38وَالَّذينَ استَجابوا لِرَبِّهِم وَأَقامُوا الصَّلاةَ وَأَمرُهُم شورىٰ بَينَهُم وَمِمّا رَزَقناهُم يُنفِقونَMuhammad Asadand who respond to [the call of] their Sustainer and are constant in prayer; and whose rule [in all matters of common concern] is consultation among themselves;1 and who spend on others out of what We provide for them as sustenance;2This particular qualification of true believers - regarded by the Prophet's Companions as so important that they always referred to this surah by the key-word "consultation" (shara) - has a double import: firstly, it is meant to remind all followers of the Qur'an that they must remain united within one single community (ummah); and, secondly, it lays down the principle that all their communal business must be transacted in mutual consultation. (For the political implications of this principle, see State and Government, pp.44 ff.).See note 4 on 2:3. Following as it does immediately upon the call to communal unity and consultation, the "spending on others" bears here the general connotation of social justice.