The 365 · Verses · Day 111 · Trust
Allah extends provision to whom He wills and restricts it from whom He wills. He knows whom abundance would destroy and whom scarcity would purify.
إِنَّ رَبَّكَ يَبْسُطُ ٱلرِّزْقَ لِمَن يَشَآءُ وَيَقْدِرُ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ كَانَ بِعِبَادِهِۦ خَبِيرًۢا بَصِيرًا
“Your Lord gives abundantly to whoever He will, and sparingly to whoever He will: He knows and observes His servants thoroughly. (Abdel Haleem)”
Q 17:30 Read 17:30 with tafsir
Svenska: Din Herre ger den Han vill riklig och [den Han vill] knappare utkomst; Han är underrättad om Sina tjänares [behov] och förlorar dem inte ur sikte. (Knut Bernström)
The story
The verse sits within Sūrat al-Isrāʾ's broader teaching on moderation in spending. The preceding verse (17:29) commands the believer not to be miserly nor extravagant. Ibn Kathir cites the parable of the miser and the spender from Bukhārī 1443: two men in iron cloaks; the spender's cloak expands until it covers his whole body and obliterates his tracks; the miser's cloak sticks to him as he tries to widen it. Allah's hadith of the daily angels: every morning, two angels descend; one says 'O Allah, compensate the one who gives'; the other says 'O Allah, destroy the one who withholds.' (Bukhārī 1442, Muslim 1010.)
In the language
يَبْسُطُ (yabsuṭ) is from b-s-ṭ, the root of spreading out, expanding. Allah extends provision outward like spreading a garment. وَيَقْدِرُ (wa-yaqdir) is from q-d-r, the root of measuring, restricting, calibrating. خَبِيرًا (khabīr) is the inward-knowing knowledge: Allah knows what is in the heart of each servant. بَصِيرًا (baṣīr) is the outward-seeing observation: Allah sees their circumstances.
Why this verse
Q 17:30 names the divine principle behind material variation: Allah Himself extends (yabsuṭ) provision to some and restricts (yaqdir) it to others. The variation is not random; it is calibrated by Allah's knowledge (khabīr) and observation (baṣīr) of His servants. Some receive abundance as a test; some receive scarcity as a mercy. Allah knows which is which.
Bring it into today
Audit your spending against your earning this month. The Prophet's ﷺ standard, derived from this verse and 17:29, is moderation: neither miser nor spendthrift. Spend visibly on the named categories (kin, poor, family). The verse's calibration responds: those who spend well from what Allah extended receive more.
A reflection to carry
The verse is the believer's structural response to comparative wealth-anxiety. When the neighbor has more, the relative has more, the colleague has more: the diseased response is 'why do they have more, why do I have less?' The Quranic response is: Allah extended to them by His name al-Khabīr al-Baṣīr (the Inwardly-Knowing, the Outwardly-Seeing); He restricted you by the same names. He calibrates each case according to what is good for that servant.
Read the longer reflection
The classical scholars wrote that the verse 17:30 is the structural antidote to envy. The envier looks at another's wealth and forgets that Allah's al-Khabīr al-Baṣīr names calibrate every case differently. Some are given much because their souls can handle the test; others are given little because their souls would be ruined by the test. The hadith of the daily angels (Bukhārī 1442) is severe: every morning, the spender is invoked-for and the withholder is invoked-against. The system is structural and active.
Sources: Ibn Kathir. The Qur'an and its translation are verified; the scholarship is retold faithfully in our own words and credited to its sources, never reproduced verbatim.
Also on Day 111
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