Verse. 287

٢ - ٱلْبَقَرَة

2 - Al-Baqara

وَاِنْ كَانَ ذُوْ عُسْرَۃٍ فَنَظِرَۃٌ اِلٰى مَيْسَرَۃٍ۝۰ۭ وَاَنْ تَصَدَّقُوْا خَيْرٌ لَّكُمْ اِنْ كُنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُوْنَ۝۲۸۰
Wain kana thoo AAusratin fanathiratun ila maysaratin waan tasaddaqoo khayrun lakum in kuntum taAAlamoona

English

Ahmed Ali

If a debtor is in want, give him time until his circumstances improve; but if you forego (the debt) as charity, that will be to your good, if you really understand.

280

Tafseer

'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī

تفسير : (and if the debtor) the banu makhzum (is in straitened circumstances, then (let there be) postponement to (the time of) ease; and that ye remit the debt as almsgiving would be better for you) than being paid or postponing the debt (if ye did but know) this.

Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī

تفسير : and if any man, in debt, should be in difficulties, then, let him have, respite, a postponement, till things are easier (read maysara or maysura, meaning ‘a time of ease’); but that you should give (tassaddaqū, where the second tā’ of the softened form, tatasaddaqū, has been assimilated with the sād), the one in difficulty, a voluntary almsgiving, by waiving his debt, is better for you, did you but know, [if you know] that it is better for you, then do it. in a hadīth it is said, ‘whoever gives respite to one in difficulty, or waives his debt, god will place him under his shade, on a day when there shall be no shade except god’s’, as reported by muslim.

Ali ibn Ahmad al-Wahidi

تفسير : (and if the debtor is in straitened circumstances…) [2:280]. said al-kalbi: “the banu ‘amr ibn ‘umayr said to banu’l-mughirah: ‘give us our capitals and we will spare you the payment of the usury on them’. the banu’l-mughirah said: ‘we are now in straitened circumstances, please give us some respite until the time of the harvest’. banu’l-mughirah refused this request. allah, exalted is he, then revealed (and if the debtor is in straitened circumstances…)”.