The 365 · Verses · Day 250 · Justice
Would you accept it yourself? Then don't give it away as charity.
يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ أَنفِقُوا۟ مِن طَيِّبَـٰتِ مَا كَسَبْتُمْ وَمِمَّآ أَخْرَجْنَا لَكُم مِّنَ ٱلْأَرْضِ ۖ وَلَا تَيَمَّمُوا۟ ٱلْخَبِيثَ مِنْهُ تُنفِقُونَ وَلَسْتُم بِـَٔاخِذِيهِ إِلَّآ أَن تُغْمِضُوا۟ فِيهِ ۚ وَٱعْلَمُوٓا۟ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَنِىٌّ حَمِيدٌ
“You who believe, give charitably from the good things you have acquired and that We have produced for you from the earth. Do not give away the bad things that you yourself would only accept with your eyes closed: remember that God is self-sufficient, worthy of all praise. (Quran 2:267)”
2:267 Read 2:267 with tafsir
Svenska: Troende! Ge av de goda ting som ni förvärvar och av det som Vi låter jorden frambringa åt er, och leta inte fram - för att ge bort det - det sämsta som ni själva inte skulle ta emot annat än med förbundna ögon. Ni bör veta att Gud är Sig själv nog och att allt lov och pris tillkommer Honom.
The story
When the date harvest came in Madinah, the Ansar would hang clusters of ripe dates on a cord strung between two pillars of the Prophet's ﷺ mosque, and the poor emigrants would eat from them. Ibn Kathir, citing al-Bara' bin 'Azib through Ibn Jarir, records that some people began slipping bundles of inferior, dried-out dates in among the good ones, imagining that any charity was acceptable - and this āyah came down about exactly that. Ibn 'Abbas explains that Allah commanded them to give from the purest and finest of their wealth and forbade the foul and dishonest, 'because Allah is pure and only accepts what is pure.' The verse presses the point with a question aimed at the conscience: you yourselves, Ibn 'Abbas notes, would not take this poor stuff unless you shut your eyes and let the deficiency pass - so how can you offer to God what you would refuse from another? As-Sa'di draws the same thread inward: since Allah eased your earning for you, give back from the good things you love for yourself, not the rejects you accept only while looking away. And the closing names - al-Ghanī, al-Ḥamīd - remove any illusion that God needs the gift; Ibn Kathir notes the aim is that the gap between rich and poor be narrowed. That is where justice lives: measuring what you hand another by the same standard you would demand for yourself.
In the language
Al-Zamakhshari, in al-Kashshaf, lingers on the verb the verse chooses for the wrong kind of giving: 'wa lā tayammamū al-khabīth' - do not aim for the bad. The verb tayammama, he explains, carries the sense of deliberately heading toward something and setting your intention on it. So the reproach is not an accident of generosity; it is a chosen aim - the giver goes looking for the shabby thing to hand over. He then unpacks 'illā an tughmiḍū fīh': the phrase comes from aghmaḍa, to lower or half-close the eyes. A buyer is told 'aghmiḍ' - do not scrutinize, as though you cannot quite see the flaw. Al-Zamakhshari adds that Ibn 'Abbas reports people had been giving away ḥashaf, the worst and spoiled dates, and were forbidden from it. The language catches two postures in one line: eyes wide open to seek out the inferior, eyes half-shut to excuse it.
Why this verse
The verse refuses a charity that costs the giver nothing real. To hand over what you would reject yourself is to treat the poor as beneath the standard you hold for your own dealings - and that, the mufassirūn show, is precisely the injustice being named.
Bring it into today
Before you give, run Ibn 'Abbas's test: would you accept this yourself, in full, without closing your eyes to its faults? If the answer is no, it is not yet charity worthy of the name. When you clear out a closet to donate, ask whether the clothes are ones you would still wear or only ones you are glad to be rid of. When you sponsor a meal, give food you would set before a guest. When you give money, give from what you value, not the loose change of your attention. As-Sa'di frames the whole act as gratitude - you were eased into earning, so return the good, not the leftovers. The measure is simple and searching: offer God, and the person before you, the same quality you would insist on for yourself.
A reflection to carry
There is a quiet dignity the verse restores to the poor. They are not a disposal chute for what you no longer want; they are owed the same quality you would demand in any fair exchange. Ibn Kathir's report of the dates hung in the mosque makes it vivid: the mixing of good and bad was subtle, almost defensible - 'any charity counts.' The verse names it anyway. Justice here is not grand redistribution but a refusal to let generosity become a way of offloading the substandard: what you love, you give; what you would reject, you keep or you mend.
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 250
A verse, a healing, and a Sunnah, every morning.
Subscribe, free