Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:280
And if someone is in hardship, then [let there be] postponement until [a time of] ease. But if you give [from your right as] charity, then it is better for you, if you only knew.
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 exposition of the interpretation of the word of Allah the Exalted: وَإِنْ كَانَ ذُو عُسْرَةٍ فَنَظِرَةٌ إِلَى مَيْسَرَةٍ (And if anyone is in financial difficulty, then grant him respite until he is in easy circumstances) (2:280)
Abū Jaʿfar says: Allah — exalted be His praise — means thereby: "and if" the one from whom you demand the principal sums of your wealth from your debtors — "is in financial difficulty" — that is to say: is incapable with respect to the principal sums of your wealth which rested upon them on your behalf before the usurious interest — then grant them respite until their ease.
His words "dhū ʿusra" (the one who is in financial difficulty) are in the nominative as the subject of kāna, and the predicate is omitted, namely that which we have mentioned. It was possible to omit the predicate because the Arabs, with indefinite words, leave their predicates implicit; and if one were to construe kāna in this place as a complete, independent verb requiring no predicate, that too would be a correct construal. The interpretation of the text would then be: and if there be found among your debtors one in difficulty regarding your principal sums, then respite until ease.
It has been mentioned that in the reading of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb it runs: وَإِنْ كَانَ ذَا عُسْرَةٍ — with the meaning: and if the debtor is in financial difficulty — "then respite until ease." And although that is grammatically permissible, in our view it is not permissible to recite it thus, because it departs from the text of the muṣḥafs of the Muslims.
His words فَنَظِرَةٌ إِلَى مَيْسَرَةٍ (then respite until ease) mean: it is obligatory upon you to grant him respite until ease — as He said: فَمَنْ كَانَ مِنْكُمْ مَرِيضًا أَوْ بِهِ أَذًى مِنْ رَأْسِهِ فَفِدْيَةٌ مِنْ صِيَامٍ [Al-Baqara: 196]. We have already explained elsewhere the reason for the nominative in what is comparable to this verse, so that repetition is superfluous.
Al-maysara is the pattern mafʿala of al-yusr (ease), like al-marḥama and al-mashʾama.
The meaning of the text is: if among your debtors there is someone in financial difficulty, then you are obliged to grant him respite until, through the debt which you hold against him, he becomes well-off, so that he belongs to those in easy circumstances.
In accordance with what we have said about this, the exegetes also spoke.
Mention of who said this:
6277 — Wāṣil ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, he said: Muḥammad ibn Fuḍayl related to us, on the authority of Yazīd ibn Abī Ziyād, on the authority of Mujāhid, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning the words "and if anyone is in financial difficulty, then grant him respite until he is in easy circumstances": he said: this was revealed concerning the usurious interest (ribā).
6278 — Yaʿqūb related to me, he said: Hushaym related to us, he said: Hishām related to us, on the authority of Ibn Sīrīn: that a man brought a man into a legal dispute before Shurayḥ; he ruled against him and ordered him to be imprisoned. A man with Shurayḥ said: he is unable to pay — and Allah says in His Book: "and if anyone is in financial difficulty, then grant him respite until he is in easy circumstances!" Shurayḥ said: that applies only to the usurious interest! And Allah has said in His Book: إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُكُمْ أَنْ تُؤَدُّوا الأَمَانَاتِ إِلَى أَهْلِهَا وَإِذَا حَكَمْتُمْ بَيْنَ النَّاسِ أَنْ تَحْكُمُوا بِالْعَدْلِ [Al-Nisāʾ: 58] — and Allah does not command us anything only then to punish us for it.
6279 — Yaʿqūb related to me, he said: Hushaym related to us, he said: Mughīra informed us, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, concerning the words "and if anyone is in financial difficulty, then grant him respite until he is in easy circumstances": he said: that applies to the usurious interest.
6280 — Yaʿqūb related to me, he said: Hushaym related to us, he said: Mughīra informed us, on the authority of al-Shaʿbī: that al-Rabīʿ ibn Khuthaym had a claim against a man; he went to him and stood before his door and said: "O so-and-so, if you are in easy circumstances then pay, and if you are in difficulty then respite until ease."
6281 — Yaʿqūb related to us, he said: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Ayyūb, on the authority of Muḥammad: a man came to Shurayḥ and spoke with him; he kept saying: "he is unable to pay, he is unable to pay!" I thought he was addressing him about a prisoner. Shurayḥ said: the usurious interest was among this people of the Anṣār; whereupon Allah the Mighty and Majestic revealed: "and if anyone is in financial difficulty, then grant him respite until he is in easy circumstances." And Allah the Mighty and Majestic said: إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُكُمْ أَنْ تُؤَدُّوا الأَمَانَاتِ إِلَى أَهْلِهَا — and Allah the Mighty and Majestic would not give us a command only then to punish us for it. Return the entrusted goods to their rightful owners.
6282 — Yaʿqūb related to me, he said: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning the words "and if anyone is in financial difficulty, then grant him respite until he is in easy circumstances": he said: then respite until ease with his principal.
6283 — Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, he said: my father related to me, he said: my uncle related to me, he said: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "and if anyone is in financial difficulty, then grant him respite until he is in easy circumstances" — it is commanded concerning the usurious interest that the one unable to pay be granted respite; the respite does not apply to entrusted goods, but these must be returned to their owners.
6284 — Mūsā related to me, he said: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "and if anyone is in financial difficulty, then grant him respite" — with the principal — "until he is in easy circumstances" — that is to say: until wealth.
6285 — Al-Qāsim related to us, he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj: Ibn ʿAbbās said: "and if anyone is in financial difficulty, then grant him respite until he is in easy circumstances" — this concerns the matter of the usurious interest.
6286 — It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, he said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān informed us, he said: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk concerning the words (and if anyone is in financial difficulty, then grant him respite until he is in easy circumstances): this concerns the matter of the usurious interest; the people of the Jāhiliyya traded with it; then whoever of them became a Muslim was commanded to take back the principal sums of their wealth.
6287 — Al-Muthanná related to me, he said: ʿAbdallāh related to us, he said: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "and if anyone is in financial difficulty, then grant him respite until he is in easy circumstances" — he means: the debtor.
6288 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to me, he said: my father related to us, on the authority of Isrāʾīl, on the authority of Jābir, on the authority of Abū Jaʿfar concerning the words "and if anyone is in financial difficulty, then grant him respite until he is in easy circumstances": he said: [the ease is] death.
6289 — Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq related to us, he said: Abū Aḥmad related to us, he said: Isrāʾīl related to us, on the authority of Jābir, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī: the same.
6290 — Al-Muthanná related to me, he said: Qabīṣa ibn ʿUqba related to us, he said: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of al-Mughīra, on the authority of Ibrāhīm: "and if anyone is in financial difficulty, then grant him respite until he is in easy circumstances" — he said: this applies to the usurious interest.
6291 — Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq related to us, he said: Abū Aḥmad related to us, he said: Sharīk related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, concerning a man who marries until ease: he said: until death, or until divorce.
6292 — Aḥmad related to us, he said: Abū Aḥmad related to us, he said: Hushaym related to us, on the authority of Mughīra, on the authority of Ibrāhīm: "then respite until ease" — he said: that applies to the usurious interest.
6293 — Aḥmad related to us, he said: Abū Aḥmad related to us, he said: Mandal related to us, on the authority of Layth, on the authority of Mujāhid: "then respite until ease" — he said: he grants him respite and adds nothing to it. When the debt of one of them fell due and he found nothing to pay, they used to add to it and grant him respite.
6294 — Aḥmad ibn Ḥāzim related to me, he said: Abū Nuʿaym related to us, he said: Mandal related to us, on the authority of Layth, on the authority of Mujāhid: "and if anyone is in financial difficulty, then grant him respite until he is in easy circumstances" — he said: he grants him respite and adds nothing to it.
Others said: this verse is of general validity for anyone upon whom there rests a right against an insolvent man, regardless of the source of that right — whether from a lawful debt or from usurious interest.
Mention of who said this:
6295 — Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ṭālib related to me, he said: Yazīd informed us, he said: Juwaybir informed us, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk: whoever is in financial difficulty, grant him respite until ease; and that you give alms is better for you. He said: and so it applies to every debt upon a Muslim; it is not permissible for a Muslim who has a claim against his brother and knows that he is unable to pay to imprison him or to demand from him until Allah has made him well-off. For the respite is indeed appointed for the lawful; therefore debts apply accordingly.
6296 — ʿAlī ibn Ḥarb related to me, he said: Ibn Fuḍayl related to us, on the authority of Yazīd ibn Abī Ziyād, on the authority of Mujāhid, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "and if anyone is in financial difficulty, then grant him respite until he is in easy circumstances" — he said: this was revealed concerning the debt.
Abū Jaʿfar says: the correct statement concerning the words "and if anyone is in financial difficulty, then grant him respite until he is in easy circumstances" is that thereby are meant the debtors who in the time of the Prophet ﷺ embraced Islam and upon whom there rested debts from usurious interest which they had contracted in the Jāhiliyya; Islam reached them before they had collected those debts. Upon this, Allah commanded that the remaining usurious interest after their conversion be remitted and that the principal sums be reclaimed from whoever among their debtors was well-off, while whoever was unable to pay regarding the principal sums be granted respite until his ease. That is the ruling for everyone who embraces Islam and has usurious interest which he has let accrue against a debtor: Islam annuls, against his debtor, what he held over him in usurious interest, and obliges him to repay his principal — which he had received or which he had become liable for through the usurious interest — if he is well-off. If he is unable to pay, then the principal of his creditor is deferred for him until his ease; and the amount above the principal lapses for him.
But even though the verse was revealed concerning those whom we have mentioned and they are the ones intended, nevertheless the ruling which Allah has pronounced — namely the respite for the one unable to pay with the principal of the usurer after the usurious interest has lapsed — is a ruling valid for everyone upon whom there rests a debt to a man which has become due and he is unable to discharge it: he is entitled to respite until his ease. For the debt of every debtor rests upon the wealth of his debtor, and his debtor is obliged to discharge it for him from his wealth — not from his person. When his wealth is lacking, there is no claim upon his person by imprisonment or sale. For indeed the wealth of the creditor can only be in one of three situations: it rests either in the person of his debtor, or upon his responsibility whereby he discharges it from his wealth, or in a specific wealth belonging to him.
If it were in a specific wealth, then that debt would lapse as soon as that wealth perishes — which no one says.
If it were in his person, then the debt would lapse upon his death, even though the debtor leaves behind wealth that covers his right and many times over — which also no one says.
It is thus clear that the debt of the creditor rests upon the responsibility of his debtor and is discharged by him from his wealth; and when his wealth is lacking, there is no claim upon his person, because he lacks that with which he was to discharge the right of his creditor had it been available. And if there is no claim upon his person, there is no claim to his imprisonment while he is unable to pay his debt — for he retains no right which he has the power to discharge, such that he would be punished by imprisonment for his procrastination.
The exposition of the interpretation of the word of Allah the Exalted: وَأَنْ تَصَدَّقُوا خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ (And that you give alms is better for you, if you only knew) (2:280)
Abū Jaʿfar says: Allah — Mighty and Majestic — means thereby: and that you give the principal sums of your wealth as alms to this one unable to pay — "is better for you" O people — than to grant him respite until his ease in order to collect the principal sums of your wealth from him when he is well-off — "if you only knew" — the rank of the merit of the alms and what Allah has appointed as reward for whoever remits the debt of his insolvent debtor.
The exegetes differed over the interpretation of this.
Some said: the meaning is: "and that you give as alms" of the principal sums of your wealth to the rich and the poor among them — "is better for you."
Mention of who said this:
6297 — Bishr related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: وَإِنْ تُبْتُمْ فَلَكُمْ رُءُوسُ أَمْوَالِكُمْ (and if you repent, you shall have your principal sums) — the wealth which they held upon the backs of the men became for them the principal sums of their wealth when this verse was revealed. The profit and the surplus do not belong to them and it is not fitting for them to take anything of it — "and that you give alms is better for you" — that is to say: that you give the principal as alms is better for you.
6298 — Yaʿqūb related to me, he said: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd, on the authority of Qatāda: "and that you give alms" — that is to say: of the principal; that is better for you.
6299 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, he said: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Mughīra, on the authority of Ibrāhīm: (and that you give alms is better for you) — he said: of the principal sums of your wealth.
6300 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, he said: Yaḥyā related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Mughīra, on the authority of Ibrāhīm: the same.
6301 — Al-Muthanná related to me, he said: Qabīṣa ibn ʿUqba related to us, he said: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Mughīra, on the authority of Ibrāhīm: "and that you give alms is better for you" — he said: that you give the principal sums of your wealth as alms.
Others said: the meaning is: and that you give him — the one unable to pay — alms is better for you — in accordance with what we have said.
Mention of who said this:
6302 — Mūsā related to me, he said: ʿAmr related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "and that you give alms is better for you" — he said: and that you give the principal sums of your wealth as alms to the poor, that is better for you; thus did al-ʿAbbās give it as alms.
6303 — Al-Muthanná related to me, he said: Isḥāq related to us, he said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ: وَإِنْ كَانَ ذُو عُسْرَةٍ فَنَظِرَةٌ إِلَى مَيْسَرَةٍ وَأَنْ تَصَدَّقُوا خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ — he says: and if you give him the principal as alms, that is better for you.
6304 — It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, he said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd informed us, he said: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk concerning the words (and that you give alms is better for you): he means: to the one unable to pay. The well-off receives nothing of alms; from him only the principal is taken. Taking from the one unable to pay is permissible, but giving him alms is better.
6305 — Al-Muthanná related to me, he said: ʿAmr ibn ʿAwn related to us, he said: Hushaym informed us, on the authority of Juwaybir, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk: and that you give the principal sums of your wealth as alms is better for you than the respite until ease. Allah — Mighty and Majestic — gave preference to the alms over the respite.
6306 — Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning the words "and if anyone is in financial difficulty, then grant him respite until he is in easy circumstances, and that you give alms is better for you": he said: better than the respite — "if you only knew."
6307 — Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ṭālib related to me, he said: Yazīd informed us, he said: Juwaybir informed us, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk: (then respite until ease, and that you give alms is better for you) — the respite is obligatory; and Allah — Mighty and Majestic — gave preference to the alms over the respite. The alms apply to every one unable to pay; the well-off receives nothing of it.
Abū Jaʿfar says: the more correct of the two interpretations is the interpretation of the one who said: the meaning is "and that you give the one unable to pay the principal sums of your wealth as alms is better for you" — because it connects with the mention of His ruling in the preceding words. Connecting with the adjacent is more preferable to me than connecting with the more distant.
Abū Jaʿfar says: it has been said that these verses concerning the rulings of the usurious interest are the last verses that were revealed of the Qurʾān.
Mention of who said this:
6308 — Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, he said: Ibn Abī ʿAdī related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd — and Yaʿqūb related to me, he said: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd — on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib: that ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said: the last verses that descended of the Qurʾān were the verses about the usurious interest; and the Prophet ﷺ died before he had explained them, so leave the usurious interest and the doubtful.
6309 — Ḥumayd ibn Masʿada related to us, he said: Bishr ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, he said: Dāwūd related to us, on the authority of ʿĀmir: that ʿUmar — may Allah be pleased with him — stood up, praised and lauded Allah, and then said: "To proceed: by Allah, I do not know — perhaps we command you to something that does not befit you, and I do not know — perhaps we forbid you from something that befits you. And among the last revealed verses of the Qurʾān are the verses about the usurious interest. The Prophet ﷺ died before he had explained those to us. So leave what brings you into doubt for what does not bring you into doubt."
6310 — Abū Zayd ʿUmar ibn Shabba related to me, he said: Qabīṣa related to us, he said: Sufyān al-Thawrī related to us, on the authority of ʿĀṣim al-Aḥwal, on the authority of al-Shaʿbī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: he said: the last thing that was sent down upon the Prophet ﷺ was the verse about the usurious interest; and we command something while we do not know — perhaps there is harm in it, and we forbid something — perhaps there is no harm in it.
