(for,) if He were to demand of you all of them, and urge...

(for,) if He were to demand of you all of them, and urge you, you would niggardly cling (to them), and so He would (but) bring out your moral failings.

Wal-laahul-Ghaniy-yu wa antumul fuqaraaa, wa in tatawal-lau yastabdil qawman ghairakum thum-ma laa yakuunuuu amthaalakum. lakum. 38. Behold, (O believers), it is you who are called upon to spend freely in God’s cause: but (even) among you are such as turn out to be niggardly!

And yet, he who acts niggardly (in God’s cause) is but niggardly towards his own self for God is indeed self-sufficient, whereas you stand in need (of Him): and if you turn away (from Him), He will cause other people to take your place, and they will not be the likes of you!

The above implication is that since ‘man has been created weak’ the imposition of too great a burden on the believers would be self-defeating inasmuch as it might result not in an increase of faith but, rather, in its diminution. This passage illustrates the supreme realism of the Qur’an, which takes into account human nature as it is, with all its God willed complexity and its inner contradictions, and does not therefore postulate a priori am impossible ideal as a norm of human behaviour.

For, such (as do so) shall have a noble reward. The goodly loan to God is charity i.e. spending of the wealth in God’s way. It is bound by the following conditions for its acceptance: • that which is given away or spent in the way of the Lord must have been well-earned i.e. through lawful means. • the thing given must be defectless.