[2:254]
O YOU who have attained to faith! Spend [in Our way] out of what We have granted you as sustenance before there comes a Day when there will be no bargaining, and no friendship, and no intercession. And they who deny the truth – it is they who are evildoers!
All the ayas in the Qur’an blend into each other with a perfection that no human can reinvent or copy. In this aya there is a warning and a mercy. Allah addresses the believers and gives us knowledge of one of the attributes we should strive to attain. He says spend from what we have provided for you. Allah’s provision is everything that He has given us. In the previous aya (verse) we are told that Allah gives different bounties to different people, and that’s the way He wants it. In this aya Allah tells us what we should do with those bounties. Spend from them for His sake. We don’t own anything that Allah didn’t give us and when we use these bestowed gifts for His sake He rewards us. (More on that in 2 pages on aya 261)
Here we get a taste of how the ayas (verses) fit together. First Allah tells us what He has given us. Then He tells us why and how we should use those blessings. In order to have a functioning community we need many people with many different skills. This is just another reason not to covet the abilities of any other person. If we were all the same communities wouldn’t be able to take care of themselves. There wouldn’t be enough skills from within to handle all of our needs.. Hhmmmm…. Isn’t that what’s happening now. hhhmmm…. I wonder…
The warning in this verse is this: A sign of disbelief is that a person doesn’t spend from what Allah has given to him/her. A person who spends for Allah must realize on some level that he will return to Allah. Right? Does that mean that people who don’t spend in some sort of charity, those who horde the gifts of God to themselves trying to earn bigger profits for the next quarter, that those people don’t believe in God or don’t realize the inevitability of the return to Him?
Those people are the ones who only oppress themselves. They have no savings in the bank of deeds. Come to think of it, how much have I saved in that bank? Are we a people who stop ourselves from attaining paradise because we’re too ashamed to give a quarter to Allah. Don’t be.
Allah is the Lord of the day in which there is no trade, no friendship, and no intercession, except what Allah permits. And with all His might He has given us an easy way to seek His favor, His friendship, and His pleasure. Nothing is too small to give to Allah. if you see a hungry person and you have nothing but and apple, give the apple. Put some money in your bank account before a day comes when that account is sealed and nothing can be added but deeds can be taken out. There is only one Master that day.
[2:255]
GOD – there is no deity save Him, the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsistent Fount of All Being.
Neither slumber overtakes Him, nor sleep. His is all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth. Who is there that could intercede with Him, unless it be by His leave?
He knows all that lies open before men and all that is hidden from them, whereas they cannot attain to aught of His knowledge save that which He wills [them to attain].
His eternal power overspreads the heavens and the earth, and their upholding wearies Him not. And He alone is truly exalted, tremendous.
And who is that Master? Allah. Nothing that ever existed has a claim to be worshipped except Him. He is Alive right now and always, and completely free of any need from anyone, but all things are dependent on Him. Nodding off, dozing sleeping becoming tired, needing to rest, these things have no place with Allah. They do not take Him. They do not touch him. Everything belongs to Him. And with that who of us, which of the angels, what being has ever existed that has any weight with Him, or can speak on its own behalf without Allah giving it permission to use the lips that He created. He knows the future the present and the past. He knows everything we have done, want to do, or will do. If a tree falls in the middle of the forest and no person hears, know that it is Allah who caused it to fall in the first place. His throne His might, His power, His will extends over the entire expanse of everything we know about and everything we don’t know about. He keeps them. He maintains them and it’s no thing. Why? Because He is the Highest the Supreme.
[2:256]
THERE SHALL BE no coercion in matters of faith.
Distinct has now become the right way from [the way of] error: hence, he who rejects the powers of evil and believes in God has indeed taken hold of a support most unfailing, which shall never give way: for God is all-hearing, all-knowing.
And still after all that He doesn’t force us to believe, and He doesn’t allow anyone else to either, because He has chosen for there not to be any compulsion in life choice. The truth is plain and everyone can distinguish it clearly from falsehood. And here Allah gives us the choice again, and encourages us in that choice. Believe! Reject falsehood and you will be secure for all eternity.
But the choice is yours and the choice is mine. Allah is merciful. Allah is kind.