Tafsir of Al Imran 3:92

This is a new statement intended to explain what is beneficial to the believers and accepted from them, following the explanation of what is neither beneficial to the disbelievers nor accepted from them.

"Nāla" (attained) is used when one obtains or finds something; it is said, "He attained knowledge," meaning he reached it and became qualified by it. "Al-Birr" (piety/righteousness) is beneficence and the perfection of goodness. Some distinguish between it and "Al-Khayr" (good), noting that "Al-Birr" is the benefit that reaches others alongside the intention to do so, whereas "Al-Khayr" is benefit in an absolute sense, even if it occurs inadvertently. The opposite of "Al-Birr" is "Al-Uquq" (undutifulness), and the opposite of "Al-Khayr" is "Ash-Sharr" (evil).

The definite article "Al" in "Al-Birr" is either for the essence and reality of the term—the intended meaning being "You will not become righteous until you expend"—which is reported from Al-Hasan; or it is for the sake of specific reference, meaning "You will not attain the piety of Allah, O people of His obedience, until you expend." Muqatil and 'Ata' favored the latter. Ibn Jarir extracted from Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that the interpretation of "Al-Birr" is Paradise; similar reports are narrated from Masruq, As-Suddi, and 'Amr ibn Maymun. Some hold that the speech contains an ellipsis, meaning "You will not attain the reward of righteousness."

"Hatta" (until) is in the sense of "up to," and the particle "min" (from) signifies partiality; this is supported by the reading of 'Abdullah [ibn Mas'ud] as "some of what you love." It is also said that it is explanatory, and in that case, there is no contradiction in meaning between the two readings. "Ma" (what) is either a relative pronoun or an adjective. Treating it as a verbal noun in the sense of the object is permissible according to the opinion of Abu 'Ali.

Regarding the intended meaning of His saying, "what you love," there are several views:

1. It is wealth, and it was referred to in this way because all people love it.
2. It is the most precious and valuable of one’s wealth.
3. It is a general term covering that and all other things a person loves and desires. Under this view, "expenditure" is used metaphorically, whereas in the first two views, it is literal.

The predecessors (may Allah be pleased with them) used to give to Allah anything they loved. The Two Sahihs, At-Tirmidhi, and An-Nasa'i extracted from Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: Abu Talha was the wealthiest of the Ansar in Medina in terms of palm trees, and the most beloved of his wealth to him was "Bayruha," which faced the mosque. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) used to enter it and drink from its sweet water. When "You will not attain piety until you expend from what you love" was revealed, Abu Talha said: "O Messenger of Allah, Allah says: 'You will not attain piety until you expend from what you love,' and the most beloved of my wealth is Bayruha. It is an alms for Allah; I hope for its reward and its store with Allah. So, place it, O Messenger of Allah, where Allah shows you." The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said: "Bravo, bravo! That is profitable wealth, and I have heard what you said. I see that you should give it to your relatives." Abu Talha said: "I will do so, O Messenger of Allah." Abu Talha divided it among his relatives and his cousins. In a narration by Muslim and Abu Dawud, he divided it between Hassan ibn Thabit and Ubayy ibn Ka'b.

Ibn Abi Hatim and others extracted from Muhammad ibn al-Munkadir, who said: When this verse was revealed, Zayd ibn Harithah brought a horse called "Sabul"—he had no wealth more beloved to him than it—and said: "It is an alms." The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) accepted it and mounted his son Usamah upon it. The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) saw that on Zayd's face [the sign of his joy], so he said: "Allah, the Exalted, has accepted it from you."

'Abd ibn Humayd extracted from Ibn 'Umar, who said: "This verse, 'You will not attain piety...' was brought to my attention. I remembered what Allah had given me and found nothing more beloved to me than Marjanah, my Roman slave-girl. I said: 'She is free for the sake of Allah.' If I could return to something I made for Allah, I would have married her, so I gave her in marriage to Nafi'."

Ibn al-Mundhir extracted from Nafi' that Ibn 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) used to buy sugar to give as alms. We would say to him: "If you bought them food with its price, it would be more beneficial to them than this." He would reply: "I know what you say, but I heard Allah, the Exalted, say: 'You will not attain piety until you expend from what you love,' and I love sugar."

The outward meaning of these reports indicates that the expenditure in the verse is general and includes the recommended (mustahabb). It is narrated from Ibn 'Abbas that the intent is the giving of obligatory Zakat and what Allah has imposed upon wealth. It is as if it were said: "You will not attain piety until you give the Zakat of your wealth." This is based on the interpretation that "what you love" means wealth, not its most precious parts. Therefore, the statement of An-Naysaburi—that it is countered by the fact that it is not obligatory for the one paying Zakat to give his most honorable and precious wealth—stems from a lack of reflection; had he reflected, he would not have objected to the Interpreter of the Quran and the Scholar of the Ummah.

Al-Wahidi reported from Mujahid and Al-Kalbi that the verse is abrogated by the verse of Zakat. This is considered weak, as the obligation of Zakat does not negate the encouragement to offer the beloved in the way of Allah.

This verse presents a difficulty: its literal meaning implies that a poor person who has never expended what he loves throughout his life—due to inability—would not be "righteous" (barr), nor would he attain the piety of Allah for the people of His obedience, even though this is not the case. It is answered that the speech is framed as an encouragement to expend, restricted by the possibility of doing so; it is expressed in absolute terms by way of exaggeration in encouragement. It is also said: It is better to interpret it as "You will not attain the perfect piety, occurring in the most honorable manner, until you expend from what you love." The poor person who has not expended in his life is not far from the claim that he is not "perfectly righteous" and does not attain the perfect piety of Allah for the people of His obedience.

It is also said: A better interpretation is that the meaning is "You will not attain piety by way of expenditure until you expend from what you love." The essence of this is that the attainment of piety is predicated upon spending from the beloved, and the attainment of piety is not predicated upon spending from other than it. The verse contains nothing that indicates an exclusive restriction of the attainment of piety to spending from the beloved, nor does it deny the attainment of piety through other commanded deeds. In that case, it is not unlikely that a poor person who does not spend could be righteous or attain the piety of Allah for the people of His obedience through another aspect; perhaps his deeds, devoid of monetary expenditure, entail a piety more perfect and abundant than what is entailed by expenditure alone. This leads to the discourse on the preference of the patient poor over the grateful rich—a long-standing issue about which entire treatises have been written.

"Whatever you expend of a thing" — meaning: whatever thing you expend, be it good which you love or bad which you dislike. "Min" (of), in the first view, relates to an implicit term that serves as an adjective for the conditional noun; in the second, it is in the accusative case as a specifier (tamyiz). "Then Allah is Knowing of it." This is an explanation for the necessity of the condition and is in its proper place; meaning: He will reward you according to it, for He, the Exalted, is "Knowing" of everything you expend. It is said: It is the response to the conditional, and the meaning is that Allah knows it while it exists in the manner you perform it, in terms of the goodness of intention or its corruption. The prepositional phrase is placed first to observe the rhyme. The verse contains both encouragement and warning. It is said that it also contains an indication of the encouragement to give charity in secret.