The Quran

Preface

ما أَفاءَ اللَّهُ عَلىٰ رَسولِهِ مِن أَهلِ القُرىٰ فَلِلَّهِ وَلِلرَّسولِ وَلِذِي القُربىٰ وَاليَتامىٰ وَالمَساكينِ وَابنِ السَّبيلِ كَي لا يَكونَ دولَةً بَينَ الأَغنِياءِ مِنكُم ۚ وَما آتاكُمُ الرَّسولُ فَخُذوهُ وَما نَهاكُم عَنهُ فَانتَهوا ۚ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ ۖ إِنَّ اللَّهَ شَديدُ العِقابِ

Yusuf Ali

What God has bestowed¹ on His Messenger (and taken away) from the people² of the townships,- belongs to God,- to His Messenger³ and to kindred and orphans, the needy and the wayfarer; In order that it may not (merely) make a circuit between the wealthy among you. So take what the Messenger assigns to you, and deny yourselves that which he withholds from you.5381-A### And fear God. for God is strict in Punishment.

The Jews had originally come from outside Arabia, and seized on the land near Medīna. They refused to adapt themselves to the people of Arabia, and were in fact a morn in the side of the genuine Arabs of Medīna. Their dispossession is therefore a restoration of the land to its original people. But the word Fa' is here understood in a technical sense, as meaning property abandoned by the enemy or taken from him without a formal war. In that sense it is distinguished from Anfal, or spoils, taken after actual fighting, about which see 8:1, 41.
The people of the townships: the townships were the Jewish setlements round Medīna, of Banū al Nadir and possibly of other tribes. Cf. the “townships” mentioned in 59:14 below. The reference cannot be to Wadi al Qura (Valley of Towns), now Mada'in Ṣālih, which was subjugated after Khaibar and Fadak in A.H. 7, unless this verse is later than the rest of the Sūra.
Belongs to God: i.e., to God’s Cause; and the beneficiaries are further detailed. No shares are fixed; they depend upon circumstances, and are left to the judgment of the Leader. Compare a similar list of those entitled to Charity, in 2:177, but the two lists refer to different circumstances and have different beneficiaries in addition to the portion common to both.