The 365 · Verses · Day 248 · Justice
Qur'an 2:264
يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ لَا تُبْطِلُوا۟ صَدَقَـٰتِكُم بِٱلْمَنِّ وَٱلْأَذَىٰ كَٱلَّذِى يُنفِقُ مَالَهُۥ رِئَآءَ ٱلنَّاسِ وَلَا يُؤْمِنُ بِٱللَّهِ وَٱلْيَوْمِ ٱلْـَٔاخِرِ ۖ فَمَثَلُهُۥ كَمَثَلِ صَفْوَانٍ عَلَيْهِ تُرَابٌ فَأَصَابَهُۥ وَابِلٌ فَتَرَكَهُۥ صَلْدًا ۖ لَّا يَقْدِرُونَ عَلَىٰ شَىْءٍ مِّمَّا كَسَبُوا۟ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ لَا يَهْدِى ٱلْقَوْمَ ٱلْكَـٰفِرِينَ
“You who believe, do not cancel out your charitable deeds with reminders and hurtful words, like someone who spends his wealth only to be seen by people, not believing in God and the Last Day. Such a person is like a rock with earth on it: heavy rain falls and leaves it completely bare. Such people get no rewards for their works: God does not guide the disbelievers. (Quran 2:264)”
Svenska: TROENDE! Låt inte er valgörenhet förlora sitt värde genom påminnelser om er frikostighet eller sårande [ord], liksom han som ger av sin egendom enbart för att människor skall se det och som [i själva verket] inte tror på Gud och den Yttersta dagen. (Koranen 2:264)
A reflection to carry
Allah closed the sadaqah-purity cluster with one of the most haunting images in the Quran. The mann-giver, the adhā-giver, the riyāʾ-giver, is like a rock covered with a thin layer of earth. From the outside, it looks like fertile soil. A field of grain potential. Heavy rain falls. And the earth slides off. The rock is bare. The seed planted in it had no foundation. The growth never happened. The harvest is zero. Ya akhī, ya ukhtī, this is the Quran's anti-photograph of sadaqah. We are accustomed to seeing the multiplier (one grain to seven hundred); Allah ensures we also see the canceller (one rock with earth, washed bare on the Day). The verse names three killers: mann (reminding), adhā (hurting), riyāʾ (giving to be seen). Each turns your sadaqah-field into a rock with earth on top. The dunyā cannot see the rock; the Day reveals it. The believer who plants without these poisons has his crop forever. The believer who plants with them has nothing when the rain falls. Audit your giving. Strip every mann. Strip every adhā. Strip every desire to be seen. Plant seed in real soil.
Read the longer reflection
Yā Rabb, the cluster closes on the most unforgettable image. The rock with earth. The thin layer of soil. The seed that grew on it for a week of dunyā-life. The heavy rain. The bare rock. Ya Allāh, You painted the photograph. The believer whose sadaqah is poisoned by mann, by adhā, by riyāʾ, has a field on a rock. The dunyā sees a field. The Day reveals stone. And the seed that was planted is washed away with the soil. There is no harvest. Forgive me, ya Rabb. Forgive me for every sadaqah I have given that, when the rain of the Day falls, may be revealed as having been on a rock. The donation that wanted to be tagged. The volunteer hour that wanted to be photographed. The financial help that wanted to be referenced. The Eid gift that wanted to be reciprocated. Each may have been earth on stone, and the rain is coming. Audit me, ya Allāh, while there is still time to repent. Make me identify which of my past sadaqahs may have had this defect, and let me give again, this time silently, this time to soil You alone see. And from this day, train me into the discipline of the hidden seed: the left hand that does not know the right; the donation that no one will tag; the kindness that even the recipient does not know I sourced; the support that I will go to my grave without anyone knowing about. Build me, ya Rabb, a field that, when the rain of the Day falls, is found bursting with grain, not bare with stone. The seven-hundred-grain field. Multiplied beyond, by Your faḍl. The investment with no ceiling, in soil You watered Yourself, of seeds You preserved Yourself, with a yield You wrote Yourself. Bring me back to that field. Āmīn ya Razzāq, ya Karīm, ya Satīr.
A verse, a healing, and a Sunnah, every morning.
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