2/177 — What is goodness?
"Goodness (birr) is not that you turn your faces to the east and the west. Goodness is that of one who believes in God, the last day, the angels, the Book and the prophets; who gives of his wealth, though he loves it, to relatives, orphans, the poor, the wayfarer, those who ask, and for the freeing of slaves; who keeps up the prayer and gives the alms; who fulfils his word when he gives it; who is patient in hardship, in sickness and at the moment of battle. Those are the ones who are true; those are the ones who guard themselves."
This verse is one of the most comprehensive sentences of definition in the sūra — perhaps in the Qurʾān. At verse 44 we saw that the root of birr is breadth (from the same root barr: dry land, a wide expanse) and referred to this verse. Now the definition itself.
Where the sentence is said matters: immediately after the dispute about the qibla. For thirty verses the sūra had discussed the question of direction, changed the qibla, answered objections. And now it says: goodness is not the direction you turn your face to.
This is not a step back. The qibla is still a command. What is said is that the qibla is not goodness itself. To carry out an obligation and to be good are not the same thing; the first may be a condition of the second but does not take its place.
And the pattern itself must be recorded: laysa'l-birra — "goodness is not…". This pattern occurs twice in the sūra, and in both a practice's being counted the whole of goodness is refused:
| Verse | What is refused | What is put in its place |
|---|---|---|
| 2/177 | "that you turn your faces to the east and the west" | A long definition — faith, spending, prayer, alms, keeping one's word, patience |
| 2/189 | "that you enter houses from their backs" | "Goodness is to guard oneself (taqwā)." |
The difference between the two is in the kind of thing refused: at 177 it is a commanded practice (the qibla), at 189 an uncommanded custom (entering houses from behind while in a state of ritual consecration). The pattern, that is, works in two directions at once — neither the carrying out of what is commanded nor the keeping up of an inherited custom is counted goodness itself.
And the shared answer of the two verses is taqwā: at 189 openly (al-birra mani'ttaqā), at 177 in the closing sentence (wa ulāʾika humu'l-muttaqūn).
And this finding is the exact counterpart of the attitude criticised throughout the sūra: to carry out a practice and count it the whole of piety.
| Group | Content | Its field |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Faith | God, the hereafter, the angels, the Book, the prophets | The inner world |
| 2. Property | Relatives, orphans, the poor, the traveller, the one who asks, the freeing of slaves | Wealth |
| 3. Worship | Prayer, alms | Body and order |
| 4. Character | Keeping one's word, patience in three situations | Continuity |
What stands out: property comes before worship. And the group about property is the longest — six separate recipients are listed. Prayer and alms are passed over in a single line.
This ordering is the same as the arrangement the Qurʾān set up at verse 83: there too, after tawḥīd, came parents, kin, orphans and the poor; prayer and alms were last of all.
The finest clause of the definition is here. The giving of property is asked for, but on one condition: while he loves it.
The measure, that is, is not in the amount given but in what is felt in giving. To give what is left over, to distribute what is surplus to need, to hand over what is easy to part with anyway — these do not enter the definition. What enters the definition is the one who gives what he wants to keep.
The same clause is present in Sūrat al-Insān as well: "They give food, though they love it, to the poor, the orphan and the captive" (al-Insān 76/8). The two verses set the same measure.
In the list, ibnu'l-sabīl (the wayfarer), sāʾil (the one who asks) and fi'l-riqāb (the freeing of slaves) are especially striking. The first three (relatives, orphans, the poor) are the near circle; the last three are strangers — the traveller is not known, the one who asks is of uncertain identity, the slave is outside society altogether.
The list, that is, widens from the near to the far and passes outside belonging. This looks the same way as the clause "speak good words to people" at verse 83 of the sūra: the measure does not change according to who the other person is.
- Baʾsāʾ — poverty, hardship in livelihood
- Ḍarrāʾ — bodily hardship, illness
- Ḥīna'l-baʾs — the moment of battle
The three are three separate fronts on which a person's power of endurance is tested: property, body, life. And the last differs from the others — the one is continuous, the other momentary. Poverty and illness call for long breath; the moment of battle measures the stance in a single instant.
Two qualities are given. The first is ṣidq — truthfulness; but here in a particular sense: one whose words and deeds agree. The attitude criticised throughout the sūra was exactly the lack of this — at verse 44 commanding another and forgetting oneself, at verse 84 keeping part of the book, at verse 94 saying one believes in the hereafter and clinging to life.
The second is taqwā — and this turns back to the second verse of the sūra. It had been said that the Book is "a guidance for those who guard themselves"; who those were had been enumerated in five attributes at the third verse. Now, a hundred and seventy-five verses later, the same word comes back with a far more detailed definition.
The sūra has come round on itself: it opened with taqwā, continued by recounting what taqwā is, and closed this section by defining taqwā again.
Here the sūra enters its legal section. Up to this point there was description, history and measure; now regulation comes. And the language of the regulations is striking — most of them begin with the verb كُتِبَ (it was written). At the second verse we saw the senses of the root kitāb, "to bring together" and "to write an obligation"; here the second sense is at work.