Tafseer of The Traducer · Al-Humaza · 104:2
Who collects wealth and [continuously] counts it.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
His statement: الَّذِي جَمَعَ مَالًا وَعَدَّدَهُ (the one who amassed wealth and counted it over and over)
He says: the one who amassed wealth, counted it meticulously and kept track of it, and did not spend it in the way of Allah, and did not discharge the right of Allah due upon it, but rather gathered it together, stored it away, and hoarded it.
The Qurʾān reciters differed among themselves regarding the reading of this word. Abū Jaʿfar — among the reciters of Medina — and most of the reciters of Kūfa, with the exception of ʿĀṣim, read it as "جَمَّعَ" with doubling (tashdīd). Most of the reciters of Medina and al-Ḥijāz — with the exception of Abū Jaʿfar — and most of the reciters of Baṣra, as well as ʿĀṣim of Kūfa, read it as "جَمَعَ" with softening (takhfīf). All of them, however, are in agreement that the dāl in وَعَدَّدَهُ is read with doubling, in accordance with the interpretive sense that I have set out above.
It has been related from one of the earlier scholars, by way of an unreliable chain of transmission (isnād), that he read it as "جَمَعَ مَالًا وَعَدَدَهُ" — with softening of the dāl — in the meaning of: he amassed wealth and gathered together his tribe and his retinue. This is a reading that I do not consider permissible to recite, because it runs contrary to the reading of the great metropolises (al-amṣār), and because it diverges from that upon which the authoritative transmission (al-ḥujja) has unanimously agreed in this matter.
As for His statement جَمَعَ مَالًا : both the doubled and the softened readings are correct, for they are two well-known readings in the recitation practice of the great metropolises, which are close to one another in meaning. Whichever of the two a reciter reads, he reads it well.
