The Quran

254

يا أَيُّهَا الَّذينَ آمَنوا أَنفِقوا مِمّا رَزَقناكُم مِن قَبلِ أَن يَأتِيَ يَومٌ لا بَيعٌ فيهِ وَلا خُلَّةٌ وَلا شَفاعَةٌ ۗ وَالكافِرونَ هُمُ الظّالِمونَ

Muhammad Asad

O YOU who have attained to faith! Spend [in Our way] out of what We have granted you as sustenance ere there come a Day¹ when there will be no bargaining, and no friendship, and no intercession. And they who deny the truth - it is they who are evildoers!

Le., the Day of Judgment. With this exhortation the Qur'an returns to the subject of verse 245: "Who is it that will offer up unto God a goodly loan?" We may, therefore, infer that the "spending in God's way" relates here to every kind of sacrifice in God's cause, and not merely to the spending of one's possessions.