The Might and Mercy of Allah, and the Logic of ‹Shall We Feed One Whom Allah Could Have Fed?›

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 16 September 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

When you hear the words of Allah, Blessed and Exalted: ﴿وَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى الْعَزِيزِ الرَّحِيمِ﴾ ("And rely upon the Almighty, the Merciful"), you find that Allah's might rules out any wickedness in our lives, out of fear of Him, Glorified is He, and of His might, and that His mercy moves us to do every good thing in life, in hope of His mercy.^[1]

When They Are Told: Spend

This very sentence stopped me, and it was as though it leapt with me to many places in the Noble Qur'an that show us people's conduct and their reaction toward Allah. Among them is His saying, Exalted is He: ﴿وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ أَنفِقُوا مِمَّا رَزَقَكُمُ اللَّهُ قَالَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَنُطْعِمُ مَن لَّوْ يَشَاءُ اللَّهُ أَطْعَمَهُ إِنْ أَنتُمْ إِلَّا فِي ضَلَالٍ مُّبِينٍ﴾ ("And when it is said to them, 'Spend from that which Allah has provided for you,' those who disbelieve say to those who believe, 'Shall we feed one whom, if Allah had willed, He would have fed? You are not but in clear error'").^[2]

Let us read the verse in its context once more: «أنفقوا مما رزقكم الله» ("Spend from what Allah has provided you"), meaning that what is in your hands is not from you, but from Allah. So what do they do? They use the very same logic to answer it: shall we feed one whom, if Allah willed, He would have fed? And look at what this speech says to you: you want to trespass upon the decree of the Lord of the worlds! You want to change our Lord's decree, man? Shame on you! If our Lord wanted to feed them, He would have fed them. And if our Lord wants to starve them, then we starve them! This is the logic.

And we, of course, are not among those in how we treat the text in this way. But in many cases we are among them in dealing with the poor by this logic, so we do not give them, for reasons we do not know, yet the instinct that governs the hearts of people is what makes this effect the controlling one, so we do not hand out what is in our pockets.

Half a Date

The Prophet ﷺ says: «اتقوا النار ولو بشقّ تمرة» ("Protect yourselves from the Fire, even with half a date").^[3] And this is the ordinary comment that I always make and repeat and am very happy with: where is the other half? You are eating it, right? So imagine a person who has only two dates, he eats one of them, and in front of him is someone he wants to give charity to. Does he give him half of what is in his hand, or does he give him the second, whole date? If he has two dates, he gives him the whole one. But if he gave him half a date, that indicates that he owns nothing but half a date. So it is as though the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is saying: give charity to the needy, especially the hungry, from what you own, even if nothing remains with you in life but half a date: you eat half of it and give the other half to the poor, needy person. That is the logic.

Between Those Who Earn and Those Who Prostrate

And when we hear from the Lord of the worlds, Glorified is He: ﴿وَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى الْعَزِيزِ الرَّحِيمِ * الَّذِي يَرَاكَ حِينَ تَقُومُ * وَتَقَلُّبَكَ فِي السَّاجِدِينَ﴾ ("And rely upon the Almighty, the Merciful, * Who sees you when you arise * and your movement among those who prostrate")^[4] we reflect: people move about among those who earn money, those who run right and left, who follow the stock market here and the bonds there and the prices such-and-such, so what is all this? As for you, your movement is among those who prostrate; you have an entirely different goal.

And when you compare the kinds of income the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had, you see that had he saved a little of it, he would soon have become one of the wealthy. But he ﷺ would spend the night with nothing in his house. Where did this money go? To the poor. That was his habit, his sunna, his practice and his state on all ordinary days: he would not spend the night with anything in his house. Then you find it related about him that in Ramadan he was more generous than the blowing wind.^[5] So how could he be more generous than that when on ordinary days there is no one more generous than he? He brings out everything he has, and nothing remains in his house at the end of the day, so how is he more generous in Ramadan? He gives everything he has, and it is related about him. May my father and mother be his ransom ﷺ.

Poverty Around Us

And the point for me is: how many poor people are in prisons because of a refrigerator, or because he was preparing his daughter for marriage and bought something and was unable to pay its price? And how many people are below the line of extreme poverty, owning absolutely nothing? The stories we hear every day about the conditions of people, whether in Egypt or in Jordan or anywhere, in our countries generally from which we came, and in others of those we do not know at all, from countries where poverty is the norm, are conditions at which the brow sweats with shame. But most Muslims in general proceed in their affairs by a logic that is not from faith, which is their saying: shall we feed one whom, if Allah willed, He would have fed? We do not say this with our tongues, but the reality of the situation steers our conduct and reaction toward this logic.

I do not want to say much more on this matter, but we are held accountable for what we have been given, and we are held accountable for what we have been given of knowledge more than for what we have been given of wealth. And our Lord, Glorified is He, gives you this example, so swap the positions and imagine you are in his place: what do you expect your brother to help you with if you are in a place of need and your brother is in a place of strength and might?

And so the cries and appeals we hear from the people of Palestine and Gaza and others: where are the Muslims? They are speaking about their feeling as sons of one creed, as sons of one nation, through which they sense a binding duty of support from their brothers. He does not expect you to be gracious to him, or to give him charity, but rather expects you to fulfill your duty. This is the principle, and there is no debate about it; you must do it as a matter of course. We condemn a father who neglects his children, and we condemn a brother who disowns his blood brother, and our Lord has taught us that the bond of faith is stronger than the bond of blood. So by what reason do we act? And by what logic do we behave?

A Supplication

I ask Allah, Glorified is He, to show us the effects of our deeds in our lives, not to humble us before an ignoble person in this world as long as we live, and to place the support of our religion in our hearts, overcoming the support of our hands over anything in life. And I ask Him to make us firm with the firm word in the life of this world and in the Hereafter, and on the Day when the witnesses will stand.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: The intended verse is His saying, Exalted is He, in Sūrat al-Shuʿarāʾ, verses 217–219, the full text of which the speaker cited later in the khatira. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat Yā Sīn, verse 47. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: The hadith with this meaning is recorded in the two Ṣaḥīḥs from the hadith of ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim (may Allah be pleased with him). The comment on "the other half" is from the speaker's words. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Shuʿarāʾ, verses 217–219. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: He refers to the hadith of Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them both) in the two Ṣaḥīḥs: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was the most generous of people, and he was at his most generous in Ramadan; the speaker cited it by meaning.