The 365 · Verses · Day 141 · Charity
Give what you would accept yourself. The Quranic quality-standard.
Qur'an Quran 2:267
يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ أَنفِقُوا۟ مِن طَيِّبَـٰتِ مَا كَسَبْتُمْ وَمِمَّآ أَخْرَجْنَا لَكُم مِّنَ ٱلْأَرْضِ ۖ وَلَا تَيَمَّمُوا۟ ٱلْخَبِيثَ مِنْهُ تُنفِقُونَ وَلَسْتُم بِـَٔاخِذِيهِ إِلَّآ أَن تُغْمِضُوا۟ فِيهِ ۚ وَٱعْلَمُوٓا۟ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَنِىٌّ حَمِيدٌ
“You who believe, give charitably from the good things you have acquired and that We have produced for you from the earth. Do not give away the bad things that you yourself would only accept with your eyes closed: remember that God is self-sufficient, worthy of all praise. (Abdel Haleem)”
Svenska: Troende! Ge av de goda ting som ni förvärvar och av det som Vi låter jorden frambringa åt er, och leta inte fram, för att ge bort det, det sämsta som ni själva inte skulle ta emot annat än med förbundna ögon. (Knut Bernström)
The story
Ibn Kathīr cites al-Barāʾ ibn ʿAzib's contextualization: the Anṣār at harvest-time would hang ripe-date branches in the masjid for the poor. Some would mix in lower-quality dates among the ripe ones. The verse was revealed to correct this: do not give what you yourself would only accept with closed eyes.
In the language
Ṭayyibāt (good things) is the same word the Quran uses for permitted/wholesome food. Khabīth (bad/foul) is its opposite. The verb tayammamū (deliberately seek out) is structurally severe: do not deliberately seek out the worst to give away. The verse closes with Allāhu ghaniyyun ḥamīd: Allah is self-sufficient and worthy of all praise: He does not need your charity but He will not accept inferior offering.
Why this verse
Q 2:267 names the quality-condition of acceptable charity: give from the good (ṭayyibāt), not the spoiled or rejected. Ibn Kathīr cites Ibn ʿAbbās: 'Allah commanded them to spend from the purest, finest and best types of their money and prohibited spending from evil and dishonest money, because Allah is pure and good and only accepts that which is pure and good.'
Bring it into today
Audit your charity-giving: are you giving the best you can afford, or the leftover/cast-off? The Quranic standard is the best you would accept yourself. The principle extends beyond money to time, attention, and effort given to causes.
A reflection to carry
The verse sets the structural quality-standard: charity should be from the ṭayyibāt (the good/pure). The believer who gives the cast-offs of his life has not yet engaged the verse. The believer who gives the best of what he has has aligned with the Quranic standard.
Read the longer reflection
The classical scholars connected this verse to the broader Quranic principle: 'ʿAllah is pure and only accepts the pure.' (Muslim 1015.) Pure money is acquired by permitted means; pure giving is from this acquired wealth, given with proper intention and quality. The verse warns against three failures: (1) giving from impure (harām) earnings; (2) giving from the inferior of one's wealth; (3) deliberately selecting the worst of one's possessions. The Companions trained this discipline rigorously: when they gave clothing to charity, they would consider whether they themselves would wear it before giving it.
Sources: Ibn Kathir. The Qur'an and its translation are verified; the scholarship is retold faithfully in our own words and credited to its sources, never reproduced verbatim.
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