The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 273
PT. 18 5. And AL-MU'MINÜN are active in "who paying the Zakāh,2512 "5:56; 9:71. joking. It covers all vain and foolish thoughts. It is also used for the chirping of sparrows and the sound of other birds (Lane, Aqrab & Muḥīt). See also 2:226. Commentary: The second stage in the spiritual journey of man consists in the avoidance of all vain talk and thoughts and also of idle, vain and futile actions. A true believer not only prays to God in the utmost humility of the heart but takes life very seriously. Life is a grim and serious fact and he takes it as such. He employs every moment of it usefully and shuns all vain and useless pursuits which are incapable of doing any good either to his own person or to his community or country. Incidentally, the avoidance of vain pursuits is the natural and inevitable result of humility in prayer as is evident from another verse of the Quran, viz. "Surely Prayer restrains one from indecency and manifest evil" (29:46). 2512. Commentary: CH. 23 وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ لِلزَّكُوةِ فَعِلُوْنَ ) with which God has endowed them, in the cause of truth. They are prepared to undergo all manner of sacrifice. In v. 4 above, the believers are mentioned as avoiding vain and useless things which is at best a negative virtue, and a negative virtue or good is not of a very high order. The present verse, however, points to a positive virtue which consists in the doing of good that should purify oneself and also benefit others and consists in giving money, which one has earned with the sweat of one's brow, in the way of God. This indeed is a great positive virtue. In fact, Islam regards the share of the poor in the wealth of the rich inalienable right of the former and when a rich man discharges the debt that he owes to the poor by paying the Zakāh, he does no favour to anybody. He only gives what is due from him. The Holy Prophet is reported to have said: "Let no one imagine that his wealth or standing or power is the result merely of his own efforts or enterprise. That is not so. Your power and your position and your wealth are all earned through the poor" (Tirmidhi, Abwābuz-Zuhd). as the This verse refers to the third rung of the spiritual ladder. The true believers not only turn to God with utmost The object of Zakāh is not only to humility of the heart and avoid all provide means for the relief of the sorts of vanities and trivialities but distressed or for the promotion of the actually engage themselves in welfare of the economically less pursuits that purify them, such as the favoured sections of the community, spending of their valuable time and but it is also to discourage the hard-earned money and employing all hoarding of money and commodities the natural capacities and abilities | and, thus to ensure a brisk circulation 2187