يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ إِذَا قِيلَ لَكُمْ تَفَسَّحُوا۟ فِى ٱلْمَجَٰلِسِ فَٱفْسَحُوا۟ يَفْسَحِ ٱللَّهُ لَكُمْ ۖ وَإِذَا قِيلَ ٱنشُزُوا۟ فَٱنشُزُوا۟ يَرْفَعِ ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ مِنكُمْ وَٱلَّذِينَ أُوتُوا۟ ٱلْعِلْمَ دَرَجَٰتٍۢ ۚ وَٱللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرٌۭ
O you who have faith! When you are told, ‘Make room,’ in sittings, then do make room; Allah will make room for you. And when you are told, ‘Rise up!’ Do rise up. Allah will raise in rank those of you who have faith and those who have been given knowledge, and Allah is well aware of what you do.
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ إِذَا نَٰجَيْتُمُ ٱلرَّسُولَ فَقَدِّمُوا۟ بَيْنَ يَدَىْ نَجْوَىٰكُمْ صَدَقَةًۭ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ خَيْرٌۭ لَّكُمْ وَأَطْهَرُ ۚ فَإِن لَّمْ تَجِدُوا۟ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَفُورٌۭ رَّحِيمٌ
O you who have faith! When you converse privately with the Apostle, offer a charity before your private talk. That is better for you and purer. But if you cannot afford [to make the offering], then Allah is indeed all-forgiving, all-merciful.
ءَأَشْفَقْتُمْ أَن تُقَدِّمُوا۟ بَيْنَ يَدَىْ نَجْوَىٰكُمْ صَدَقَٰتٍۢ ۚ فَإِذْ لَمْ تَفْعَلُوا۟ وَتَابَ ٱللَّهُ عَلَيْكُمْ فَأَقِيمُوا۟ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَءَاتُوا۟ ٱلزَّكَوٰةَ وَأَطِيعُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُۥ ۚ وَٱللَّهُ خَبِيرٌۢ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ
Were you dismayed by having to offer charities before your private talks? Since you did not do it, and Allah has excused you [for not be able to comply], now maintain the prayer and pay the zakat, and obey Allah and His Apostle. Allah is well aware of what you do.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
This short passage joins two etiquettes of the believing community — how to sit in the Prophet's gathering, and how to seek his private counsel — and both become vehicles for larger claims about knowledge and about Ali.
Making room, and the rank of the learned (v.11). The occasion, per Tabarsi and Tusi, was crowding in the Prophet's assembly — Tabarsi preserves the Friday scene where late-arriving veterans of Badr found no seat and the hypocrites sneered that the Prophet was 'unjust.' The command tafassuh (make room) and unshuzu (rise) teach generosity of place, rewarded by God 'making room for you in Paradise.' All sources dwell on the verse's climax — 'God raises those who believe, and those given knowledge, by degrees.' Al-Mizan derives a rational point: the verse splits believers into the believer and the knowing believer, the latter higher, echoing 'are those who know equal to those who do not?' (39:9). Tabarsi and Tusi cite the hadith of the scholar's excellence over the martyr, and Bahrani supplies two remarkable narrations from the Imams al-Hadi and al-'Askari: the Imam seats a victorious Shia scholar above Hashimite nobles on the authority of this very verse, and praises the scholars who, in the Qa'im's occultation, 'hold the reins of the weak Shia's hearts as a ship's captain holds the helm.'
The charity of private counsel (vv.12-13). Verse 12 briefly imposed a charity before privately consulting the Prophet; verse 13 lifts it. Every source reads this as an honor uniquely realized by Ali. Al-Mizan states it squarely: 'none counseled him privately with charity except Ali,' ten times, each preceded by a gift, before the ruling was abrogated. Tabarsi, Tusi, Qummi and Bahrani all transmit Ali's own words — 'a verse no one acted upon before me and none will after me' — with the dinar sold for ten dirhams. This is not a narrowly Shia claim: the report that Ali alone acted on 58:12 is preserved in Sunni tafsir (Ibn Kathir, al-Tirmidhi) and was web-verified. Tabarsi adds Ibn 'Umar's testimony ranking it among Ali's three most coveted merits, beside Fatima and Khaybar.
Al-Mizan and Tabarsi both note the pastoral wisdom of verse 12: the wealthy had been multiplying audiences as a mark of nearness while the poor were grieved, so the charity 'binds hearts and removes rancor.' Its abrogation in verse 13 — 'since you did not do it, and God turned to you' — even the exegetes read as a lapse the community was forgiven, redirecting them to prayer, alms and obedience. Bahrani alone appends a long companion-polemical dialogue between Abu Bakr and Ali (recorded here as-attributed and flagged for review); the plain-sense sources keep the focus on knowledge, humility, and the singular precedent of Ali.