Tafsir of Muhammad 47:36

{يؤتكم أجوركم} The reward for your faith and your piety.

{ولا يسئلكم} Meaning: He does not ask you for all of it. He limits the request from you to only one-fortieth (the *zakat*).

{وإن يسألكموها فيحفكم} Meaning: If He were to demand it all from you, He would exhaust you. *Al-iḥfā’* (exhaustion) is to exaggerate and reach the limit in everything. It is said: "He exhausted him in questioning" if he left nothing out in his persistence. "He trimmed his mustache" (*aḥfā*) means he removed it entirely.

{تبخلوا ويخرج أضغانكم} Meaning: You would harbor resentment toward the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), your chests would tighten because of it, and you would manifest your hatred and detestation for a religion that takes away your wealth. The pronoun in {يخرج} (He brings out) refers to Allah (Mighty and Majestic is He)—meaning He causes you to harbor resentment by demanding your wealth—or it refers to "stinginess," as it is the cause of resentment. It is also recited as *tukhrij* (you bring out) with a *nūn*, and *yukhrij* and *tukhrij* with a *yā’* and *tā’* with their *fatḥah* and the nominative case (*rafʿ*) of *aḍghānakum* (your resentments).

{هؤلاء} A relative pronoun meaning "those who." Its connective clause is {تدعون} (you are called). It means: "You are the ones who are called," or "You, O those addressed, are these people described." Then, the description is resumed as if they asked, "What is our description?" It was said: {تدعون لتنفقوا في سبيل الله}. It is said this refers to spending in military expeditions, and it is said it refers to *zakat*. It is as if it were said: The proof that if He were to exhaust you, you would be stingy, hate giving, and harbor resentment, is that you are called to pay one-fortieth, yet some of you are stingy with it.

{ومن يبخل} With charity and the performance of obligatory duties, the harm of his stinginess does not go beyond him. He only {يبخل عن نفسه} (is stingy against his own self). It is said: "I was stingy *ʿalayhi* (for him/against him) and *ʿanhu* (away from him)," and likewise with *ḍanantu* (I was miserly).

{فإنما يبخل عن نفسه} He then informs them that He does not command this or call to it out of any need for it. He is the Self-Sufficient, for whom need is impossible. Rather, it is for your need and your poverty for the reward.

{وإن تتولوا} Conjoined to: {وإن تؤمنوا وتتقوا}.

{يستبدل قوما غيركم} He will create a people other than you, possessing qualities contrary to yours, desiring faith and piety, and not turning away from them. This is like His saying: {ويأت بخلق جديد} (And He will bring a new creation) [Ibrahim: 19]. It is said: They are the angels. It is said: They are the Ansar. From Ibn Abbas: They are the tribes of Kinda and Nakhaʿ. From al-Hasan: They are the non-Arabs (*al-ʿajam*). From ʿIkrimah: They are the Persians and the Romans.