The 365 · Verses · Day 247 · Justice
A gift that is later held over someone's head stops being a gift.
ٱلَّذِينَ يُنفِقُونَ أَمْوَٰلَهُمْ فِى سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ ثُمَّ لَا يُتْبِعُونَ مَآ أَنفَقُوا۟ مَنًّا وَلَآ أَذًى ۙ لَّهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
“Those who spend their wealth in God's cause, and do not follow their spending with reminders of their benevolence or hurtful words, will have their rewards with their Lord: no fear for them, nor will they grieve. (Quran 2:262)”
2:262 Read 2:262 with tafsir
Svenska: De som ger av vad de har för Guds sak och som inte låter gåvan följas av [stora ord om] frikostighet eller [uttryck] som sårar, skall få sin lön av sin Herre och de skall inte känna fruktan och ingen sorg skall tynga dem.
The story
Ibn Kathīr says this āyah praises those who spend their wealth in God's cause and then refrain from following it with mann or adhā - reminding the recipient of the favor, or harming him - whether by word or by deed. He is explicit that such reminders and injury annul the charity outright; the reward of giving is not enough to cancel the harm that trails it. As-Saadi describes mann as counting your kindness over the one you helped, whether in the heart or aloud, listing your generosity and demanding something back for it; adhā is any wounding word or act. Those who keep their giving clean of both, he says, earn a fitting reward with no fear and no grief, because the deed stayed pure for God and safe from what spoils it. Ibn Kathīr cites the Prophet ﷺ warning that among three whom God will not speak to, look at, or purify on the Day of Resurrection is al-mannān - the one who gives and then keeps reminding people of it. The verse promises the opposite for the one who guards his tongue: their reward is with their Lord, no fear upon them, nor will they grieve. This is justice toward the poor - that receiving help should never cost a person their dignity.
In the language
Al-Zamakhsharī (al-Kashshāf) lingers on the small word thumma (then) in they spend, then do not follow it with reminder or injury. Ordinarily thumma marks a gap in time - one thing, then later another. Here, he explains, it marks a gap in rank: the restraint from mann and adhā is set above the act of spending itself. The particle signals that holding back the reminder and the hurtful word is actually the greater achievement, more prized than the gift that preceded it. He compares it to the same construction elsewhere, where steadfastness upon faith is ranked above the initial entering of faith. The grammar thus carries a quiet moral hierarchy: it is easy to give; it is harder, and worth more, to give and then guard the tongue.
Why this verse
It is possible to help someone and wrong them in the same breath. This āyah refuses to let generosity become a lever of humiliation - insisting that the dignity of the receiver is itself a matter of justice, not merely of kindness.
Bring it into today
Audit not just whether you give, but how you carry it afterward. The verse targets the moment after the gift - the reminder dropped in conversation, the favor called in, the subtle after all I did for you. Resolve to let your giving disappear from your own memory once it leaves your hand; As-Saadi's mann begins in the heart, so the work is inward before it is verbal. When you help someone, protect their standing: don't retell it to others, don't hold it over them, don't expect gratitude on display. And if you cannot give without wounding, the following āyah says a kind word and a covering over of faults is better than charity trailed by injury - so choose the gentle refusal over the harmful gift.
A reflection to carry
There is a particular sting in being helped by someone who never lets you forget it. This āyah legislates against that sting. As-Saadi locates the harm first in the heart - mann begins as a private ledger where you tally what you have done for someone - and only later reaches the tongue. So the discipline is inward: to give and then genuinely release it, to keep no score. And notice the reward Ibn Kathīr names - no fear, no grief, a settled heart - promised precisely to the one who guards what comes after the gift. Justice here is not only about who receives the money; it is about whether the poor keep their dignity in the exchange. Today, if you do someone a kindness, practice forgetting it, and let that forgetting be its own quiet worship.
Sources: Ibn Kathīr, al-Saʿdī, al-Zamakhsharī (al-Kashshāf). 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.
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