al-Baqara 2:263-264 — Where a word is better than alms

"A good word and forgiveness are better than alms followed by hurt."

The comparison is plain: an attitude that gives nothing but does not hurt is held above a help that is given but with hurt.

لَا تُبْطِلُوا۟ صَدَقَٰتِكُم بِٱلْمَنِّ وَٱلْأَذَىٰ — "do not void your alms with reproach and hurt."

إبطال — to render a thing invalid, to make it of no effect. The work done is not erased; it is counted void.

And then the comparison comes: كَٱلَّذِى يُنفِقُ مَالَهُۥ رِئَآءَ ٱلنَّاسِ — like one who spends for show. His case is likened to a slippery rock with soil on it: a downpour falls, carries the soil away, and the bare stone remains.

صَفْوَان — smooth, slippery stone. The detail of the comparison carries the work: there is soil on the stone, so that from outside it looks fit for sowing. What is missing does not show: depth. The rain — that is, what normally brings blessing — here becomes the thing that lifts the covering.