The 365 · Verses · Day 276 · Justice
Qur'an 73:20
۞ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ يَعْلَمُ أَنَّكَ تَقُومُ أَدْنَىٰ مِن ثُلُثَىِ ٱلَّيْلِ وَنِصْفَهُۥ وَثُلُثَهُۥ وَطَآئِفَةٌ مِّنَ ٱلَّذِينَ مَعَكَ ۚ وَٱللَّهُ يُقَدِّرُ ٱلَّيْلَ وَٱلنَّهَارَ ۚ عَلِمَ أَن لَّن تُحْصُوهُ فَتَابَ عَلَيْكُمْ ۖ فَٱقْرَءُوا۟ مَا تَيَسَّرَ مِنَ ٱلْقُرْءَانِ ۚ عَلِمَ أَن سَيَكُونُ مِنكُم مَّرْضَىٰ ۙ وَءَاخَرُونَ يَضْرِبُونَ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ يَبْتَغُونَ مِن فَضْلِ ٱللَّهِ ۙ وَءَاخَرُونَ يُقَـٰتِلُونَ فِى سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ ۖ فَٱقْرَءُوا۟ مَا تَيَسَّرَ مِنْهُ ۚ وَأَقِيمُوا۟ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَءَاتُوا۟ ٱلزَّكَوٰةَ وَأَقْرِضُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ قَرْضًا حَسَنًا ۚ وَمَا تُقَدِّمُوا۟ لِأَنفُسِكُم مِّنْ خَيْرٍ تَجِدُوهُ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ هُوَ خَيْرًا وَأَعْظَمَ أَجْرًا ۚ وَٱسْتَغْفِرُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ ۖ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌۢ
“Recite as much as is easy for you, keep up the prayer, pay the prescribed alms, and make God a good loan. Whatever good you store up for yourselves will be improved and increased for you. Ask God for His forgiveness, He is most forgiving, most merciful. (Quran 73:20, the closing)”
Svenska: Och vad ni än sänder framför er av gott, det skall ni få finna [hos Gud], och det skall vara bättre och vara större i belöning. (Koranen 73:20)
A reflection to carry
Read 73:20 carefully. Allah said: 'wa mā tuqaddimū li-anfusikum min khayrin tajidūhu ʿinda Allāh.' Whatever good you send forward, you will find with Allah. And He continued: 'huwa khayran wa aʿẓama ajrā.' BETTER and GREATER in reward. Two upgrades. The deed is stored, AND it is improved, AND it is multiplied. Allah is not just a storage facility; He is a value-improving custodian. The dirham you give is stored as a dirham, improved to ten dirhams (the basic 10x multiplier), and then potentially multiplied beyond (the seven-hundred-fold of 2:261, and beyond by His faḍl). Three layers of value-addition. Ya akhī, ya ukhtī, this verse should permanently destroy the dunyā's notion of giving as 'loss.' Every good deed is a deposit. Every deposit is upgraded. Every upgrade is potentially multiplied without ceiling. The believer who internalizes this gives without hesitation; the believer who has not internalized it counts every dollar and worries.
Read the longer reflection
Yā Rabb, You gave the most generous economic offer in 73:20. The good I send forward is stored AND improved AND multiplied. Three layers of value-addition on every deposit. No earthly bank offers such terms. No investment vehicle promises 10x as baseline with unlimited additional multipliers by the manager's faḍl. And You closed the verse with: 'wa istaghfirū Allāh; inna Allāha ghafūrun raḥīm.' Ask Allah's forgiveness; He is Forgiving, Merciful. Even after offering all this, You added the door of forgiveness for the deficiencies in our deeds. Forgive me, ya Allāh. Forgive me for the seasons I have hesitated to deposit because I feared loss. The dunyā's vocabulary trained me to think of giving as outflow. Your vocabulary names it deposit, improvement, multiplication. Realign me. Train me into the deposit-orientation. Every prayer: deposit. Every sadaqah: deposit. Every patience: deposit. Every smile: deposit. Every Quran-verse recited: deposit. And ya Rabb, when on the Day I find them with You, let me find them improved and multiplied beyond my counting. Tajidūhu khayran wa aʿẓama ajrā. Better and greater in reward. Make my deposit-account substantial. Āmīn ya Muʿṭī.
A verse, a healing, and a Sunnah, every morning.
Subscribe, free