Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:271
If you disclose your charitable expenditures, they are good; but if you conceal them and give them to the poor, it is better for you, and He will remove from you some of your misdeeds [thereby]. And Allah, with what you do, is [fully] Acquainted.
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 explanation of His words: إِنْ تُبْدُوا الصَّدَقَاتِ فَنِعِمَّا هِيَ وَإِنْ تُخْفُوهَا وَتُؤْتُوهَا الْفُقَرَاءَ فَهُوَ خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ (If you give alms openly, that is excellent, but if you conceal them and give them to the poor, then that is better for you) (2:271)
Abū Jaʿfar said: He — exalted is His praise — means by His words "If you give alms openly," that is: if you make the alms public and give them to the one upon whom you bestow them as charity — "that is excellent," He says: then that is an excellent thing — "but if you conceal them," He says: and if you keep them secret and do not make them public — "and give them to the poor," that is: and give them in secret to the poor — "then that is better for you," He says: then your concealing of them is better for you than making them public. And this concerns voluntary charity (ṣadaqat al-taṭawwuʿ), as in the following:
6195 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His words: "If you give alms openly, that is excellent, but if you conceal them and give them to the poor, then that is better for you": everything is accepted when the intention is sincere, but charity in secret is more excellent. And it has been transmitted to us that charity extinguishes sin just as water extinguishes fire.
6196 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, concerning His words: "If you give alms openly, that is excellent, but if you conceal them and give them to the poor, then that is better for you," he said: everything is accepted when the intention is sincere, but charity in secret is more excellent. And he used to say: indeed, charity extinguishes sin just as water extinguishes fire.
6197 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His words: "If you give alms openly, that is excellent, but if you conceal them and give them to the poor, then that is better for you": thus Allah made charity in secret, in the case of the voluntary gift, seventyfold more excellent than giving it openly, and in the case of the obligatory alms He made giving it openly more excellent than giving it in secret — it is said: twentyfivefold; and so it is with all the obligatory duties and voluntary works in all matters.
6198 — ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥanafī related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUthmān related to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak related to us, saying: I heard Sufyān say concerning His words: "If you give alms openly, that is excellent, but if you conceal them and give them to the poor, then that is better for you," he said: this concerns something other than the obligatory alms (zakāh).
* * *
And others said: Allah — mighty and exalted is He — meant by His words: "If you give alms openly, that is excellent," only: if you give the alms openly to the People of the two Books, of the Jews and the Christians, then that is excellent, but if you conceal them and give them to their poor, then that is better for you. They said: and as for what is given to the poor of the Muslims as obligatory alms (zakāh) and voluntary charity, concealing that is more excellent than making it public.
* Mention of who said that:
6199 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Shurayḥ related to me, that he heard Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb say: indeed, this verse was revealed: "If you give alms openly, that is excellent," concerning charity to the Jews and the Christians.
6200 — ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥanafī related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUthmān informed us, saying: Ibn al-Mubārak informed us, saying: Ibn Lahīʿa informed us, saying: Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb used to command that the obligatory alms (zakāh) be distributed in secret — ʿAbd Allāh said: I prefer that it be given openly — he means the obligatory alms (zakāh).
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: Allah did not, by His words "If you give alms openly, that is excellent," [distinguish one from another], and therefore this applies in a general sense, except as regards the obligatory zakāh, for concerning the obligatory duties that have been prescribed everyone is agreed that the merit lies in making them public and showing them — apart from the zakāh, concerning which we have mentioned the disagreement of those who differ, despite all of them agreeing that it is obligatory; thus its ruling — that the merit lies in paying it openly — has the same ruling as the rest of the obligatory duties.
* * *
The explanation of His words: وَيُكَفِّرُ عَنْكُمْ مِنْ سَيِّئَاتِكُمْ (and He will efface for you some of your evil deeds) (2:271)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The reciters differed concerning the reading of this.
It is transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās that he read it as (wa-tukaffiru ʿankum) with the tāʾ.
And whoever reads it thus means by it: and the alms efface for you some of your evil deeds.
* * *
And others read: (wa-yukaffiru ʿankum) with the yāʾ, with the meaning: and Allah effaces for you, by means of your alms, some of your evil deeds as is mentioned in the verse.
* * *
And the generality of the reciters of the people of Medina, Kūfa, and Baṣra read it thereafter as (wa-nukaffir ʿankum) with the nūn and with jazm (the apocopate/sukūn ending) of the letter, that is: and if you conceal them and give them to the poor, We efface for you some of your evil deeds — with the meaning: the recompense of Allah — mighty and exalted is He — to the one who conceals his alms, by effacing some of his evil deeds on account of the alms that he concealed.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: The most correct reading in this, in our view, is the reading of the one who read: (wa-nukaffir ʿankum) with the nūn and the jazm of the letter, on the basis of the meaning of a report from Allah about Himself, that He recompenses the one who conceals his voluntary alms in seeking His face by effacing his evil deeds in return for his alms. And when it is read thus, then it is in the jazm because of the position of the "fāʾ" in His words: "then that is better for you," because the "fāʾ" there occupies the position of the answer to the conditional.
* * *
And if someone were to say to us: How did you choose the jazm in the conjunction (nasaq) upon the position of the "fāʾ," and refrained from choosing its conjunction upon what comes after the fāʾ, when you know that the most eloquent manner of speech in the conjunction upon the answer to the conditional is the rafʿ (the nominative ending), and the jazm is only permissible?
Then the answer is: We chose that so that by its being in the jazm it would be made known that the effacement — I mean Allah's effacement of the evil deeds of the one who gives charity — falls without doubt within what Allah has promised the giver of charity to give him as recompense for his alms. For when it is in the jazm, it makes known without doubt what we have said; and when it was in the rafʿ, it would be possible that it falls within what Allah has promised to give him as recompense, or that it is a new, independent report that He effaces some of the evil deeds of His believing servants, without that being a recompense to them for their alms — for what comes after the "fāʾ" in the answer to the conditional is a fresh beginning (istiʾnāf), and that which is appended onto an independent report has the same ruling as that onto which it is appended, namely that it does not fall within the recompense. And for that reason we chose the jazm of "nukaffir," as an appendage onto the position of the "fāʾ" in His words: "then that is better for you," and its reading with the nūn.
* * *
And if someone were to say: And what is the import of the entry of "min" in His words: "and We efface for you some of your evil deeds"? Then the answer is: The import of its entry here is in the meaning of: and We efface for you of your evil deeds what We will to efface of them, not all of them — so that the servants may remain in fear of Allah and not rely upon His promise, which He promised concerning the alms that the giver conceals, and thus become emboldened against His limits (ḥudūd) and against sins against Him.
* * *
And some of the grammarians of Baṣra said: the meaning of "min" here is omission (al-isqāṭ), and one interprets its meaning as: and We efface for you your evil deeds.
* * *
The explanation of His words: وَاللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرٌ (And Allah is well-informed of what you do) (2:271)
Abū Jaʿfar said: He — exalted is His praise — means by it: "And Allah, of what you do" with respect to your alms, whether concealing them or making them public, whether giving them in secret or openly, and with respect to the rest of your deeds — "well-informed (khabīr)," by which He means: possessor of knowledge and awareness, from Whom nothing of that is hidden; He encompasses the whole of it, and He keeps an exact account of it all for those who perform it, until He gives them in full the reward for the whole of it, and the recompense for the little and the much of it.
