Tafsir of At-Tawbah 9:121

"Nor do they spend any expenditure, small—even if it be a date or the strap of a whip—nor great," such as what Uthman, may Allah be pleased with him, spent on the Army of Hardship. The great is mentioned after the small, even though it is understood from the reward of the first that there is reward for the second, because the intention is generalization, not the specificity of what is mentioned. The meaning is: "They do not spend anything at all." Thus, one should not imagine that the apparent meaning implies the opposite.

In Irshad al-Aql al-Salim, it is stated that the order is based on frequency and rarity, and the insertion of "nor" (la) is to specify that each of the two is independent in terms of being recorded and rewarded, not merely to emphasize negation, as in His, the Exalted, saying: "Nor do they cross" (i.e., traverse in their travel for a raid) "a valley."

A valley (wadi) is originally an active participle from "wadiya" (it flowed), so it means the flow itself; then it became widespread for its location, which is the winding path between mountains and hills where water flows; then it became a literal term for any stretch of land. It is pluralized as awdiyah, like nadin to andiyah and najin to anjiyah, and it is said there is no fourth example like this in the speech of the Arabs.

"Except that it is recorded for them," meaning it is established for them, or written in the scrolls or the Preserved Tablet. "Recorded" should not be interpreted as "deserved," due to the causal clause that follows. The pronoun in "recorded" follows the pattern mentioned previously—meaning either the mentioned [action] or each one of them. It has been said it refers to the deed, but that is not strong. This [phrase] was separated and placed at the end because it is lighter than what preceded it.

"That Allah may reward them for that with the best of what they used to do," meaning: with the best reward for their deeds, in the sense that their deeds have a good reward and a best reward, and He, the Glorified, has chosen for them the best reward. The accusative state of "the best" (ahsana) is due to it being an infinitive, based on its annexation to a deleted infinitive.

The Imam said: There are two interpretations. The first is that "the best" is an attribute of their deed, which includes the obligatory, the recommended, and the permissible; so He rewards them for the first two but not the last. The apparent meaning in this case is that "the best" is in the accusative as a substitute of comprehensiveness (badal ishtimal) for the pronoun in "reward them," as has been said. This was objected to on the grounds that it is far from the context and of little benefit, for its conclusion is that He rewards for the obligatory and recommended, and that what is mentioned of it [is known], and its weakness is not hidden, nor is the fact that it is obvious to everyone. Its being a metaphor for pardoning what may have occurred in their other deeds is contrary to the apparent meaning, as restricting the reward to it suggests He does not reward for other than it.

Then he said: The second [interpretation] is that "the best" is an attribute of the reward, meaning: "that He may reward them with a reward that is better than their deeds and superior to them," which is the reward [of Paradise]. Abu Hayyan objected to this by saying: If "the best" is an attribute of the reward, how can it be annexed to the deeds, while it is not part of them? And how can it be superior to them without the preposition "than" (min)? There is no way to deflect this by saying its original form was "better than what they were doing," then the "than" was deleted while the meaning remained the same, as some have said, because that has no substance.

As for describing the expenditure as "small" and "great" rather than "little" and "much," even though that is what is intended, it is said that this is to carry the terminology of obedience over to disobedience; for in their speech, [disobedience] is described as small or great, not little or much. Reflect upon this.