His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "Indeed, the life of this world is but play and amusement. If you believe and fear Allah, He will give you your rewards and will not ask you for your wealth." "If He asks you for it, He will force you to be stingy and will bring out your malice." "Here you are, being called to spend in the way of Allah, yet among you are those who are stingy. And whoever is stingy, he is only stingy against himself. And Allah is the All-Sufficient, while you are the poor. And if you turn away, He will replace you with another people, then they will not be like you."

His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "Indeed, the life of this world is but play and amusement," is a belittlement of the matter of this world. That is, do not weaken in jihad because of it. He described it as play and amusement to indicate that it and what is in it is indeed play and amusement. However, there are things in this world that are not play or amusement, such as obedience and matters of the Hereafter and what follows from them.

And His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "And if you believe and fear Allah, He will give you your rewards," means: this is what is required from you and nothing else. Do not ask for your wealth to spend it in the way of Allah. Sufyan ibn 'Uyaynah said: the meaning is that He does not ask you for much of your wealth, but rather He asks you for a small portion, a quarter of a tenth. So purify your souls.

Then He, exalted and majestic is He, said, warning about the character of the son of Adam: "If He asks you for it, He will force you to be stingy." And 'ihfaf' means to ask intensely, which is the embarrassing kind that forces the one being asked to give reluctantly. It is derived from 'hafa' of a man and 'tahaf' from searching for something.

And His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "You will be stingy," is a conditional response. The majority of the reciters read: "and He will bring out" in the indicative mood with "you will be stingy." Abd al-Warith read from Abu 'Amr: "and He will bring out" in the nominative mood meaning: He will bring out. Abu Hatim narrated it from 'Isa. A group read: "and He will bring out" in the accusative mood meaning: there will be stinginess and bringing out.

When the expression came with a verb, it indicated that "that" which is with the verb is interpreted as the source which is bringing out. The subject in His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "and He will bring out" in all the differences, it is possible that it is Allah, exalted and majestic is He, and it is possible that it is the stinginess which the word implies, and it is possible that it is the asking which the word also implies.

Ibn 'Abbas, Mujahid, Ibn Sirin, Ibn Muhaysin, and Ayub read: "and He will bring out" with the opening of the 'ya' in "your malice" in the nominative mood as it is the subject. It was narrated from them: "and you will bring out" with the 'ta' being pronounced and the 'ra' opened, in a way that does not specify its subject. And Ya'qub read: "and we will bring out" with the 'nun' being pronounced and the 'ra' broken in "your malice" in the accusative mood.

And "malice" as we said, refers to evil beliefs. This is what Muhammad ibn Maslamah feared would befall the Muslims, which he brought close to Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf when he said to him: indeed, this man has greatly wronged us and has demanded wealth from us.

Then Allah, the Most High, addressed His believing servants with a reprimand for some of them: "Here you are, these (people)." He repeated the letter 'ha' for emphasis. And His saying: "about Himself" has two possible meanings: one is that he is indeed miserly about the stinginess of his own self, and the other is that it is in the sense of 'upon' because you say: 'I was miserly upon you with such and such' and 'I was miserly about you' meaning I withheld from you. And His saying: "And Allah is the Rich, while you are the poor" is a consistent meaning in few things and many of them.

And His saying: "He will replace a people other than you" has been said: the address is to the Quraysh, and the other people are the people of Medina. And Abdul Rahman ibn Jubair and Shuraih ibn Ubayd said: the address is to those who attended Medina, and the other people are the people of Yemen. And a group said: the address is to all Muslims, polytheists, and Arabs at that time, and the other people are the Persians. Abu Huraira, may Allah be pleased with him, narrated that the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, was asked about this while Salman was beside him. He placed his hand on his thigh and said: "This people, if the debt were in the Pleiades, men from the people of Persia would attain it." And His saying: "Then they will not be like you" means: in disagreement, turning away, and being miserly with wealth and similar matters. Al-Thalabi narrated a saying that the other people are the angels, peace be upon them.

The interpretation of Surah Muhammad is complete, and all praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.