7الَّذينَ لا يُؤتونَ الزَّكاةَ وَهُم بِالآخِرَةِ هُم كافِرونَMuhammad Asad[and] those who do not spend in charity: for it is they, they who [thus] deny the truth of the life to come!1Belief in God's oneness and charitableness towards one's fellow-men are two cardinal demands of Islam. Conversely, a deliberate offence against either of these two demands amounts to a denial of man's responsibility before God and hence, by implication, of a continuation of life in the hereafter. (For my rendering of zakah, in this context, as "charity", see surah 2, note 34. It is to be borne in mind that the application of this term to the obligatory tax incumbent on Muslims dates from the Medina period, whereas the present surah is a Meccan revelation.)