And when it was the case that those who had this characteristic sometimes did little good without great deeds out of ostentation, it was made clear that they were overwhelmed by miserliness to the extent that, despite their abundance of ostentation, they could not even show off with this trivial matter. They stripped themselves of all the noble traits. So he said, conveying a condemnation of them, indicating that the most beloved of creation to Allah is the one who is most beneficial to His dependents: ﴿And they withhold﴾ meaning at the renewal of times. The first object was omitted in a general sense so that it encompasses everyone, even if their status is great and their place is gentle in their hearts, indicating that they have reached a level of baseness beyond which there is no place for envy. ﴿Al-Ma'un﴾ meaning the rights of wealth and the little things of benefits, such as lending trivial household items that people are accustomed to exchanging among themselves, and they withhold from those in need what Allah has made obligatory for them in their wealth from the rights. The result is that this should be understood as withholding what must be given, such as the surplus of pasture, water, and zakat, and the like, which would necessitate woe. Regarding zakat, it was understood by Ali, Ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with them, Al-Hasan, and Qatadah. The scholars said: it is taken from the meaning, and in the language, it refers to something small. Therefore, some of them interpreted it as [water -] and some as what is lent from items such as a pot and an axe.

And the bucket, and some of them say it is the zakat because it is not taken from wealth as zakat except for something very little in comparison to it. And it is said: it is every gift or benefit. And Qutrub said: it is a form of the meaning, and the meaning is: the good deed. And Abu Ubaidah said: the ma'oon in the pre-Islamic era was the gift and benefit, and in Islam, it is the zakat. And Al-Harawi said: Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, mentioned that it is the loan - this was mentioned by the scholar Abdul Haq Al-Ishbili in his book Al-Wa'i. And Ibn Jarir said: the origin of ma'oon is from everything that has benefit. This indicates that they have reached the utmost level of denial by their disdain for the greatest pillars of religion and their regard for the least matters of this world. This latter is as you see is the first because what led to it is the denial. And whoever prevents these trivial matters is deserving of preventing the arrival of Al-Kawthar on the Day of Gathering. And just as its end meets its beginning, the whole surah meets with its correspondence in the number from the beginning of the Qur'an. This is because it is known that the result of this surah is the distancing from the lowly morals and their disgrace and their proximity to denial of the recompense, which is the wisdom of existence that yields aversion from fulfilling the rights of the creatures and obedience to the Creator, and the inclination towards the deficiencies to the disdain of the weak, which only the most despicable and lowly of people would disdain. And the showing off that only those in the utmost baseness would engage in has made it necessary to lean towards the greatest woe. And in that is the greatest encouragement towards the high morals which are the opposites of what was mentioned in the surah. Both matters are present in Al-Anfal, which corresponds to it in responding to the section at the beginning in the most complete manner, so that this serves as an indication that it is an explanation of this. Therefore, there is a hint to observe it when reading it. Look at His saying, the Most High: "Those who establish prayer and from what We have provided them, they spend" [Al-Anfal: 3] "Those are the true believers" [Al-Anfal: 4] the verse "And when they said: O Allah, if this is the truth from You" [Al-Anfal: 32] the verse "And their prayer at the House was nothing but whistle and clapping" [Al-Anfal: 35] "And those who disbelieved will be gathered to Hell" [Al-Anfal: 36] [the verse] "So indeed, for Allah is a fifth and for the Messenger and for those near relatives and the orphans and the needy and the traveler" [Al-Anfal: 41] the verse "And do not be like those who went out from their homes in arrogance and to be seen by the people" [Al-Anfal: 47] the verse. And indeed, the surah has applied with its meanings and its great structures and its systems and its buildings upon the lowly, despicable ones. And it encompassed their heads after its words individually before its letters, and it turned upon them cups of destruction from the windows of spears in the hands of its soldiers and the positions of its swords. This is because the number of its words is twenty-five words. If you consider them from the beginning of the year of [the Prophethood], it corresponds to the twelfth year of the Hijrah. This was at the end of the caliphate of Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him. And during it, there remained no one under his hand from the praying ones who had apostatized from Islam after the death of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, or who prevented the zakat. So it became clear that they were not praying in his life, blessings and peace be upon him, and they were not giving zakat except for the showing off to the people, the actions of the lowly and filthy ones, until woe befell them at the hands of the soldiers of Abu Bakr who came to them on foot and horseback and tore them apart. And that year did not pass until he had finished with them, having dealt with Banu Hanifah in Yamamah and the outskirts of Yemen from the people of Najir in the land of Kindah and Al-Aswad Al-Ansi from Sana'a. And the year sixteen did not pass, which corresponds to the number of words with the Basmala - and that was in the early caliphate of Al-Farooq - until they had been removed from all of the Arabian Peninsula, and they were the polytheists of the Arabs and their Christians and their Jews who were in the regions of Iraq and Sham and Bahrain. Most of them embraced Islam, and the remaining ones went to the land of the Romans. So woe befell the show-offs among the people of prayer for they are the ones to whom their Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, came with prayer, but they turned away from it, and the people are their followers. And it was not correct in this surah to consider the pronouns because the religion at this limit had appeared over every apparent thing, to a degree that there is no concealment in it by any means nor any obstacle to it nor any covering. And just as there is no need for the hinting with the pronouns, for what has been made clear to it in the two horizons from the good tidings, upon the heads of the pulpits and the minarets. So likewise, it was not appropriate after reaching this uncovered state, to hint at the indication by preparing the letters - and Allah knows best what is correct, and to Him is the return and the destination.