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qul mā ʾasʾalukum ʿalayhi min ʾajrin ʾillā man shāʾa ʾan yattakhidha ʾilā rabbihī sabīlan
Say, ‘I do not ask you any reward for it, except that anyone who wishes should take the way to his Lord.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
25Al-FurqānالفرقانVerse 57 of 77
The Criterion25. Al-Furqānالفرقان
Al Furqān
The Criterion
MeccanVerse 57 of 77
Surah al-Furqan - Verse 57
57. “Say: ‘I do not ask you a wage for it (my ministry) except for him who wishes to choose a way unto his Lord’.”
A successful leader is one who declares to people that he does not expect anything. Man gets the rank of sincerity when he does not want or demand any physical, positional, and verbal reward. Thus, Allah commands the Prophet (S) to tell the people: he does not ask of them any reward for this Qur’an and conveying this heavenly religion, save that people will may choose a way unto their Lord. The verse says:
It implies that the only reward and compensation of the Prophet (S) is people's guidance that has happened intentionally and willfully in them and not reluctantly and compulsorily. This is an interesting phrase that shows the maximum of kindness and benevolence of the holy Prophet (S) towards his followers, for he counts their happiness and bliss as his reward. It is clear that guidance of the nation (Ummah) has got an extraordinarily spiritual reward for the Prophet (S), because whoever leads people to a good deed is like the one who does this deed.
There are also other possibilities about the commentary of this verse. Some say that the verse implies that the Prophet (S) does not want any reward from people, except they give some of their wealth to the poor for the sake of Allah, of course, if they will. But the first commentary is more near to the meaning of the verse. It is understood from what have been said above that the pronoun of the Qur’anic word /‘alayh/ (for this) refers to the Qur’an and propagation of Islam religion, for it speaks about not wanting reward and compensation for this call.
This sentence both stops the pretexts of pagans and makes clear that acceptance of this divine call is easy and simple for anybody without any trouble and expenditure. This testifies to truthfulness of the Prophet’s call and purification of his thought and program, for false claimers do this certainly for the sake of some indirect or direct reward.