O You Who Believe

9)

"O you who have believed, spend from the good things which you have earned and from that which We have produced for you from the earth. And do not aim toward the defective therefrom, spending [from that] while you would not take it [yourself] except with closed eyes. And know that Allah is Free of need and Praiseworthy."

[Al Baqarah 2:267]

In three continuous ayaat, Allah reminded His servants to pay ose check to Sadaqah and to spend.

For 'good things', the word 'tayyibaat' is used which comes from the root word 'tayyib'.

Tayyib is a very comprehensive word and has a great place in the Qur’an and Sunnah. Tayyib generally means to be good, pleasant, agreeable, lawful. The word ‘tayyib’ itself means to be good, clean, wholesome, gentle, excellent, fair and lawful.

From these meanings we get the general meaning for tayyib of anything that is good and pure.

Tayyib food means halaal and lawful food. Allah orders us to spend from the tayyib things which we have earned or the pure and the halaal things which we earn by means of halaal methodology. Here, it is specifically clarified that if a person spends for Allah's sake but what he spends is impure or haraam, it will not be accepted.

The other order is to spend from what Allah has given us from the earth or the land. This refers to the productions from the lands we own. Hence, it is ordered to spend from the pure things and from the Rizq (sustenance) that grows from the land.

In a hadith e Qudsi Allah (mighty and sublime be He) said: "Spend (on charity), O son of Adam, and I shall spend on you."

(Al-Bukhari (also by Muslim))

Within this verse as Allah commands two things, He orders us to refrain from one as well.

Here, Allah beautifully signifies the importance of Haqul Al-ibad. Our duties towards people of Allah that form the basis of not hurting the other's feelings. Allah has told us not to hurt their feelings by means of giving them something we ourself would not take unless our eyes are closed.

Eyes are essentially referred here which are the means of sight. Hence Allah orders us to give people pure things which are presentable and satisfy the human eye.

This is also a mean of telling people to not to look down on the poor. This means we shouldn't give dirty and unpleasant things in charity as charity purifies us so it must be pure. It must be from the heart so that the one who receives it becomes happy.

Humans are fellow beings and no one is superior to each other. The extreme Superiority belongs to Allah Amighty who loves us all the same. Hence, those to whom he has given more Rizq (sustenance) should not look down and make fun of those who are given less Rizq but rather, they should lovingly provide pure things for the poor people of Allah.

It is described that the poor people of Prophet Muhammad's (S.A.W) ummah will enter Jannah 500 years before the riches.

Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “The poor Muslims will enter Paradise before the rich by half of a day, the length of which is five hundred years.”

((Sunan al-Tirmidhī 2354)

At the end, Allah (SWT) describes two of His beautiful names. 'Al-Ghani', The Self-Sufficient and The Independant One, The One Who transcends all needs an The One free from all tyoes of wants, or The One who flourishes without help or aid of any sort, yet who is needed by all.

'Al-Hameed', The praiseworthy. The One who is praised and is praiseworthy. The One who is worthy of all thankful praise. The One and only One who truly deserves all praise, honor and adoration.

The One who is exalted, praised and glorified by the very existence of creation. The One who deserves every manner of praise, exaltation and glorification, both public and private.

From the root h-m-d which has the following classical Arabic connotations:

To praise, to laud with deep feelings of adoration and submission. To praise one for something done by that one's own will. To speak well of, to honor, to commend, to eulogize.

The root h-m-d denotes the highest praise and honoring being offered with deep feelings of thankfulness, admiration, humility and submission.

Hamīd indicates one who is praised and praiseworthy due to his own inherent qualities, not due to any specific favor, and who does glorious works entirely of his own volition and according to his own will.

The root h-m-d is also the basis of the expression al-hamdulillāh (all praise is for Allah), as well as being the root of the names Ahmad (praiseworthy), Mahmūd  (praised) and Muhammad (much praised, or repeatedly praised).

Thing we learnt:

> The first order is to spend. To give. To be charitable and being full of love while doing so.

> The next thing to take care of is that we should spend from the pure things that we have earned. We should spend from the halaal things we have earned.

> The food that grows from our fields is ours but it ultimately belongs to Allah like everything else. So we should spend that as well because we are from Him and to Him we will return.

> The refrainment is from displeasing others by giving them impure and dirty things in charity. This means that we must respect everyone and their feelings because in akhirah, no one would be able to distinguish the poor and the rich. Allah does not look at the wealth and social positions but rather the intentions and the hearts.

> We submit ourselves to Allah because we are in the need of doing so.

> All praise is to Allah and He is The Praiseworthy.

May Allah guide us to the right path.
Ameen.
Wama alayna illal balaghul mubeen.