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wa-lladhīna hum ʿani l-laghwi muʿriḍūna
avoid vain talk,
— Ali Quli Qarai
23Al-Mu’minūnالمؤمنونVerse 3 of 118
The Believers23. Al-Mu’minūnالمؤمنون
Al Mu’minūn
The Believers
MeccanVerse 3 of 118
23Al-Mu’minūnالمؤمنونVerse 3 of 118
The Believers
avoid vain talk,
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah al-Mu’minun - Verses 3-4
3. “And those who keep aloof from (what is) vain, ”
4. “And those who are active in giving the poor due (zakat), ”
Vanity in Deed and Speech
‘Al Laghw’ is an action or a speech that is vain. Avoiding vanity and frivolousness is not only limited to Muslims, for, concerning the good people among the People of the Book, the holy Qur’an also says:
“And when they hear vanity they withdraw from it...” 22
In the abovementioned noble verse, this second attribute of the believers is mentioned after the attribute of humility. It says:
“And those who keep aloof from (what is) vain, ”
In fact, all of their movements and policies of life have a useful and constructive purpose, because uselessness means futility and ineffectiveness in action. As a matter of fact, as great interpreters of the Qur’an have said, every action and speech that does not carry a significant benefit, is vain. Some of other interpreters have rendered vanity as nullity, and others have interpreted it as sins on the whole. Some have interpreted it as cursing or using bad language, others as profane singing, frivolity and play, while yet others have interpreted it as polytheism. All of these mentioned interpretations are extensions of this general and comprehensive concept.
Of course, vanity does not only mean idle talk and deeds, but it also means idle, futile and baseless thoughts that result in neglecting Allah (s.w.t). It also prevents us from pondering upon good and constructive things. All of these characteristics mentioned above are summed up in the concept of one word, /laqw/ (vanity). In actual fact, the believers are so trained that not only do they not get involved in frivolous and baseless thoughts and actions but, as the Holy Qur’an says, they also avoid them. In other words, a vain action is a deed that has no benefit. Vain actions, however, can be relative, for sometimes an action would be vain concerning one situation while worthwhile and useful in another.
However Allah, Glory be to Him, does not characterize the believers as those who abandon vain deeds absolutely, for man is a being that is on the verge of committing sins and making mistakes, He rather describes them as those who abstain from them, not its absolute abandonment. Abstinence necessitates the existence of something that invites man to occupy himself with an action but heedlessly and not giving any value to it, he turns his back upon it and busies himself with something else. Someone who abstains from an action sees involving himself with that action as below his dignity and would rather pursue higher aims and more noble tasks.
Real faith calls on all of mankind to cultivate this attitude, too, for faith belongs to the realm of greatness and majesty, and is the source of glory, nobility and splendor. One who is faithful endeavors only to live for final prosperity and eternalsuccess. He pursues activities that are considered great by Allah and he does not value the actions and conduct of the ignorant and ignoble. If the ignorant address the believers, they (the believers) answer them with kindness and when the believers see vain activity they deal with it with nobility and magnanimity.
This state of the believers makes it clear that, describing them with the quality of avoiding from ‘what is vain’, is a metaphorical meaning pointing to the high determination, dignity and nobility of their personality.
Some Tradition On Vanity
1) The Prophet (S) said:
“The most honorable of people are those who abandon what is useless.” 23
2) The Prophet (S) also said:
“Peace of self is achieved by abandoning vain affairs.” 24
3) Imam Baqir (as) said:
“You should act with justice and do not heel with the difficulties you face with (in this way), and abstain from what is vain.” 25
4) Imam Sadiq (as) said;
“Do refrain from doing what is vain, for you will become abject and despised.” 26
5) Imam Sadiq (as) said in a prayer:
“Oh Allah! Have mercy on me (to be able) to abandon sins totally while I am alive, and be merciful to me, so that I do not get into troubles because of what is vain.” 27
6) Imam Ali (as) in a latter wrote to Abdullah ibn Abbas:
“Then, follow what is beneficent and leave what is vain, for abandoning vain affairs causes you to gain useful actions.” 28
7) The Prophet (S) said:
“Do not bring the flames of the fire upon your faces by involving yourselves in vain activities.” 29
8) Imam Ali (as) said:
“Many a vain word speech and conduct that bring an evil.” 30
9) Imam Ali (as) said:
“Every speech in which there is no remembrance of Allah is vain.” 31
10) The Prophet (S) said:
“A good sign of a person’s Islam, is the abandoning of what is vain.” 32
The Alms-Tax (Zakat)
The Arabic word /zakat/ in philology means purification, cleanliness, growth and development. In Islamic law and for the Muslims, it means a specific part of one’s possessions that must be deducted, with particular conditions, and then spent upon the poor, the indigent, and for other good activities. In other words, /zakat/ is subtracting a part of property from one’s possessions and giving it to the needy so that those possessions which remain with the owner would grow by Divine grace and increase the owner’s spiritual rank.
In addition, alms-tax (zakat) wipes away that which is unlawful from one’s possessions and takes blameworthiness and bad attributes away from its owner. So we can say that since paying the alms-tax wipes away the qualities of mammonism, selfishness, stinginess, meanness, hardheartedness, and avarice from the human soul, it is called ‘zakat’. The alms-tax (zakat) is a very important religious duty and service. It is an Islamic obligation which is the third item of the fundamental principles of the religion, and, in other words, it has been counted as the second pillar of the religion.
In The Holy Qur’an and in the narrations attributed to the Infallible Imams, the alms-tax has a very high and important status. By carefully studying the verses of the Holy Qur’an, we find that the alms-tax and its importance are mentioned right after many verses concerning ritual prayers. In a narration by the Prophet (S) and Imam Sadiq (as) we read that one who does not pay the smallest amount of alms-tax on his possessions, is counted not a believer or a Muslim.
In another tradition by the Prophet (S), we read that one day he (S) evicted five persons who did not pay their alms-tax and said to them:
“You who do not pay the alms-tax get out of our mosque and do not perform the ritual prayer in our mosque.”
It has been mentioned in another narration that we should pay our alms-tax, so that our ritual prayers would be accepted. Other narrations warn people that if they do not pay the alms-tax on their wealth, the ground would take away their blessings by Divine Commandment and they will be in the grip of destitution and famine. We will read about more interesting explanations on this subject stated by the Infallible Imams in the following pages. However, this verse refers to the third attribute of the true believers, which has a social and economic aspect.
The Holy Qur’an says:
“And those who are active in giving the poor due (zakat), ”
This Sura was revealed in Mecca, and at that time the law requiring the payment of the ordinary alms-tax had not been revealed. Thus, there are different interpretations stated upon this verse by commentators. What seems more correct is that ‘zakat’ does not exclusively mean ‘the obligatory legal alms-tax’, because Islam has quite a number of ‘recommended alms donations’. The alms tax, as an obligatory act, was revealed in Medina, but the payment of alms as a recommended good deed had also been achieved before that.
Some interpreters comment that ‘zakat’ in Mecca had probably been in the form of a religious obligation but without any limits and exact prescription, which means that Muslims had been under an obligation to give some amount of their wealth to the needy. It was only after the establishment of the Islamic state and a public treasury that a well defined system of zakat payments was organized fixing the minimum value of property upon which the alms-tax was payable and dispatching zakat collectors were sent around the community on the command of the Prophet (S).
Some interpreters of the Holy Qur’an, such as Fakhr-i-Razi, Alusi in Ruh-ul-Ma‘ani and, Raqib in Mufradat, have said, however, that ‘zakat’ here means any kind of good act or purification of the soul and heart. This is very improbable, for wherever the Glorious Qur’an mentions the ritual prayer along with the alms-tax, the alms-tax means to combat financial prodigality, and inferring other meanings would need a supporting context that does not exist here.
In the end, it is necessary to study some of the narrations and one verse on the alms-tax. Sura Al-Ma’idah, No. 5, verse 12 says:
“...and Allah said: ‘Verily! I am with you. If you keep up prayer and pay the poor due, and believe in My messengers and support them, and lend unto Allah a kindly loan, I shall certainly remit your sins, and I shall certainly cause you to enter gardens beneath which rivers flow...”
Some Narrations Upon Alms-Tax (Zakat)
1) Amir ul-Mu’mineen Ali (as) said:
“I recommend you to pay the alms-tax, for I heard your Prophet, (Peace be on him and his household) saying: ‘The alms-tax is the bridge of Islam; then he who pays it will pass over the bridge and he who does not will fall off, and the payment of the alms-tax soothes Allah’s wrath’.” 33
2) One narrator says that he heard Imam Ali (as) saying:
“The pillars of Islam are three that none of them is useful without accompanying the other two; they are the ritual prayer, the alms-tax, and guardianship (wilayat).” 34
3) Imam Sadiq (as) said:
“If people pay the alms-tax out of their possessions, there will be no poor and needy Muslim left.” 35
4) The Prophet (S) said,
“No people had prevented the payment of the alms-tax without Allah taking away His rain (of mercy) from them.” 36
5) Rufatah says that he heard Imam Sadiq (as) saying:
“Allah enjoins this people nothing more difficult than paying the alms-tax and when they refrain from paying it, many of them will perish.” 37
6) The Prophet (S) said:
“I am ordered to struggle with the people until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that I am Allah’s Messenger, and (that) they perform the ritual prayer and pay the alms-tax.” 38
7) The Prophet (S) said:
“Treat your sick ones by paying alms, and protect your possessions by paying the alms-tax.” 39
8) Imam Musa-ibn-Ja‘far (as) said:
“The alms-tax has been established to be the food of the poor and the cause of the increase of their wealth.” 40
9) Hadrat Fatimat-uz-Zahra (as) in her sermon said:
“Allah established the Faith (’Iman) as the means to purify you from polytheism, the ritual prayer as the means for you to be distant from pride, and made the alms-tax obligatory for purifying the soul and heart and increasing provisions.” 41
10) The Prophet (S) said:
“One who pays the alms-tax, for every dirham would be given him blessings in Paradise as great as the weight of Mount ’Uhud.” 42
11) At the time of his departure from this world, Amir ul-Mu’mineen Ali (as) said:
“My son! I bequeath that you perform the ritual prayer at its very time, and give the alms-tax to those who are entitled to have it and where it is entitled to be spent.” 43
12) Narrating from his dignified ancestors, Imam Sadiq (as) said that the Prophet (S) had said:
“The most generous one of the people is he who pays the alms-tax out of his possessions, and the most stingy one of the people is he who is tight fisted with what Allah has enjoined upon him.” 44
13) Amir ul-Mu’mineen Ali (as) said:
“Save your faith by giving alms, insure your possessions by paying the alms-tax and ward off the waves of misfortune and troubles by supplication.” 45
14) Imam Baqir (as) said:
“The alms-tax increases provisions.” 46
15) Imam Ali (as) said:
“The meaning of/ma‘un/ (in the Holy Qur’an) is the obligatory alms-tax. He who abstains from paying it is like a usurer, and he who does not pay the alms-tax out of his possessions is not a Muslim.” 47
16) The Prophet (S) said:
“When the payment of alms-tax is prevented, the earth restrains its blessings.” 48
17) Imam Sadiq (as) said:
“Thieves are of three kinds: Those who do not pay the alms-tax, those who count the dower (of the wives) as lawful and do not pay it, and one who borrows but does not intend to pay it back.” 49
18) Imam Sadiq (as) said:
“The Prophet (S) levied the alms-tax upon nine objects: wheat, barley, date, raisins, gold, silver, camels, cattle and sheep. And he excused everything else from it save for these (mentioned objects).” 50
19) Suma‘ah said that he asked Imam Sadiq (as) who was entitled to receive the alms. He said:
“I swear by Allah that the alms belongs to those who are mentioned in His Book (the Holy Qur’an): the poor, the needy, and the officials (appointed) over them, and those whose hearts are to be reconciled (toward Islam by receiving it), and to free the captives, and the debtors, and for the cause of Allah, and for the wayfarer. (This is) a duty (ordained) by Allah.” 51
20) The Prophet (S) said:
“The alms-tax is not lawful to be given to the rich, nor to the one who is wise and healthy, nor to the one who has a job.” I asked: “What does this mean?" He said: "It is not lawful for one to receive the alms-tax when he is able not to use it.” 52
Footnotes