Calls of Faith in the Qur'an 9: Spending from the Good Things You Have Earned

Occasion: Transcription of an ʿIshāʾ khatira delivered on 26 April 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

O Allah, we ask You for Your good pleasure and seek refuge in You from Your displeasure; we ask You for Your well-being and seek refuge in You from Your punishment; and we ask You for deliverance from every evil, O Most Merciful of the merciful. Do not exchange for us the faith You have placed in our hearts, and do not change the tranquility and certainty You have placed in our souls. To You is praise until You are pleased, to You is praise when You are pleased, and to You is praise after being pleased.

The Station of the Call

We are speaking on the matter of the calls to the believers. When Allah, Mighty and Majestic, calls the believers, it is a special call to people who carried the trust of faith in their hearts and accepted no substitute for it; they left everything that the world could draw them to, and chose to be on the side of Allah and His majesty, glory be to Him, seeking Him in exchange for nothing and accepting nothing in place of Him. So when it is said: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا﴾ (O you who believe), we are before a great station of call.

And reflect: the one who calls you calls you by the dearest of things to him, so you do for him what he wants, whatever it costs you, especially if he calls you by what ascribes you to high ranks, glory, eminence, loftiness and standing. And the more the caller addresses you with what raises your worth, the more you desire to respond to what he wants, keen on keeping that worth. And when our Lord, glory be to Him, calls His servants, the first thing He asks of them, and the greatest, is faith, and by it they rise to the Gardens. So when He says: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا﴾ (O you who believe), we say: At Your service, our Lord. And imagine that the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, counts you among the people of faith; which rational servant would reject Allah's opinion of him? And exalted is Allah above any likeness.

A Review of the Previous Calls

The first call in the Qur'an, in Sūrat al-Baqara, was: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَقُولُوا رَاعِنَا وَقُولُوا انظُرْنَا وَاسْمَعُوا ۗ وَلِلْكَافِرِينَ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ﴾ (O you who believe, do not say "Rāʿinā" but say "Unẓurnā," and listen; and for the disbelievers is a painful punishment).^[1] We mentioned that this call trains the community to hold the reference point sacred, and that all members of society refer their disputes to this reference point, so no one wrongs another, no one oppresses another, and no one mocks another. For all are equal before Allah, and whoever wanted to oppress his companion was told: fear Allah, and he says: O Allah, grant us Your fear, and he returns. So you do not see injustices in society if people regard their first reference point, which is the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him.

Then came the second call: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اسْتَعِينُوا بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلَاةِ﴾ (O you who believe, seek help through patience and prayer).^[2] That is because keeping to the limits of the reference point is a matter that puts great hardship on the self; you do not find many people patient upon the commands of the Lord of the worlds. For Satan comes to whisper, and the self desires and deviates, and the heart weakens and strengthens, and desires turn the head right and left. So the servant, as came in the ḥadīth by meaning: the servant has a period of enthusiasm and a period of slackening, so you find him at times very eager, and at times languid in aspiration, unable to do anything. And Satan exploits these moments, diving into the depths of the heart, corrupting the structure of faith, and behavior changes. Hence it came in the ḥadīth, by its meaning, that a servant may become a believer in the morning and a disbeliever in the evening.^[3] How can that be? It is the moments of transformation in which Satan catches the servant unaware and the scales turn over inside him. And we seek refuge with Allah from the turning of hearts.

So our Lord says: seek help through patience. And patience here is to keep the mission whole inside the head, the mind never empty of it, and this requires patience and more remembrance; what I call perseverance that we observe in ourselves so that we remain holding to what the Lord of the worlds commanded.

From Food and Drink to Fasting

And we mentioned that the first thing by which the self inclines to temptation, misguidance and corruption is what concerns food and drink and obtaining provision and salary raises and abundance of wealth and doubling bank accounts, and everything concerning fortunes. Hence our Lord says in the third call: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُلُوا مِن طَيِّبَاتِ مَا رَزَقْنَاكُمْ وَاشْكُرُوا لِلَّهِ إِن كُنتُمْ إِيَّاهُ تَعْبُدُونَ﴾ (O you who believe, eat from the good things We have provided for you, and be grateful to Allah, if it is Him that you worship).^[4] So that He makes the servant always remember that the blessing in his hand is not from him but is from the Lord of the worlds. And just as He commanded people to eat from what is lawful, He commanded the believers to rise above the level of the lawful. Take note: Allah commanded people, saying: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ كُلُوا مِمَّا فِي الْأَرْضِ حَلَالًا طَيِّبًا﴾ (O people, eat from what is on earth, lawful and good),^[5] and this is a very high level, the level of the lawful with which nothing unlawful is mixed. But the people of faith are above that, so they are told: ﴿كُلُوا مِن طَيِّبَاتِ مَا رَزَقْنَاكُمْ﴾ (eat from the good things We have provided for you). We came to learn how to regulate ourselves and keep to the defining limits that the Lord of the worlds drew for us, so that we never exceed them in anything.

Then our Lord, glory be to Him, says: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ﴾ (O you who believe, fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you),^[6] so that when we have learned to abstain from the lawful out of desire to please the Lord of the worlds, we abstain from the unlawful out of desire to please Him. And the verses of fasting need more explanation beyond what we mentioned before.

Entering Peace Completely

Then after this introduction, which was by way of the initial foundation of the Muslim entity able to deal with new developments and the course of events, we find ourselves before the saying of our Lord: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا ادْخُلُوا فِي السِّلْمِ كَافَّةً﴾ (O you who believe, enter into peace completely),^[7] as though full readiness has been achieved for you that now qualifies you to carry the message of Islam as it should be. And it is not fitting for one whose gifts and qualities are complete to carry a part and leave the rest; so why was this upbringing for all these years, then?

Spending

And after you have been enabled and have entered Islam as a whole, the first thing your sight and heart turn to is to look at the needs of individuals and society, so you see the saying of Allah: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَنفِقُوا مِمَّا رَزَقْنَاكُم مِّن قَبْلِ أَن يَأْتِيَ يَوْمٌ لَّا بَيْعٌ فِيهِ وَلَا خُلَّةٌ وَلَا شَفَاعَةٌ ۗ وَالْكَافِرُونَ هُمُ الظَّالِمُونَ﴾ (O you who believe, spend from what We have provided you before a day comes in which there is no trading, nor friendship, nor intercession; and the disbelievers are the wrongdoers).^[8]

And the human self must have a share; so when it gives it observes, and when it gives charity it follows up, and looks at the one to whom the person gave that money: how did he dispose of it? How was the charity I gave him? How was the garment I gifted him? How was the food I placed with him? So our Lord says: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تُبْطِلُوا صَدَقَاتِكُم بِالْمَنِّ وَالْأَذَىٰ﴾ (O you who believe, do not nullify your charities with reminders and injury).^[9]

Then we see another text that renews itself with spending, and it is the ninth call with us in the blessed sūra: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَنفِقُوا مِن طَيِّبَاتِ مَا كَسَبْتُمْ وَمِمَّا أَخْرَجْنَا لَكُم مِّنَ الْأَرْضِ ۖ وَلَا تَيَمَّمُوا الْخَبِيثَ مِنْهُ تُنفِقُونَ وَلَسْتُم بِآخِذِيهِ إِلَّا أَن تُغْمِضُوا فِيهِ ۚ وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ غَنِيٌّ حَمِيدٌ﴾ (O you who believe, spend from the good things you have earned and from what We have brought forth for you from the earth; and do not aim toward the bad of it to spend from, when you would not take it yourselves except with closed eyes; and know that Allah is Free of need and Praiseworthy).^[10]

Between Two Similar Verses

In this verse there is a kind of correspondence, or at the least a similarity, between two beautiful verses. The first: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُلُوا مِن طَيِّبَاتِ مَا رَزَقْنَاكُمْ وَاشْكُرُوا لِلَّهِ﴾ (O you who believe, eat from the good things We have provided for you, and be grateful to Allah), and here: ﴿أَنفِقُوا مِن طَيِّبَاتِ مَا كَسَبْتُمْ وَمِمَّا أَخْرَجْنَا لَكُم مِّنَ الْأَرْضِ﴾ (spend from the good things you have earned and from what We have brought forth for you from the earth). The first commanded taking and eating, and the second commanded spending and bringing out; the first commanded partaking at a certain level, and the second commanded bringing out. And it is as though my Lord is teaching me that the concept of spending in Islam is not giving, but merely a return of what Allah gave you beforehand. So when you take out of your pocket a thousand or ten or a hundred or a million, who deposited this money with you in the first place? And who enabled you to own it? And who empowered you with the means of obtaining these figures? It is Allah. So what you give now, you do not take out from yourself by your own self, but you took out something of what Allah, blessed and exalted, entrusted to you.

And the differences between the two verses give you dimensions that must be attended to.

First: the meaning of "spend." The call ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا﴾ (O you who believe) is shared by all the calls, and here the Lord of the worlds says: spend. And the word "nafaqa" means: it came to an end. Imagine it being said: the animal nafaqat; what does nafaqat mean? That it died and its soul left it and hope in it ceased, so there are no attempts to bring it back in any way. The point is that what is spent is not hoped for in anything at all. So you can imagine an animal that died, and we obtain from it its hide, hooves, teeth and horns, so some remnant of it remains that may be benefited from, even for a while; this one is not said to have nafaqat but to have died. But to have nafaqat is as though it has come to a complete end. So when our Lord says: spend, it is as though the Lord of the worlds is commanding me to bring out money that the self does not follow with any kind of hope; its matter has ended and it has gone out.

Second: "from the good things you have earned." There in the first He said: ﴿مِن طَيِّبَاتِ مَا رَزَقْنَاكُمْ﴾ (from the good things We have provided for you), and here: ﴿مِن طَيِّبَاتِ مَا كَسَبْتُمْ﴾ (from the good things you have earned). And it is as though my Lord, glory be to Him, gives you a kind of consideration for the effort you exerted, the ability you were entrusted with, the skill you used and the striving you strove, and it is as though He teaches me respect for the efforts made within societies and appreciation of the roles of others when they give something; He teaches me good conduct. And had our Lord willed, He would have said: spend from the good things We have provided for you, but the first conveys a kind of gratitude to Allah, blessed and exalted, that He provided me what I eat, so I am not fed except through the gifts of Allah, so I feel more belonging and gratitude to the Lord of Might. But in this verse it is as though it is praise for the self that earned the money, and then the servant made this self submit to bring something out. And it is as though the Lord of the worlds increases your confidence in yourself: as your ability to earn was, so was your ability to spend.

Third: "and from what We have brought forth for you from the earth." Then our Lord says to us: ﴿وَمِمَّا أَخْرَجْنَا لَكُم مِّنَ الْأَرْضِ﴾ (and from what We have brought forth for you from the earth). The natural thing, since He ascribed earning to them saying "what you have earned," would be to say "and from what you have brought forth from the earth," but what comes forth from the earth is a secret between the earth and its Creator. People plant seed that is shared in its description, mark, quantity, kind and nature, and it does not all come out equally, but comes out differing in its quantity, length, fruit and the taste a person finds in it, as though each plant came from a fabric different from its sisters. And the One who made that is the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him. Allah says: ﴿أَفَرَأَيْتُم مَّا تَحْرُثُونَ ۝ أَأَنتُمْ تَزْرَعُونَهُ أَمْ نَحْنُ الزَّارِعُونَ﴾ (Have you considered what you sow? Is it you who make it grow, or are We the Grower?).^[11] Indeed, O Allah, You are the One who makes it grow, O Lord of the worlds, and not any of the people. We practice the instrument of farming, but the One who settles the seed in the soil, and works the causes in it and decrees that it burst into its field and sprout from beneath the earth and come out into the open air, is the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him.

And Do Not Aim for the Bad

The point is that our Lord, glory be to Him, said: ﴿وَلَا تَيَمَّمُوا الْخَبِيثَ مِنْهُ تُنفِقُونَ وَلَسْتُم بِآخِذِيهِ إِلَّا أَن تُغْمِضُوا فِيهِ﴾ (and do not aim toward the bad of it to spend from, when you would not take it yourselves except with closed eyes). And here is a distinction between souls. You may find many people who give in society, but there is a good soul attached, in its very root of attachment, to Allah, who is the One who gives and the One who takes. And it was narrated from our Messenger ﷺ, in the ḥadīth of ʿĀʾisha that we mentioned, that charity falls into the hand of Allah before it falls into the hand of the poor person; exalted is Allah above likeness.^[12] So this is a soul that places the charity in the hand of Allah before it falls into the hand of the poor, so it is a heart attached to Allah, glory be to Him, which acts in its conduct out of its faith and certainty in the Lord of the heavens and the earth, the Doer of what He wills.

And there is a soul that gives but is attached to the figure that left its hand: ﴿وَلَا تَيَمَّمُوا الْخَبِيثَ مِنْهُ تُنفِقُونَ﴾ (and do not aim toward the bad of it to spend from), that is, when they give they choose the worst of things and the poorest kinds and bring them out for the poor. The likes of these do not give charity, but feel guilty that they are not fulfilling the duties upon them, so they merely enact them. If he owes zakat on wealth of a certain amount, he brings out exactly that amount, and does not accept to add anything: why should I give the poor extra? I toiled for this money, I obtained it with hardship, and I exhausted myself until I earned this figure. These have no share in charity, but only fulfill what is upon them; indeed, if they give, they select the least good of what is in their hands and bring it out, and beyond that they do not want to do. And Allah, blessed and exalted, knows best.

Free of Need, Praiseworthy

Then our Lord says: ﴿وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ غَنِيٌّ حَمِيدٌ﴾ (and know that Allah is Free of need and Praiseworthy). "Ghaniyy" (Free of need) suits the matter of replacement for the blessings you give; for the One who compensates you is the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him. And "Ḥamīd" (Praiseworthy) means He praises for you the deed you did, and the principle is that we praise Allah for having guided us to giving or made our souls submit to giving. And that is His saying, the Exalted: ﴿وَمَن يُوقَ شُحَّ نَفْسِهِ فَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ﴾ (And whoever is protected from the stinginess of his own soul, it is those who are the successful).^[13]

I ask Allah, blessed and exalted, to make our souls and hearts submit to what He wills, and that we be in accord with what His Messenger ﷺ legislated for us, as our Lord wants us to be.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: al-Baqara: 104. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: al-Baqara: 153. The speaker mentioned only this much of the verse. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: The speaker alluded to the meaning of two ḥadīths without their wording and did not attribute them; so they were conveyed by meaning without quotation marks. What is known for the first is: «إن لكل عمل شِرّة، ولكل شِرّة فترة» ("Every deed has a period of enthusiasm, and every period of enthusiasm has a slackening") (narrated by al-Tirmidhī, Aḥmad and Ibn Ḥibbān, as far as we know), and for the second: «بادروا بالأعمال فتنًا… يصبح الرجل مؤمنًا ويمسي كافرًا» ("Hasten to deeds before trials… a man will be a believer in the morning and a disbeliever in the evening") (narrated by Muslim). The attribution is to be reviewed before publication. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: al-Baqara: 172. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: al-Baqara: 168. ^[6]: Editor's documentation: al-Baqara: 183. The speaker mentioned this much of the verse. ^[7]: Editor's documentation: al-Baqara: 208. ^[8]: Editor's documentation: al-Baqara: 254. ^[9]: Editor's documentation: al-Baqara: 264. ^[10]: Editor's documentation: al-Baqara: 267. ^[11]: Editor's documentation: al-Wāqiʿa: 63–64. ^[12]: Editor's documentation: The speaker alluded to the ḥadīth of ʿĀʾisha (may Allah be pleased with her) that charity falls into the hand of Allah before it falls into the hand of the beggar, and did not attribute it in the khatira. This wording was narrated with chains in which there is weakness, as far as we know, so its authenticity is not asserted with it; and what is in the two Ṣaḥīḥs is sound in meaning: «إلا أخذها الرحمن بيمينه» ("except that the Most Merciful took it in His right hand"), and it is to be reviewed before publication. ^[13]: Editor's documentation: al-Ḥashr: 9.