107- AL-MAUN
SMALL KINDNESSES
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
# Hast thou seen the one who denies religion? # That is the one who drives away the orphan, # and does not urge feeding the indigent. # So woe unto the praying # who are heedless of their prayers, # those who strive to be seen, # yet refuse small kindnesses.
Commentary
# Hast thou seen the one who denies religion?
# That is the one who drives away the orphan,
1–2 There are two opinions regarding the referent of the one. Muqātil and al-Kalbī said, “This sūrah was revealed about al-ʿĀṣ ibn Wāʾil al-Sahmī” (W). Conversely, Ibn Jurayj said, “Abū Sufyān was in the habit of slaughtering two camels every week. On one occasion, an orphan came to him asking him for something. Abū Sufyān responded by hitting him with a stick. So God revealed, Hast thou seen the one who denies religion? That is the one who drives away the orphan” (R, W). Even if it was first recorded in reference to a specific individual, it still has a general implication. Religion here translates dīn, and denying religion implies denial of all aspects of the message that was sent through the Prophet. Dīn could also mean “judgment” and relate to the denial of the Resurrection and other events of the Afterlife. When vv. 2–7 are viewed in relation to v. 1, the implication is that denying dīn, whether it be religion or judgment, is the root of all other sins and transgressions (R).
Cf. v. 2 with 89:17–19. The accusation of driving away the orphan also alludes to the habit of devouring the inheritances of orphans that is addressed in 2:220; 4:2–3, 8–10, 127; 6:152.
# and does not urge feeding the indigent.
3 Cf. 89:17–18; 69:34. If v. 2 can be seen as a reference to all that one who denies religion does in opposing the proper moral order, v. 3 can be seen as a reference to all that one does not do. This verse could also be rendered, “And does not encourage giving the food of the indigent,” implying that the food being withheld from the indigent is actually something to which the indigent have a right, for the believer is one in whose wealth is an acknowledged due for the beggar and the deprived (70:24–25; cf. 51:19). On the one hand, the present verse admonishes those who do not themselves feed the indigent. On the other, it admonishes those who implore others not to do so and who are therefore not only stingy with their own money, but encourage stinginess in others. This is related to 36:47, where those who do not wish to feed the needy offer a pseudo-theological excuse for not doing so, saying, Are we to feed those whom, if God willed, He would feed?
# So woe unto the praying
# who are heedless of their prayers,
4–5 For the possible meanings of woe (wayl), see 2:79c; 104:1c. These verses could be seen as a reference to the prayer of the disbelievers, about which another verse says, Their prayer at the House is naught but whistling and clapping. So taste the punishment for having disbelieved! (8:35). Nonetheless, the majority of commentators interpret them as a reference to those who, because of their heedlessness, receive no benefit from their prayers when they perform them and fear no retribution when they do not or to the hypocrites, who pray in public, but not in private. These verses can also be taken to indicate those who fail to perform their prayers at the proper time or who do not complete the required bows and prostrations, or interpreted as applying to those who perform all of the prayers properly, but fail to do so with humility, contemplation, and remembrance of God. A ḥadīth states, “This is the prayer of the hypocrite. He sits watching the sun until it is between the two horns of Satan [i.e., just above the horizon]. Then he stands and pecks out four [prayer cycles] in which he remembers God but little”. Regarding the implications of neglecting prayers, see 19:59c.
# those who strive to be seen,
6 Those who strive to be seen are the hypocrites, of whom the Quran says, When they perform the prayer, they perform it idly and to be seen of men, and they remember God but little (4:142), which is to say that they do not perform prayer out of worship, but only to increase their reputation, as opposed to those who are constant in their prayers (70:23) and those who are mindful of their prayers (70:34). For the Quranic treatment of hypocrisy and dissimilitude, see 63:1–8.
# yet refuse small kindnesses.7 This verse is understood to indicate those who perform their devotions well but do not act kindly toward others. Small kindnesses translates māʿūn in accord with a widespread interpretation that sees it as an allusion to utensils or tools that people would share and lend to one another, such as a pickax, a pot, a bucket, or other items of this nature. It can also be seen as an allusion to anything in which there is benefit. Many take refuse small kindnesses to indicate refusal to pay the obligatory zakāh; others say that māʿūn means property (māl) in general in the Qurayshī dialect; and others say the verse means to refuse guests. According to all of these interpretations, the verse indicates the stinginess exhibited by hypocrites, who only come to the prayer lazily, and only spend reluctantly (9:54).
(Source: The study Quran, by Sayyed Hossein Nasr and 4 others)
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