Tafsir for verse: 2:273
لِلۡفُقَرَآءِ ٱلَّذِينَ أُحۡصِرُواْ فِي سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ لَا يَسۡتَطِيعُونَ ضَرۡبٗا فِي ٱلۡأَرۡضِ يَحۡسَبُهُمُ ٱلۡجَاهِلُ أَغۡنِيَآءَ مِنَ ٱلتَّعَفُّفِ تَعۡرِفُهُم بِسِيمَٰهُمۡ لَا يَسۡـَٔلُونَ ٱلنَّاسَ إِلۡحَافٗاۗ وَمَا تُنفِقُواْ مِنۡ خَيۡرٖ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ بِهِۦ عَلِيمٌ ٢٧٣ ﴿273
273(Your charities should be preferably meant) for the needy who are confined in the way of Allah, unable to travel in the land.An ignorant person takes them as free of need because of their abstinence. You know them by their appearance (from begging). They do not beg people importunately, and whatever good thing you spend, Allah is All-Aware of it.
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Commentary

The neighbor is related to something omitted. The meaning is: support the poor, and make what you spend for the poor, as His saying (in nine signs). It is permissible that it is the news of an omitted subject, meaning your charities are for the poor. And those who are confined in the way of Allah are those whom jihad has confined; they cannot engage in trade on the earth for earning.

It is said that they are the people of the Suffah, who are about four hundred men from the emigrants of Quraysh. They had no homes in Medina nor clans, so they were in the Suffah of the mosque - which is its portico - learning the Qur'an at night, and they would break the dates by day. They would go out in every expedition sent by the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, and whoever had surplus would bring it to them when evening came.

And from Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, it is narrated that the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, stood one day over the people of the Suffah and saw their poverty and hardship and the goodness of their hearts. He said, "Rejoice, O people of the Suffah, for whoever among my nation remains on the description that you are on, content with what he has, he is among my companions in Paradise."

The ignorant person thinks they are wealthy due to their modesty, self-sufficient because of their abstinence from asking. You can recognize them by their marks, from the paleness of their faces and their ragged state. And 'ilhaf' means insistence, which is adherence, and that one does not part except with something given to him. From their saying: 'He gave me from the surplus of his covering,' meaning he gave me from what he had.

And from the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, "Indeed, Allah, the Exalted, loves the shy, the forbearing, and the self-restrained, and He dislikes the rude, the asking, and the insistent."

And its meaning is that if they ask, they ask gently and do not insist. It is said that it is a negation of both asking and insistence, as in His saying:

'On a path that is clear.'

And I am a guarantor if I return as a king... with a journey you see from it the messengers of fear.

On a clear path that is not guided by its signs... if the old camel has been led along, it is said: 'If they make me their king as I was, then I am responsible for a difficult journey.' And the clear path is the wide road, from 'lahaba' meaning to settle and pass through it, so its origin is 'malhub.' And the signs of the road are the markers. And 'safah' means to smell it. From it is 'distance.' And 'the old camel' refers to the aged camel. It also refers to the old road. And 'sovereignty' refers to the old. And 'the Nabati' refers to the people who dig wells among the soothsayers.

A place in Algeria where the Nabataeans of the Levant are. And the Dayaaf is attributed to it. And the Jirjara is a sound that the camel repeats in its throat, meaning it is a wide path with no guiding markers on which to find direction. And there is a type of eloquence in it that they call negating something by affirming it. They explain it as the speech having an apparent affirmation of something and a hidden negation of it, by negating what is the cause of it, which is what is negated in the hidden sense. In the verse, there is a negation of guidance by the markers, and the intended meaning is the negation of the markers, as mentioned by Al-Suyuti in his explanation of 'Aqood Al-Juman. When the old camel smells it, it knows that it is a difficult path due to its experience with paths, and it grumbles in fear of it because of its difficulty, especially if it is from the camels of the Nabataeans due to their frequent travels. It is also possible that the journey is a metaphor for governance, as suggested by the pursuit of kingship, so what follows is a recommendation of the metaphor.

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