and leaves. God has said that their backs are branded with it.
This is the ruling for those who withhold the almsgiving on gold and silver. What befalls those who withhold the almsgiving on sheep, cattle, and camels is different, as the explicit text relates. The person is thrown down for them on a flat, open plain, and they gore him with their horns, trample him with their hooves, and bite him with their mouths. That is why the foreheads, sides, and backs of those who withhold the almsgiving on gold and silver are singled out for branding. God knows best what He intends.
(The Entitled Recipients’ Right in Wealth)
God sent down almsgiving, as we said, as a purification of wealth. It was hard upon the heedless and ignorant only because they believed that what God assigned to these classes belonged to them and was part of their own wealth. They did not know that this assigned portion was not theirs[17]. It was in their wealth, without being of their wealth. It becomes distinct to them only by being taken out.
When they separate it, they then know that it was never part of their wealth, but was included within it. This is the reality of the matter.
They had believed that everything in their hands was their wealth and belonged to them. When God told them that certain people had a right in their wealth which they must discharge, with no outward cause on which the soul could rest, whether debt or sale, apart from God’s statement that He stores it for them as a reward in the hereafter, the sharing of wealth was hard upon their souls.
(Stewardship and Trust)
Since God knew this of the nature of their souls, He took that portion of wealth out of their hands. Indeed, He took all wealth
Notes
[17]
(The wording was completed and established by comparison with the newer edition, “what God assigned to these classes” and “this assigned portion was not theirs.”)
Translator’s note TN2314-1: The distinction between “in their wealth” and “of their wealth” is central. The assigned portion is treated as a trust held among the owner’s possessions for the entitled recipients.
