The 365 · Verses · Day 248 · Justice
A thin layer of soil on stone looks like a field - until the rain comes.
يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ لَا تُبْطِلُوا۟ صَدَقَـٰتِكُم بِٱلْمَنِّ وَٱلْأَذَىٰ كَٱلَّذِى يُنفِقُ مَالَهُۥ رِئَآءَ ٱلنَّاسِ وَلَا يُؤْمِنُ بِٱللَّهِ وَٱلْيَوْمِ ٱلْـَٔاخِرِ ۖ فَمَثَلُهُۥ كَمَثَلِ صَفْوَانٍ عَلَيْهِ تُرَابٌ فَأَصَابَهُۥ وَابِلٌ فَتَرَكَهُۥ صَلْدًا ۖ لَّا يَقْدِرُونَ عَلَىٰ شَىْءٍ مِّمَّا كَسَبُوا۟ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ لَا يَهْدِى ٱلْقَوْمَ ٱلْكَـٰفِرِينَ
“You who believe, do not cancel out your charitable deeds with reminders and hurtful words, like someone who spends his wealth only to be seen by people, not believing in God and the Last Day. Such a person is like a rock with earth on it: heavy rain falls and leaves it completely bare. Such people get no rewards for their works: God does not guide the disbelievers. (Quran 2:264)”
2:264 Read 2:264 with tafsir
Svenska: Troende! Beröva inte era gåvor deras värde genom [tal om] frikostighet eller genom [ord] som sårar, som den som ger av vad han äger för att ses [och berömmas] av människor och som inte tror på Gud och den Yttersta dagen. Han kan liknas vid en berggrund täckt av [ett tunt lager] jord; ett slagregn faller och sköljer bort allt inpå nakna berget. [Sådana människor] uppnår ingenting med det som de har åstadkommit. Gud leder inte dem som förnekar sanningen.
The story
This āyah, Ibn Kathīr explains, warns believers not to cancel their charity through mann and adhā, and likens the one who does so to the person who spends only to be seen by people while believing in neither God nor the Last Day. The show-off, he says, pretends to give for God's sake but is really chasing human praise and reputation; his heart never turns to God at all. Then God coins the image: such a person is like a smooth rock (ṣafwān) with a thin layer of dust on it - a heavy downpour (wābil) strikes it and leaves it bare stone (ṣald). As-Saadi draws the comparison out precisely: the ostentatious giver's hardened heart is the smooth rock, and his charity is the dust resting on its surface. An ignorant onlooker sees the dust and imagines fertile, planting soil; but when the rain of reality falls, the dust is swept clean and the deed is exposed as a mirage, the stone beneath it incapable of growing anything. As-Saadi even reads the earlier command against mann and adhā as proof that evil deeds can annul good ones - a call to complete and protect our works, not merely to perform them. Closing the charity cluster, the verse leaves us with a justice that cannot be fooled: God weighs the intention beneath the act, and no amount of surface display survives His examination.
In the language
Al-Zamakhsharī (al-Kashshāf) catches a shift that a quick reader glides over. The verse first describes the hypocrite in the singular - like the one (alladhī) who spends his wealth to be seen - and then, a few words later, switches to the plural: they (lā yaqdirūna) have no power over anything they earned. How, he asks, does a plural verb follow a singular subject? His answer is that alladhī here does not point to one individual but to a whole class - the type or group of people who spend for show - and that in Arabic alladhī (the one who) and man (whoever) readily stand in for one another. So the sense is like whoever spends to be seen, a description broad enough to hold the plural that follows. The grammar widens the lens from a single pretender to an entire category of them.
Why this verse
Riyāʾ - doing good to be seen - is the quiet thief of reward, and this āyah exposes it. God's justice does not stop at what a deed looks like; it reaches the intention underneath, and hollow display simply washes away.
Bring it into today
Examine the audience you may secretly be performing for. The āyah pairs mann and adhā with riyāʾ because all three redirect a deed away from God toward people - and As-Saadi warns this can void even an act you began sincerely. Practically, build habits of hidden giving: some charity that no one but God knows about, to train the heart off applause. When you notice the wish to be seen rising, name it and re-aim the deed. And treat your good works as fragile, not finished - As-Saadi reads this verse as a call to protect deeds from what spoils them, so guard the aftermath of your charity as carefully as the giving itself, lest the rain of reality wash it down to bare stone.
A reflection to carry
The unsettling thing about this parable is how convincing the fake looks - right up until the rain. As-Saadi says the onlooker sees dust on the rock and assumes rich, fertile soil; the ostentatious giver can pass for the most generous person in the room. Only the downpour reveals the stone underneath. Sit with that discomfort: a deed can begin sincerely and still be hollowed out by what follows - the craving to be seen, the reminder held over the poor. Justice here is God's refusal to be fooled by appearances that deceive everyone else. The response is not despair but attention: give something in secret today, catch the wish for applause when it stirs, and ask honestly whether the soil of your heart is real ground or a thin skin over rock.
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.
Also on Day 248
A verse, a healing, and a Sunnah, every morning.
Subscribe, free