Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:270
And whatever you spend of expenditures or make of vows - indeed, Allah knows of it. And for the wrongdoers there are no helpers.
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.
The commentary on the explanation of His word: وَمَا أَنْفَقْتُمْ مِنْ نَفَقَةٍ أَوْ نَذَرْتُمْ مِنْ نَذْرٍ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ يَعْلَمُهُ وَمَا لِلظَّالِمِينَ مِنْ أَنْصَارٍ (2:270)
("And whatever contribution you spend or whatever vow you make, surely Allah knows it; and for the wrongdoers there are no helpers.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: By this He means, exalted is His praise: whatever contribution (nafaqa) you spend — that is to say: whatever alms (ṣadaqa) you give — or whatever vow (nadhr) you make. By "the vow" is meant: that which a person imposes upon himself as an obligation out of piety, in obedience to Allah and as a means of drawing near to Him: an alms or a good deed. "Surely Allah knows it," that is to say: that all of this is known to Allah, nothing of it escapes Him, neither little nor much of it remains hidden from Him. Rather, He records it precisely against you, O people, until He will requite you all for all of this.
So whoever among you made his contribution, his alms, and his vow seeking the good pleasure of Allah and strengthening his own soul, He will requite him with that which He has promised, namely the multiplication; and whoever made his contribution and alms to be seen by people and made his vows for the devil (al-shayṭān), He will requite him with that which He has threatened, namely the punishment and the painful torment (ʿadhāb). As in the following:
6193 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the word of Allah, mighty and exalted is He: "And whatever contribution you spend or whatever vow you make, surely Allah knows it," [that is to say:] and He records it precisely.
6194 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, the like of it.
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Then He threatened, exalted is His praise, the one whose contribution was hypocritical ostentation and whose vows were obedience to the devil, and He said: "and for the wrongdoers there are no helpers," that is to say: and whoever spent his wealth to be seen by people and in disobedience to Allah, and whose vows were for the devil and in obedience to him — for such a one there are "no helpers (anṣār)." And this is the plural of "naṣīr" (helper), just as "al-ashrāf" (the nobles) is the plural of "sharīf" (noble). And by His word "no helpers" He means: none who will help them against Allah on the Day of Resurrection, to ward off His punishment from them on that day, neither by force and severity of grip, nor by ransom.
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And we have already shown that "the wrongdoer (al-ẓālim)" is the one who places something in a place other than where it belongs.
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Allah called the one who spends out of hypocritical ostentation before people, and the one who makes a vow in something other than obedience to Him, "wrongdoer" only because he placed the spending of his wealth in a wrong place, and made his vow with something that was not his wealth which he placed therein; and that was his wrongdoing.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: If someone were to say to us: How is it that He said "surely Allah knows it (yaʿlamuhu, singular)" and did not say "He knows them both (yaʿlamuhumā)," even though He mentioned both the vow and the contribution?
Then it is answered: He said only "surely Allah knows it" because He meant: surely Allah knows what you spend or what you make as a vow; and therefore He made the back-referring pronoun (al-kināya) singular.
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Footnotes:
(1) See the explanation of "the contribution (al-nafaqa)" in the foregoing, 5:555.
(2) The manuscript reads: "surely Allah knows (fa-inna Allāha yaʿlam)," but the correct reading here is what is in the printed edition. Further, the printed edition reads: "all of this is with the knowledge of Allah," and the correct reading is taken from the manuscript.
(3) See the meaning of "the help (al-naṣr)" and "the helper (al-naṣīr)" in the foregoing, 2:489 and 564.
(4) See the explanation of "wrongdoing (al-ẓulm)" in the foregoing, 1:523, 524 / 2:369, 519 / 4:584, and in other places; look them up in the index of usage.
(5) Al-kināya and al-makniyy: this is the personal pronoun (al-ḍamīr), in the terminology of the Kūfans, the Baghdādīs, and others.
