ءَامِنُوا۟ بِٱللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِۦ وَأَنفِقُوا۟ مِمَّا جَعَلَكُم مُّسْتَخْلَفِينَ فِيهِ ۖ فَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ مِنكُمْ وَأَنفَقُوا۟ لَهُمْ أَجْرٌۭ كَبِيرٌۭ
Have faith in Allah and His Apostle, and spend out of that of which He has made you heirs. There is a great reward for those of you who have faith and spend [in Allah’s way].
وَمَا لَكُمْ لَا تُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱللَّهِ ۙ وَٱلرَّسُولُ يَدْعُوكُمْ لِتُؤْمِنُوا۟ بِرَبِّكُمْ وَقَدْ أَخَذَ مِيثَٰقَكُمْ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ
Why should you not have faith in Allah when the Apostle invites you to have faith in your Lord, and He has certainly made a covenant with you, if you are [genuinely] faithful?
هُوَ ٱلَّذِى يُنَزِّلُ عَلَىٰ عَبْدِهِۦٓ ءَايَٰتٍۭ بَيِّنَٰتٍۢ لِّيُخْرِجَكُم مِّنَ ٱلظُّلُمَٰتِ إِلَى ٱلنُّورِ ۚ وَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ بِكُمْ لَرَءُوفٌۭ رَّحِيمٌۭ
It is He who sends down manifest signs to His servant that He may bring you out of darkness into light, and indeed Allah is most kind and merciful to you.
وَمَا لَكُمْ أَلَّا تُنفِقُوا۟ فِى سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ وَلِلَّهِ مِيرَٰثُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۚ لَا يَسْتَوِى مِنكُم مَّنْ أَنفَقَ مِن قَبْلِ ٱلْفَتْحِ وَقَٰتَلَ ۚ أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ أَعْظَمُ دَرَجَةًۭ مِّنَ ٱلَّذِينَ أَنفَقُوا۟ مِنۢ بَعْدُ وَقَٰتَلُوا۟ ۚ وَكُلًّۭا وَعَدَ ٱللَّهُ ٱلْحُسْنَىٰ ۚ وَٱللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرٌۭ
Why should you not spend in the way of Allah, when to Allah belongs the heritage of the heavens and the earth? Those of you who spent [their means] and fought before the victory are not equal [to others]. They are greater in rank than those who have spent and fought afterwards. Yet Allah has promised the best reward to each and Allah is well aware of what you do.
مَّن ذَا ٱلَّذِى يُقْرِضُ ٱللَّهَ قَرْضًا حَسَنًۭا فَيُضَٰعِفَهُۥ لَهُۥ وَلَهُۥٓ أَجْرٌۭ كَرِيمٌۭ
Who is it that will lend Allah a good loan, that He may multiply it for him and [that] there may be a noble reward for him?
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
Here the sura reaches its purpose. Believe in God and His Messenger and spend of that whereof He has made you trustees (v.7); what ails you that you do not believe when the Messenger calls and God has taken your covenant (v.8); He sends down clear signs to bring you out of the darknesses into the light (v.9); what ails you that you spend not, when to God belongs the heritage of the heavens and the earth (v.10); who is he that will lend God a goodly loan? (v.11).
All four Sunnī-shared classical readings turn on the word mustakhlafīn (trustees) and the mīrāth (heritage). al-Ṭabarsī, al-Ṭūsī and the Enlightening Commentary agree, on al-Ḥasan's authority, that the wealth is something God caused this generation to inherit and will pass to the next, so the reminder is a spur to spend before it slips away. al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī systematises the point into two senses of istikhlāf — vicegerency over what is really God's, and succession between the generations — both of which loosen the grip of the miser. He, with the occasion-of-revelation reports, connects the emphatic call to spend with jihad, possibly at Tabūk.
Two of the sources sharpen the passage's edges. al-Ṭabarsī and al-Ṭūsī both hear in verse 9 (to bring you out of the darknesses into the light) a refutation of the Jabrite (predestinarian) claim that God created people in order that they disbelieve — the very aim of revelation being that they believe. al-Ṭūsī adds a careful juristic caution on verse 10: the verse establishes the rank of a whole class who spent and fought before the conquest, but does not, by itself, prove the merit of any named individual — a restraint characteristic of his method.
On the goodly loan, the sources climb from law to devotion. al-Ṭabarsī lists the ten conditions of an excellent loan and identifies the «noble reward» as Paradise; al-Qummī grounds the whole image in al-Ṣādiq's saying that a loan outranks alms on the gate of Paradise, because a loan reaches only the needy. The Enlightening Commentary preserves al-Kāẓim's application of the loan to what is given to the Imam of the Age, while al-Baḥrānī, silent on the rest, records only al-Bāqir's and al-Ṣādiq's reading of «the light» (v.9) as the walāya of ʿAlī — rendered here strictly as attributed.