THE WORD OF GOD — From The Scriptures

THE WORD OF GOD Believers, give charitably from the good things which you have earned and what We produce for you from the earth; not worthless things which you yourselves would only reluctantly accept. Know that God is self-sufficient and praiseworthy. 2:267 Satan threatens you with the prospect of poverty and commands you to do foul deeds. But God promises His forgiveness and His bounty. God is bountiful and all-knowing. 2:268 There are two ways of spending one’s earnings in this world. One is to spend in ways shown by Satan; another is to spend in ways shown by God. What Satan does is to impress on the minds of human beings the importance of personal requirements, and bring about conviction that all their earnings are best spent on personal comforts and luxuries. When Satan sees that any individual has more wealth than is necessary for his personal needs, he kindles in him another desire, that of indulging in showy, unnecessary activities. At the instigation of Satan, man spends all his money on ostentatious living and feels happy that he has spent his money in the best possible way. What is desired of man is that he should not regard his wealth as his personal possession. It is something that belongs only to God. A man should spend as much of his wealth as is necessary for his actual needs; the rest should be spent on achieving higher goals. Giving this surplus wealth to the weaker of God’s servants and supporting God’s religion increases his confidence that in the Hereafter, when he appears empty-handed before God, he will not be deprived of God’s blessings. Similarly, when he spends his wealth for the cause of God’s religion, he allies himself with God’s mission. T HE Quran is the book of God. It has been preserved in its entirety since its revelation to the Prophet of Islam between 610 and 632 A.D. It is a book that brings glad tidings to mankind, along with divine admonition, and stresses the importance of man’s discovery of the Truth on a spiritual and intellectual level. Translated from Arabic and commentary by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan