ﲋ ﲌ ﲍ ﲎ ﲏ ﲐ ﲑ ﲒ ﲓ ﲔ ﲕ ﲖ ﲗ ﲘ ﲙ ﲚ ﲛ ﲜ ﲝ ﲞ ﲟ ﲠ ﲡ ﲢ ﲣ ﲤ ﲥ ﲦ ﲧ ﲨ ﲩ
[Charity is] for the poor who have been restricted for the cause of Allah, unable to move about in the land. An ignorant [person] would think them self-sufficient because of their restraint, but you will know them by their [characteristic] sign. They do not ask people persistently [or at all]. And whatever you spend of good - indeed, Allah is Knowing of it.
Tafsir
Verse range: 2:273
(They are not able to)—due to their occupation with that—(to travel in the land)—meaning walking therein and going about to earn a living and trade. These are the Ahl al-Suffah (the People of the Bench), may Allah be pleased with them; this was stated by Ibn Abbas and Muhammad ibn Ka’b al-Qurazi. They were about three hundred, fluctuating in number, from among the poor of the Emigrants (Muhajirin), residing in the shelter of the mosque, consuming their time with learning and jihad. They would go out in every military expedition sent by the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. From Sa'id ibn Jubayr: they are those who suffered wounds in the way of Allah Almighty and became incapacitated, so a right was assigned to them in the wealth of the Muslims. Perhaps the intention of the two reports is to explain some of the individuals of this concept, and their inclusion in it is primary, not restrictive, as this ruling remains until the Day of Judgment.
(The ignorant man counts them)—meaning he deems them—(as rich because of their restraint)—that is, because of their abstention from asking. "Because of" (min) is for causal explanation, and he used it because of the absence of one of the conditions for the accusative, which is the unity of the agent. It is said it is for the beginning of the cause; the meaning is that the ignorant person’s counting them as rich arises from their restraint. Restraint (ta’affuf) is the abandonment of a thing and turning away from it despite having the ability to seek it, and its object is omitted for brevity, as we indicated. The state of this sentence is like the state of the one preceding it.
(You know them by their mark)—meaning you know their poverty and distress by the visible sign upon them, such as humility, exhaustion, and the shabbiness of their condition. Abu Nu’aym recorded from Fadalah ibn Ubayd, who said: "When the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, would pray with the people, men would fall from their standing during prayer because of the extreme poverty they were in; they were the People of the Bench, until the Bedouin would say, 'These are mad.'" He also recorded from Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, that he said: "There were seventy men among the People of the Bench, and not one of them had a cloak." The address is to the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, or to everyone who has a share in the address, as an exaggeration in clarifying the clarity of their poverty. The weight of sima (mark) is fa’la because it is from wasm (branding) in the sense of a sign (simah); the fa was moved to the position of the ’ayn, and it was turned into a ya because it followed a kasra.
(They do not ask people with insistence)—meaning, with persistence, which is for one to cling to the person being asked until they give to him, from the saying "He gave me from the excess of his covering (lihaf)," meaning he gave me from the surplus of what he has. It is also said that persistence is named so because it covers the heart just as the quilt (lihaf) covers what is beneath it. Its grammatical state is as a source (masdar), as it is a type of asking, or as a state (hal), meaning "insistent." The meaning is that they do not ask at all, which is reported from Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, and to this leaned al-Farra’, al-Zajjaj, and most masters of meaning. Based on this, the negation is directed at two things, in the manner of the saying of al-A’sha: "He does not complain of his leg from fatigue or pain, nor does he choke on the dryness of his throat." It was objected that this is only sound if the constraint is necessary for the restricted, or like the necessary, such that its negation necessitates the negation of the other demonstratively, and this is not the case here, as persistence is not necessary for asking nor like it. It was replied that this is conceded if there is nothing in the speech that necessitates it, but here it is as such, because restraint—to the point that they are thought to be rich—requires the absence of asking entirely. Furthermore, (you know them by their mark) supports this, for if they were to ask, they would be known by the asking, and knowledge by the mark would be dispensed with. It is said the intention is that they do not ask, and if they ask out of necessity, they do not persist. Among the people are those who made the accusative a cognate accusative for the negation; i.e., they abandon asking with insistence, meaning they are persistent in the abandonment, and it is as you see.
(And whatever you spend of good, then indeed Allah is knowing of it).
He will reward you for it; this is an encouragement to spend, especially upon these people. Al-Bukhari and Muslim recorded from Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: "The poor person is not the one whom a date or two, or a morsel or two, turns away. Rather, the poor person is the one who refrains [from asking], and recite if you wish: (They do not ask people with insistence)." The prepositional phrase was brought forward in consideration of the end-rhymes or as an allusion to emphasis.
