hoping for profit, increase, and the growth of his wealth, glad to do so. God therefore asks him for a partnership in which he receives all the profit, knowing that he enters such partnerships for two thirds or a half. His joy in one who gives him all of it will be greater and more complete.
Someone who withholds charity after this divine explanation, given what the souls’ nature affords concerning the multiplication of wealth, shows how little faith he has in what we have described. Had he been a believer with certainty from his Lord, affirming what He says of Himself concerning His servant’s loan and trade, he would naturally hasten to it, just as he hastens to it in this world with his peers, whether the return is immediate or deferred.
A servant enters a partnership with someone for a half or a third, and the trader travels to another country and is absent for years. The wealth may survive or be lost, or it may produce no profit. If it is lost, the investor has no claim upon the trader. Despite these possibilities, a person is blind to them, gives his wealth, and waits for something he cannot be certain will be obtained. He does so gladly, despite the term, the delay, and the uncertainty.
Yet if he is told to lend to God and receive many times over in the hereafter, with no third or half deducted, with all the profit and capital his, and only a little time to wait,
Notes
Translator’s note TN2309-1: Muqāraḍah is a profit-sharing arrangement in the text’s examples. The proportions distinguish an ordinary share of profit from the all-inclusive return promised in the divine loan.
