Muhammad · Madani · ayah 36 of 38

Muhammad 47:36

إِنَّمَا ٱلْحَيَوٰةُ ٱلدُّنْيَا لَعِبٌ وَلَهْوٌ ۚ وَإِن تُؤْمِنُوا۟ وَتَتَّقُوا۟ يُؤْتِكُمْ أُجُورَكُمْ وَلَا يَسْـَٔلْكُمْ أَمْوَٰلَكُمْ

“[This] worldly life is only amusement and diversion. And if you believe and fear Allāh, He will give you your rewards and not ask you for your properties.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Worldly life alone is play; believe and be mindful of Him, and He gives your full wages while asking nothing of your wealth for Himself.

A reflection

The One who asks for nothing

The ayah ends with a short, startling line: "and He does not ask you for your wealth".

One classical commentator explains it in one phrase. He is free of any need of you; He asks nothing of you. The alms He prescribed, he says, are a consolation for your poorer brothers. Their benefit returns to you, and their reward comes back to you. Another commentary records a further view. He does not ask for your wealth for Himself, or out of any need for it. He commands spending only so that its reward returns to the givers.

Another ayah says the same in His own voice. "I do not want any provision from them, nor do I want them to feed Me" (51:57).

That is a hard sentence for human pride. People like to feel that their giving matters to God. A large donation, a generous pledge, a long list of good causes: it is easy to imagine these as favours to heaven. The ayah quietly removes that thought. Allah gains nothing from what we give, and loses nothing when we hold back.

Picture a six-year-old girl on her father's birthday. She hands him a wrapped bar of chocolate, beaming. She bought it with the coins he gave her that morning. He thanks her as if it were treasure. He does not need the chocolate. The giving is entirely for her: so that she learns to give, and so that she can feel the joy of it.

So the right response to this line is humility. Give, and give generously. But never imagine that you are supporting Allah. He is the one supporting you, even in your giving.

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.