The 365 · Verses · Day 254 · Justice
Night and day, seen and unseen - the giver who never lets a moment pass.
ٱلَّذِينَ يُنفِقُونَ أَمْوَٰلَهُم بِٱلَّيْلِ وَٱلنَّهَارِ سِرًّا وَعَلَانِيَةً فَلَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
“Those who give, out of their own possessions, by night and by day, in private and in public, will have their reward with their Lord: no fear for them, nor will they grieve. (Quran 2:274)”
2:274 Read 2:274 with tafsir
Svenska: De som ger av vad de äger, nattetid eller under dagen, i tysthet eller öppet i allas åsyn, skall få sin lön av sin Herre och de skall inte känna fruktan och ingen sorg skall tynga dem.
The story
The cluster on charity closes with a portrait of its finished form: a person who gives across every division of time and manner - by night and by day, in secret and in the open. Al-Zamakhshari reads the four pairings as deliberate coverage: such givers, out of sheer eagerness for good, let no occasion slip; whenever a need appears before them they hurry to meet it, never putting it off with the excuse of the wrong hour or the wrong setting. He records the reports that the verse was revealed about Abu Bakr, who gave forty thousand dinars - ten by night, ten by day, ten in secret, ten openly - and about 'Ali, who owned only four dirhams and gave one in each of the four ways. As-Sa'di stresses the qualifier the verse quietly carries: they spend in God's cause, in His obedience and the path of His pleasure, not on the forbidden or on their own appetites. Ibn Kathir widens the frame to include what a person spends on his own household, citing the Prophet's ﷺ words to Sa'd bin Abi Waqqas that no expenditure seeking God's face goes unrewarded, 'even the morsel you place in your wife's mouth.' And the promise that lands on such givers is total: their reward is with their Lord, and 'no fear shall be upon them, nor shall they grieve' - as-Sa'di adds, when the negligent fear and the heedless grieve. The justice here is constancy: a giving so balanced it leaves no time, no mode, and no need outside its reach.
In the language
Al-Zamakhshari catches the rhetorical engine of the verse in a single phrase: 'they cover the times and the states with charity.' The line names two axes and both of their poles - night and day, secrecy and openness - and the effect of pairing a thing with its opposite is to sweep in everything between. This is the device of merism, where naming the two extremes stands for the whole: 'night and day' is not two occasions but all occasions, 'secret and open' not two manners but every manner. Al-Zamakhshari's gloss makes the totality explicit - the givers 'generalize the times and conditions' out of their hunger for good, so that no moment and no situation falls outside their giving. The grammar of the verse thus performs what it praises: an all-hours, all-modes constancy in which there is simply no gap where charity does not reach.
Why this verse
The passage ends not with a bigger gift but with a steadier giver - one who covers night and day, hidden and seen. Justice in charity, the verse suggests, is finally a matter of constancy: leaving no time, no manner, and no need outside your reach.
Bring it into today
Aim for coverage, not occasions. It is easy to give in bursts - a large gift in Ramadan, a public campaign when others are watching - and let the rest of the year go empty. The verse praises the opposite: giving woven through night and day, seen and unseen, so that no need crossing your path waits for the right moment. Al-Zamakhshari's picture is of someone who never says 'later.' Set up the quiet standing gift and also give in the open when it moves others; spend on the stranger and, as Ibn Kathir reminds through the ḥadīth of Sa'd, on your own family with the same intention. Keep as-Sa'di's condition in view: it is spending in God's cause, not on whims dressed up as generosity. The goal is not one heroic act but a life with no hours in it where giving has been switched off.
A reflection to carry
The cluster does not build toward a single grand donation; it builds toward a rhythm. The four pairings - night, day, secret, open - are the verse's way of saying 'all of it,' and al-Zamakhshari hears a giver so eager for good that no occasion is ever wrong. What strikes me is how ordinary this makes generosity: not the rare gesture but the standing habit, extended even to the food one places in a family member's mouth. As-Sa'di names the reward as settledness - no fear when others fear, no grief when others grieve. Across this passage justice has meant giving from the good, in secret, without judging, and to the overlooked. Here it becomes simply giving, constantly, until it is less a series of acts than the shape of a life.
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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