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195. " and spend in the way of allah; and cast not yourselves
by your own hands into perdition:
and do good (to others),
for verily allah loves the doers of good."
commentary:
holy war needs as much money and property as it needs the
sincere, strong experienced battle men, because in holy war, the
existence of both the spiritual and physical preparation, and suitable
weapons, artillery and other fighting equipments for troops are
necessary. true it is that the most important effective factor of the fate
of a war is the involving soldiers, but a soldier needs to be equipped.
hence, the verse emphasizes that the lack of spending wealth in this
way is to bring themselves and other muslims to destruction.
" and spend in the way of allah; and cast not yourselves
by your own hands into perdition:..."
at the time of revelation, in particular, a great deal of muslims
were full of ardor and emotions for holy war, but they were so poor
that they could not prepare the artillery. as the qur'an states, they
used to come to the prophet (p.b.u.h.) and ask him to supply the
necessary means in order to send them to the battle-field. but they
usually came back with sorrow and grief while their eyes were shedding
tears because the required means could not be supplied. the statement
of the qur'an in sura at-taubah, no. 9, verse 92 is thus; "...they went
back while their eyes overflowed with tears on account of grief for not finding
that which they should spend."
spending, a prevention of destruction
a general fact and a social rite can be taken from this holy verse
in account of disbursing, although the subject is mentioned next to the
verses of holy war. the idea is that spending, in general, causes the
members of a society to be delivered from perdition. and, on the
contrary, when the custom of donation be neglected and the properties
be compiled in one pole of the society, there will come forth a majority
of the poor and deprived. so, very soon, a great burst happens in the
society in which the selves and wealth of capitalists will be burnt by the
fire of that revolution. here, thereby, the relation of `donation' and
`prevention of destruction ' is made clear.
therefore, disbursement is useful for capitalist, before it would be
beneficial to the state of the deprived; that is, the justification of wealth
is a protector of wealth. imam amir-ul-mu'mineen ali (a.s.) has
pointed to this very fact where he says:
"...guard your properties by paying alms tax..."
1
next to the stage of holy war and donation, it leads to
benevolence and, at the end of the verse, it commands to doing good
because the stage of doing good is the highest stage in the course of
human development which islam regards to fully. it says:
"...and do good (to others), for verily allah loves the doers of good."
the occurrence of this phrase at the end of the verse on donation
points to this meaning that the act of donation must be fulfilled with an
absolute sincerity and affection: far from any term of reproach or what
annoys or hurts the person whom the favour is done to.
1
nahjul-balaqah, saying no. 146
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