The Quran

ذٰلِكَ الَّذي يُبَشِّرُ اللَّهُ عِبادَهُ الَّذينَ آمَنوا وَعَمِلُوا الصّالِحاتِ ۗ قُل لا أَسأَلُكُم عَلَيهِ أَجرًا إِلَّا المَوَدَّةَ فِي القُربىٰ ۗ وَمَن يَقتَرِف حَسَنَةً نَزِد لَهُ فيها حُسنًا ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفورٌ شَكورٌ

Muhammad Asad

that [bounty] whereof God gives the glad tiding to such of His servants as attain to faith and do righteous deeds. Say [O Prophet]: "No reward do I ask of you for this [message] other than [that you should] love your fellow-men."¹ For, if anyone gains [ihe merit of] a good deed, We shall grant him through it an increase of good: and, verily, God is much-forgiving, ever responsive to gratitude.

Lit., "love for those who are near (al-qurba)". Some commentators take this to mean "those who are near to me", i.e., Muhammad's kinsfolk: but quite apart from the objection that such a "personal" demand would conflict with the preceding assurance, "No reward do I ask of you", the deliberate ommission of any possessive pronoun in respect of the term al-qurba indicates that it is not limited to aay personal relationship but, rather, alludes to a relationship common to all human beings: namely, the fellowship of man - a concept which implies the fundamental ethical postulate to care for one another's material and spiritual welfare.