Ali 'Imran · Madani · ayah 75 of 200

Ali 'Imran 3:75

۞ وَمِنْ أَهْلِ ٱلْكِتَـٰبِ مَنْ إِن تَأْمَنْهُ بِقِنطَارٍ يُؤَدِّهِۦٓ إِلَيْكَ وَمِنْهُم مَّنْ إِن تَأْمَنْهُ بِدِينَارٍ لَّا يُؤَدِّهِۦٓ إِلَيْكَ إِلَّا مَا دُمْتَ عَلَيْهِ قَآئِمًا ۗ ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ قَالُوا۟ لَيْسَ عَلَيْنَا فِى ٱلْأُمِّيِّـۧنَ سَبِيلٌ وَيَقُولُونَ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ ٱلْكَذِبَ وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ

“And among the People of the Scripture is he who, if you entrust him with a great amount [of wealth], he will return it to you. And among them is he who, if you entrust him with a [single] coin, he will not return it to you unless you are constantly standing over him [demanding it]. That is because they say, "There is no blame upon us concerning the unlearned."[133] And they speak untruth about Allāh while they know [it].”

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Essence

Some return a fortune entrusted to them, others not even a coin unless watched, because they claimed honesty owed nothing to outsiders.

A reflection

Honesty is a person, not a tribe

Notice how the ayah begins. Before any criticism, it praises. Among the People of the Book, it says, are those you could trust with a qinṭār. They would return it to you.

The qinṭār was the largest sum the Arabs had a word for. One lexicon says they did not know its exact weight. They described it as a bull's hide filled with gold. A classical commentator says the qinṭār and the dīnār simply stand for the most and the least.

The commentaries name one example of the first kind: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām, a rabbi of Madinah who became a Companion. A man is reported to have left a great weight of gold with him, and he returned every piece.

Sahih al-Bukhari tells another story, from the Prophet ﷺ himself, about a man of the Children of Israel. He borrowed a thousand dinars with no witness and no guarantor but Allah. When the day came, he could find no ship to carry the money. So he hollowed a block of wood, sealed the dinars inside with a letter, and gave it to the sea. 'O Allah, You know…', he prayed. The lender, walking on the shore, picked up the wood for his family's fire. When he split it, he found his money.

The Prophet ﷺ told that story with admiration. The Quran opens this ayah with praise. Both refuse to judge honesty by group. A classical commentator adds that betrayal is held ugly by the followers of every religion. Trust is earned person by person, by what each one returns.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.