Al-Hadid · Madani · ayah 18 of 29

Al-Hadid 57:18

إِنَّ ٱلْمُصَّدِّقِينَ وَٱلْمُصَّدِّقَـٰتِ وَأَقْرَضُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ قَرْضًا حَسَنًا يُضَـٰعَفُ لَهُمْ وَلَهُمْ أَجْرٌ كَرِيمٌ

“Indeed, the men who practice charity and the women who practice charity and [they who] have loaned Allāh a goodly loan - it will be multiplied for them, and they will have a noble reward.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Men and women who give, lending Allah a beautiful loan, will see it multiplied, and a generous reward waits for them besides.

A reflection

Lending to the One who never defaults

A self-employed plumber has been stung three times. Three customers, three finished jobs, three invoices never paid. Now he asks everyone for half up front. He is not unkind. He has simply learned that lending, even a week's labour, is a risk.

This ayah uses the language of lending on purpose. Wa aqraḍū Allāha qarḍan: and they lent Allah a loan. The lexicons give the root a physical picture. It means cutting: shears are the miqrāḍ. A qarḍ is what you cut from your own wealth and hand over, to come back to you.

That picture is honest about the cost. Giving is not skimming spare change from the top. It is a cut. Something leaves your hands that you would otherwise have kept.

But look at the borrower. Sahih Muslim reports that the Prophet ﷺ described Allah descending to the nearest heaven in the last part of the night. He asks who will call on Him, so He may answer. Then He says: who will lend to One who is neither destitute nor unjust?

That phrase answers the plumber's fear exactly. Every human borrower carries two risks. They may become unable to pay, or they may simply choose not to. Allah is neither. He cannot run out, and He will not wrong you.

There is a strangeness here too. The One who owns everything asks for a loan. The wealth you lend Him was His before you held it. One way to hear that is as pure honour. He treats what you give as a debt on Himself, when it was always His to take.

So when you give, picture the shears. Feel the cut honestly. Then picture the borrower, the One who is never short and never unfair. Of all the loans you will ever make, this is the only one with no risk in it.

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.