doubted (in God’s warning), and deceived you your vain desires till came the decree of God (to pass) and deceived you about God the (Arch) Deceiver8’” (57:14)

فَالْيَوْمَ لَا يُؤْخَذُ مِنْكُمْ فِدْيَةٌ وَلَا مِنَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مَأْوَاكُمُ النَّارُ هِيَ مَوْلَاكُمْ وَبِئْسَ الْمَصِيرُ

“So this day shall not be accepted from you any ransom nor from those who disbelieved; your abode shall be the fire; it is your guardian9, and what a wretched resort it shall be!10“ (57:15)

أَلَمْ يَأْنِ لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَنْ تَخْشَعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ لِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ وَمَا نَزَلَ مِنَ الْحَقِّ وَلَا يَكُونُوا كَالَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ مِنْ قَبْلُ فَطَالَ عَلَيْهِمُ الْأَمَدُ فَقَسَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ وَكَثِيرٌ مِنْهُمْ فَاسِقُونَ

“Hath not the time yet come, for those who believe that their hearts become humble for the remembrance of God and what hath come down of the Truth? And (that) they should not be like unto those who were given the Book before, but (when) lengthened the ages passed over them11, so it hardened their hearts; and many of them are transgressors” (57:16)

عْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ يُحْيِي الْأَرْضَ بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَا قَدْ بَيَّنَّا لَكُمُ الْآيَاتِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ

“Know ye! that God enliveneth the earth after its death12. Indeed, have We made the signs clear unto you, that ye may understand” (57:17)

إِنَّ الْمُصَّدِّقِينَ وَالْمُصَّدِّقَاتِ وَأَقْرَضُوا اللَّهَ قَرْضًا حَسَنًا يُضَاعَفُ لَهُمْ وَلَهُمْ أَجْرٌ كَرِيمٌ

“Verily charitable men and charitable women and those who offer a goodly loan unto God, doubled shall it be unto them, and for them shall be a noble recompense13“ (57:18)

وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَرُسُلِهِ أُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الصِّدِّيقُونَ وَالشُّهَدَاءُ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ لَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ وَنُورُهُمْ وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَكَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِنَا أُولَٰئِكَ أَصْحَابُ الْجَحِيمِ

“And those who believe in God and His Apostle, these it is who are the truthful ones14, and the witnesses with their Lord. For them shall be their recompense and their light; And those who disbelieve and belie Our signs, these are the inmates of hell” (57:19)

Commentary

Verse 11

The goodly loan to God is charity, i.e., spending of the wealth in God’s way. It is hound by the following conditions for its acceptance:

1. That which is given away or spent in the way of the Lord must have been well-earned, i.e., through lawful means.

2. The thing given must be defectless.

3. That which is given, must be needed by the giver for himself and not the stuff not needed by the giver.

4. Not that which is given away at the point of death when the giver would not need it any longer.

5. It must be given without any publicity.

6. It must be given to the one who needs it, the most.

7. When given away no obligation or even mention of it should be made and the receiver in no way should be troubled thereafter.

8. The offer must be exclusively and purely, to please God and not for any hypocritical show, name or fame

9. That which is given, even though it be much in quantity, the giver should consider it to be less and insignificant.

10. What is given away must have been loved the most by the giver.

11. What is given must be of much use to the giver15.

Verse 12

Ibn Mas’ood says that on the Day of Judgment everybody will have the light of his own righteousness to the extent of the degree of his or her own individual faith and goodness in his life. When the righteous ones - helped by the light of their own goodness would be admitted to the heavens, they would be welcomed at the entrance16.

Verse 13

The illustration goes to mean that on the Day of Judgment none would have the least relief from the others’ faith. It would be a day of ‘Everybody fur himself’17. Only those authorized by God would be able to intercede18.

The verse gives a glimpse of the scene of the Day of Judgment. During the judgment the believers and the hypocrites will be in a mixed gathering. There will be a barrier between hell and heaven. While the believers will be admitted to sec heavens through the entrance into the barrier, the hypocrites will be stationed with the barrier in front of them, barring their entrance to the heavens with the hell-fire behind them.

The light was not given to the righteous there - They brought it from the life here. Hence the Qur’an refers that running before them - and hence, the hypocrites are said just to remember what they did in this life and have from their own doings19 (A.P.).

Verse 14

By the word ‘amr’ meant the command for their death.

The Deceiver, i.e., Satan.

This shows the mere physical companionship in this life is that, even with the Holy Prophet - be of no avail (A.P.).

Verse 16

According to Ibn Abbas, 13 years, and according to Ibn Mas’ood 14 years after the revelation of the Holy Qur’an had started his mission, this verse was revealed about the companions of the Holy Prophet. It could be easily judged how deep had faith gone into the hearts of the people. The hearts were not humbled and the declaration of the faith was only verbal. The reference is to the Jews who became arrogant, corrupted the revealed Law given to them, had become hard-hearted, subverted justice, the faith and its practice and got themselves divided into sects and involved into disputes among themselves.

Compares the believers whose hearts had not yielded to the faith though the Holy Prophet was still alive. The followers of the ancient Scriptures whose hearts had been hardened by the length of time (A.P.).

Verse 19

The people are divided into groups - the one consisting of those who believe in God and the Holy Prophet - and the others who disbelieve and belie the signs from God. The division though very brief but very comprehensive. None is a believer, if he believes only in God - Since his faith is completed only by the belief in the truthfulness of the Holy Prophet. By saying ‘La ilaha illa Allah’, there is no God but God, i.e., declaring the faith automatically demands the faith in the truthfulness of His Apostle, i.e., Muhammad ur-Rasul Allah.’ Muhammad is the Apostle of God.

The belief in the Holy Prophet, is essential, also from the point of view that faith in God, many others also had, but the faith was adulterated and corrupted by all sorts of polytheistic pagan and heathen dualism and trinity - viz. believing in, God incarnating Himself in the mortals - God taking material shape - and God getting divided into three and at the same time being one, which phenomenon though unable to stand any reasoning, is blindly accepted. By accepting the Apostleship of the Holy Prophet, the faith in the absolute unity of God is established.

Faith in the Holy Prophet could be perfect and be acceptable when the believer submits himself in devotion to him and remains faithful to him in trials as well as in prosperity and not running away deserting him in times of danger and risks and yet claiming closest attachment to him at times of security and prosperity.

The believers in God and His Apostle would be ‘Siddiqun.’ The truthful ones and ‘Shuhada’ the witnesses to the Truth. When a quality is mentioned indefinitely the degree of it would be the perfect one. ‘Siddiq’ is an intensive degree of the love of truth and even that to the maximum extent of it.

A ‘Siddiq’ would naturally and essentially be one who never in his life must have uttered any falsehood or be untrue to anyone. The greatest falsehood is polytheism. Excepting Ab, there was none among the companions of the Holy Prophet, the most of whose life had not been spent in worshipping false gods and false notions. Those who had been lost to falsehood for the greater part of their lives anti even after their embracing the truth, i.e., Islam, doubted about the truthfulness of the Holy Prophet at Hudaibiyya and had been repeatedly deserting him on all occasions of terrible dangers and risks, could never sensibly be counted among the truthful ones and more so as the Witnesses to Truth.

The one who from the beginning of his life to the end of it, was the strongest in faith ‘Shuhada’ and piety was ‘Ali.

In regard to being the witness to the truth, those who prove the Truth by their own existence with it, i.e., by the effacement of their mortal individuality into that of Eternal Absolute Universal One after which their existence becomes the living proof or the clear evidence or a Witness to the existence of the Really Existent One, Whose Life, Strength, Knowledge, and the various other qualities become the proof of the attributes of the All-Divine Perfect One.

Since the martyrs get their mortal body controlled by the excellence of their spirit and allow it to be annihilated in the way of God, they are called ‘Shuhada’ for their very act of effacing themselves with their faith in God proves, that without the unconquerable conviction about the Ever-living Existence of the Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscient Being, none would give up everything of his own. The knowledge about those who lived in the life-time of the Holy Prophet, referred to here, in this verse, who possessed these qualities as the purified ones, by God Himself, is also essential for every seeker of Truth, for one’s own guidance to adopt such beings as the ideal or the models in the day to day practical life on which alone depends the proof of one’s faith and faithfulness essential to earn salvation. The ideal of Muslim life on earth is given in this verse.

“Say (O’ Our Apostle Muhammad!) verily my prayer and my sacrifice and my life and my death are (all) for God, the Lord of the Worlds” (6:163).

None can ever prevent a single one in the whole Islamic world to be compared to ‘Ali, Fatimah, Hasan and Husayn and the Nine Holy Imams: ‘Ali Ibn al-Husayn Zain al-Abidin, Muhammad Ibn ‘Ali- Al-Baqir, Ja’far Ibn Muhammad As-Sadiq, Musa-Ibn Ja’far al-Kazim, ‘Ali Ibn Musa Ar-Ridha, Muhammad Ibn ‘Ali At-Taqi, ‘Ali Ibn Muhammad An-Naqi, Hasan Ibn ‘Ali al-Askari and Muhammad Ibn al-Hasan Al-Mahdi.

All the above holy ones who constitute the Ahl Al-Bayt and the Holy Prophet whom God Himself purified20 and who were presented by the Holy Prophet as his own21. Who lived as the perfect models of faith and its correct practice, every one of whom lived for God and godliness and died for Him as martyrs.

Thus, the reference is to these holy ones of God who are directly implied in this verse.

Ayashi narrates that one of the disciples of the Sixth Holy Imam Ja’far Ibn Muhammad As-Sadiq requested the Imam to pray to God to bless him with martyrdom and the Holy Imam said that ‘a true believer is a martyr’ and recited this passage and in another narration the Holy Imam asserted that “whosoever recognises the true Vicegerents of God and awaits their ultimate success, is like a person who fought along with the Holy Prophet in God’s way and laid his life in the cause of Truth in the very presence of the Holy Prophet’, and quoted this passage (A.P.).

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