Al-Humazah · Makki · ayah 2 of 9

Al-Humazah 104:2

ٱلَّذِى جَمَعَ مَالًا وَعَدَّدَهُۥ

“Who collects wealth and [continuously] counts it.[1987]”

Saheeh International

Essence

Mockery and hoarding turn out to be one illness: count your money often enough and you start counting people as less.

A reflection

Net worth, self-worth

Notice the first word: alladhī, 'the one who'. It ties the hoarder straight to the mocker of the last ayah. They are the same person.

Why describe a mocker by his money? One classical commentary answers that the money is the cause. He admired what he had gathered and believed his worth lay in it, so he looked down on everyone with less. The wallet came first; the sneer followed.

We have a phrase for this now: net worth. Say it slowly. Net worth. The trader who now owns three shops and stops returning calls from friends still on a market stall. The relative who prices everyone's house at the wedding. The man who is charming to the chairman and curt with the waiter.

The ayah also says mālan, 'wealth', without 'the'. The same commentary hears two things in that. One is belittling. The word māl covers everything the world holds, and one person's share of it is tiny. So what exactly is there to boast about? The number that feels like a mountain from inside your banking app is a pebble on the scale of the earth. The other reading hears the reverse: wealth grown huge, and huge in the harm it did. Either way, the commentary asks, how can a thinking person be proud of it?

Sahih Muslim records the Prophet ﷺ saying that Allah revealed to him: be humble towards one another. Then no one will boast over another, and no one will oppress another. Boasting and oppression sit side by side in that sentence, just as mockery and money sit side by side in this surah. One grows easily out of the other.

A pebble is a strange thing to stand on in order to look down at people. Better to step off it, and see them at eye level.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.