Tafseer of The Repentance · At-Tawba · 9:58
And among them are some who criticize you concerning the [distribution of] charities. If they are given from them, they approve; but if they are not given from them, at once they become angry.
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 the saying of the Most High: وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَلْمِزُكَ فِي الصَّدَقَاتِ فَإِنْ أُعْطُوا مِنْهَا رَضُوا وَإِنْ لَمْ يُعْطَوْا مِنْهَا إِذَا هُمْ يَسْخَطُونَ (58) ("And among them are those who criticize you concerning the alms; if they are given some of it they are content, and if they are not given any of it, then they are enraged") (58).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Most High, whose praise is exalted, says: And among the hypocrites (munāfiqūn), whose characteristics I have described to you in these verses, O Muḥammad, مَنْ يَلْمِزُكَ فِي الصَّدَقَاتِ ("are those who criticize you concerning the alms"), He says: they attack you concerning its distribution and find fault with you regarding it.
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One says of this: "lamaza fulānun fulānan, yalmizuhu wa-yalmuzuhu" when he disparages and reproaches him, and likewise "hamazahu," and from this it is said: "that person is a hummaza lumaza (a slanderer and reproacher)." And of this is the saying of Ruʾba:
"I brought my swifter and my swiftest pace closer together, in the shade of my two times of my vanity and my reproaching."
And of this is the saying of another:
"When I meet you, you show me a smile, but when I am absent, then you are the slandering reproacher."
فَإِنْ أُعْطُوا مِنْهَا رَضُوا ("if they are given some of it they are content"), He says: it is not religion that drives them in their criticism of you regarding it and their attack upon you on account of it, but rather anger for their own sakes. If you give them of it what satisfies them, they are content with you, and if you give them none of it, they are enraged at you and criticize you.
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And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, the people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) have spoken.
* Mention of those who said that:
16813 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Ibn Numayr related to us, on the authority of Warqāʾ, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His saying: وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَلْمِزُكَ فِي الصَّدَقَاتِ ("And among them are those who criticize you concerning the alms"), he said: they test you.
16814 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His saying: وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَلْمِزُكَ فِي الصَّدَقَاتِ ("And among them are those who criticize you concerning the alms"), [namely:] they test you and ask of you. Ibn Jurayj said: And Dāwūd ibn Abī ʿĀṣim informed me, saying: an alms was brought to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and he distributed it here and there until it was exhausted. He said: A man of the Anṣār saw him and said: "This is not just!" Then this verse was revealed.
16815 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying: وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَلْمِزُكَ فِي الصَّدَقَاتِ ("And among them are those who criticize you concerning the alms"), he says: and among them are those who attack you concerning the alms. And it was related to us that a man from the desert, a bedouin who had only recently known nomadic life, came to the Prophet of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, while he was distributing gold and silver, and he said: "O Muḥammad, by Allah, if Allah has commanded you to be just, then you have not been just!" The Prophet of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, then said: "Woe to you! Who then would be just toward you after me?" Then the Prophet of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: "Beware of this man and those like him, for in my community there will be those who resemble this man; they recite the Qurʾān, but it does not pass beyond their collarbones. When they break away, then kill them; then when they break away, then kill them; then when they break away, then kill them." And it was related to us that the Prophet of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to say: "By Him in whose hand is my soul, I neither give you anything nor withhold it from you; I am only a treasurer."
16816 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَلْمِزُكَ فِي الصَّدَقَاتِ ("And among them are those who criticize you concerning the alms"), he said: they attack.
16817 — ...... he said: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, on the authority of Abū Salama ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, on the authority of Abū Saʿīd, he said: While the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was distributing a distribution, Ibn Dhī al-Khuwayṣira al-Tamīmī came to him and said: "Be just, O Messenger of Allah!" He said: "Woe to you! Who would be just if I am not just?" Then ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said: "O Messenger of Allah, permit me to strike off his head!" He said: "Leave him; for he has companions beside whom each one of you would deem his own prayer slight in comparison with their prayer, and his fasting in comparison with their fasting. They shoot out of religion as the arrow shoots out of the game: one looks at the feathers of the arrow and sees nothing, then one looks at the arrowhead and finds nothing, then one looks at the arrow-shaft binding and finds nothing — the arrow has already passed beyond the stomach-contents and the blood. Their sign is a man, black, with one of his hands — or he said: with both his hands — like the breast of a woman, or like a piece of flesh that quivers to and fro. They will appear at a time of division among the people." He said: Then there was revealed: وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَلْمِزُكَ فِي الصَّدَقَاتِ ("And among them are those who criticize you concerning the alms"). Abū Saʿīd said: I bear witness that I heard this from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and I bear witness that ʿAlī — may the mercy of Allah be upon him — when he killed them, the man was brought according to the description that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had described.
16817m — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His saying: وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَلْمِزُكَ فِي الصَّدَقَاتِ فَإِنْ أُعْطُوا مِنْهَا رَضُوا وَإِنْ لَمْ يُعْطَوْا مِنْهَا إِذَا هُمْ يَسْخَطُونَ ("And among them are those who criticize you concerning the alms; if they are given some of it they are content, and if they are not given any of it, then they are enraged"), he said: These are the hypocrites; they said: "By Allah, Muḥammad gives it only to whom he loves, and he is guided in this by nothing but his own desire!" Then Allah informed His Prophet and made known to them that it came only from Allah, and that this was a command from Allah, not from Muḥammad: إِنَّمَا الصَّدَقَاتُ لِلْفُقَرَاءِ ("Indeed, the alms are only for the poor"), the verse.
