Tazkirul Quran, Qur’an 64:14–18
Loss and Gain (Al-Taghabun)
By Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
English text; the translator is not named in the archive’s data.
Translation
(14) Believers! [Even] among your wives and your children you have enemies: so beware of them. But if you overlook their offences and forgive and pardon them, then surely, God is most forgiving and merciful. (15) Your wealth and your children are only a trial; God’s reward is great: (16) so be mindful of God as best as you can; and listen, and obey; and spend in charity: it is for your own good. Those who guard themselves against their own greed will surely prosper: (17) if you give a good loan to God, He will multiply it for you and forgive you, for God is appreciative and forbearing; (18) God is the Knower of the unseen and the seen: He is the Almighty, the Wise One.
Commentary
(a) Man has the utmost attachment for his children. He may talk of principles on every other subject, but where his children are concerned, he becomes unprincipled. That is why it is mentioned in a tradition of the Prophet Muhammad that children cause their parents to be timid and miserly. In another tradition it is mentioned that on the Day of Judgement a man will be brought before God, and it will be said of him that his wife and children ate away all his virtues.
Man, for the sake of his children, does not spend for the divine cause, though the truth is that if he spends for the sake of God, he will be recompensed by Him many times over.