Page 47 - Loyalty Described in the Qur'an

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T THE FAITHFULNESS OF BELIEVERS
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B Believers Are Faithful to Allah
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B Believers Spend of Their Wealth and Themselves to Win
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t the Favor of Allah
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In many verses of the Qur'an, it is commanded that an act of wor-
ship required of a believer is to spend in the way of Allah. Spending in
the way of Allah, in the sense intended here, means to use all the bless-
ings conferred by Allah in His way so as to win His favor.
It is possible to understand the meaning of "spending" in the way
of Allah as a sign of the faithfulness that a believer feels towards Allah
by comparing it to its perception by the faithless and hypocrites. For an
insincere person, who has no certain faith, material wealth carries
great importance. Such people would never consider spending of their
valuable possessions towards something they did not really believe in.
Because of their weak faith in Allah and the afterlife, it is not possible
for them to feel loyalty toward Him and His messenger, nor to will-
ingly contribute to the promotion of these truths. For that reason, when
they are called upon to spend in the way of Allah, they recoil and be-
come miserly. In the Qur'an, Allah describes this kind of insincerity
shown by those who are sick in their hearts:
Here you are then: People who are called upon to spend in
the way of Allah and then some of you are tight-fisted! But
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