Righteousness

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Excerpt from Chapter 3 of QUR’ AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir:

92. Lan tanaloo albirra hatta tunfiqoo mimma tuhibboona wama tunfiqoo min shay-in fa-inna Allaha bihi AAaleemun

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92. Never shall you attain to righteousness unless you spend from what you love. And Allah is indeed aware of anything you spend.^{105 to 107}

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105. Man loves wealth. He thinks it could bring him comfort in this worldly life. His thoughts do not go beyond, to the life in the Hereafter. But Islam teaches him that this worldly life is temporary and only a test; it is the everlasting life in the Hereafter that really matters. And the Verse 92 here tells us that unless we overcome our love of wealth by spending from it, we cannot be righteous enough to deserve comfortable lives in the Hereafter.

106. We can of course incur necessary expenses, from our own wealth, on our own selves. But we cannot waste the wealth on our own selves beyond our genuine needs. Allah would be aware of it, if and when we do it. And Verse 2:215 tells us on whose genuine needs to spend our wealth that is in excess of our own individual needs.

107. Man loves other things also, besides wealth. He loves his spouse and children, for example. Verse 92 here could be extended in its implications to cover these other objects of love too. Our love for our own children, for instance, should not come in our way of standing firmly for justice in any matter involving them.

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Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 29^th December 2017.