All of Verses

The 365 · Verses · Day 258 · Justice


Qur'an 9:103

خُذْ مِنْ أَمْوَٰلِهِمْ صَدَقَةً تُطَهِّرُهُمْ وَتُزَكِّيهِم بِهَا وَصَلِّ عَلَيْهِمْ ۖ إِنَّ صَلَوٰتَكَ سَكَنٌ لَّهُمْ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ

In order to cleanse and purify them, Prophet, accept a gift out of their property to make amends and pray for them: your prayer will be a comfort to them. God is all hearing, all knowing. (Quran 9:103)

Svenska: Tag av deras egendom som allmosa, varigenom du renar dem och får dem att växa till. Och be för dem: dina böner ger dem tröst. (Koranen 9:103)

A reflection to carry

Allah closed the architecture of giving (in the cluster from al-Baqarah 2:261 and now in al-Tawbah 9:103) with the spiritual reality of zakat. Khudh: take. From their wealth. A sadaqah that 'tuṭahhiruhum wa tuzakkīhim bihā': purifies them and grows them through it. The same root as zakāh: cleansing and growing. The dīn did not call it 'tax.' It called it purification because Allah named it so in this verse. And then: 'wa ṣalli ʿalayhim, inna ṣalātaka sakanun lahum.' Pray for them; your prayer is sakīnah for them. The Prophet ﷺ would receive zakat and make duʿā for the giver. He ﷺ would say: 'O Allah, send Your sakīnah upon them; O Allah, bless them.' The recipient's duʿā was part of the zakat-mechanism. Ya akhī, ya ukhtī, when you pay zakat, the niyyah is not just to fulfill the obligation. The niyyah is to be cleansed. Allah said the wealth zakat removes is the impurity of wealth itself; the wealth zakat leaves behind is purified, growing, blessed. And the verse closes: 'wAllāhu samīʿun ʿalīm.' Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing. He heard your niyyah; He knows your calculation.

Read the longer reflection

Yā Rabb, You closed the long architecture of giving with the verse that names what is actually happening when a believer pays zakat. It is not a transfer from him to the poor. It is a purification of his wealth that simultaneously enriches the poor. The cleansing is for the giver. The benefit is for the recipient. Both happen in one act, by Your design. 'Tuṭahhiruhum wa tuzakkīhim bihā.' Purifies and grows them. Ya Allāh, change my orientation toward zakat. Let me see it not as a deduction but as a cleansing. The 2.5% You ask me to release is the very part of my wealth that, if I held it, would poison the rest. And the part I retain after the release is, by Your verse, purified and grown. The discount is structural barakah. The wealth I keep after zakat is blessed wealth in a way that pre-zakat wealth could never be. And ya Rabb, You instructed Your Prophet ﷺ to make duʿā for the giver. 'Inna ṣalātaka sakanun lahum.' His prayer is sakīnah for them. Let me model the same with my recipients. When I give to a brother, let me make duʿā for him; the giving is a transaction, but the duʿā is the seal. And when I am the recipient (You have made me one in seasons of my life), let me know that my benefactor's duʿā is also Your sakīnah upon my heart. We close the giving cluster, ya Rabb, on this purification. Let my zakat purify me. Let my sadaqah grow me. Let my duʿā for the recipient and theirs for me weave a fabric of sakīnah across the ummah. Āmīn ya Samīʿ, ya ʿAlīm.

A verse, a healing, and a Sunnah, every morning.

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