Al-Isra · Makki · ayah 29 of 111

Al-Isra 17:29

وَلَا تَجْعَلْ يَدَكَ مَغْلُولَةً إِلَىٰ عُنُقِكَ وَلَا تَبْسُطْهَا كُلَّ ٱلْبَسْطِ فَتَقْعُدَ مَلُومًا مَّحْسُورًا

“And do not make your hand [as] chained to your neck[739] or extend it completely[740] and [thereby] become blamed and insolvent.”

Saheeh International

Essence

A hand chained shut leaves you blamed; a hand spread empty leaves you stranded; between them lies the measured hand of justice and wisdom.

A reflection

Two hands, two prisons

At the end of a restaurant meal, the bill arrives. One man at the table pats his pockets slowly, checks his phone, and excuses himself. His friends have a phrase for it: short arms, deep pockets. He is not poor. His hand simply will not travel to his wallet.

The ayah draws that hand as a picture. Maghlūlatan ilā ʿunuqik: chained to your neck. The ghull was a prisoner's iron collar, with the hands locked up against the throat. The lexicons say it was named so because the limbs sit inside it. A man in a ghull cannot reach out to take or to give. One commentary calls the image a figure for the miser who cannot bring himself, from his heart, to let anything go.

Then the other hand. Wa-lā tabsuṭhā kulla al-basṭ: nor spread it out completely. Another commentary explains the contrast. A closed palm holds what is in it. An open, flat palm lets everything fall through. One hand is a prison; the other is a sieve.

The Prophet ﷺ drew the miser's prison even more vividly. The miser and the giver, he said, are like two men wearing cloaks of iron, from chest to collarbone. Each time the giver spends, his cloak loosens and spreads until it covers him to his fingertips. Each time the miser thinks of giving, every ring tightens in its place (Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim).

The Companion who narrated it added a detail. He saw the Prophet ﷺ put his finger to the collar of his own garment, showing how the miser tries to widen it. It will not widen.

That is what stinginess feels like from inside. Not saving, but tightening. Every attempt to loosen it meets the iron. The ayah's first command is simple: do not put the collar on in the first place.

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.