Ar-Rum · Makki · ayah 38 of 60

Ar-Rum 30:38

فَـَٔاتِ ذَا ٱلْقُرْبَىٰ حَقَّهُۥ وَٱلْمِسْكِينَ وَٱبْنَ ٱلسَّبِيلِ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ خَيْرٌ لِّلَّذِينَ يُرِيدُونَ وَجْهَ ٱللَّهِ ۖ وَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْمُفْلِحُونَ

“So give the relative his right, as well as the needy and the traveler. That is best for those who desire the face [i.e., approval] of Allāh, and it is they who will be the successful.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Since Allah spreads and measures provision, the open hand loses nothing: give kin, the needy and the stranded traveller their due, for His face.

A reflection

Giving cannot shrink what He has spread

A self-employed decorator has a slow month. Two jobs fall through, and the van needs new tyres. He sits with his banking app at the kitchen table, cancelling what he can. One small standing order he leaves alone. It pays his widowed mother's phone bill, so she can ring her sisters abroad. He looks at it for a while, then closes the app.

The ayah begins with a small word: fa, 'so'. It ties this command to the ayah before. Allah spreads provision for whom He wills, and He measures it. So give.

One classical commentator spells out the logic. Since He is the One who spreads and measures, nobody should hesitate to do good. If He has spread your provision, spending will not reduce it. If He has measured it, holding on will not increase it. The decorator's standing order is not the thing that decides his month.

The Prophet ﷺ used the same verb from the previous ayah. 'Whoever loves to have his provision spread for him, and his life extended', he said, 'let him keep the ties of kinship'. Al-Bukhari and Muslim both recorded it. The spreading of 30:37 is reached through the giving of 30:38.

Allah needs none of it. The ayah itself says who gains: 'that is best for those who seek the face of Allah'. The good of it lands on the giver. A heart that gives in a slow month is freed from the fear that its provision lives in its own grip. Many people today chase meaning through bigger achievements. Here it arrives through a phone bill paid for a widow, quietly, on a bad month.

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.