al-Ṣaff 61:11

Tuʾminūna billāhi wa rasūlihi wa tujāhidūna fī sabīlillāhi bi-amwālikum wa anfusikum, dhālikum khayrun lakum in kuntum taʿlamūn

"You believe in God and His messenger; you strive in the way of God with your wealth and your lives. That is better for you, if you but knew."

The finest choice of word order in the sūra is here.

The expected mood is the imperative: āminū wa jāhidū — "believe and strive". And indeed this is the meaning. But the verse does not use the imperative; it uses the imperfect, the indicative of the present: tuʾminūna… wa tujāhidūna…

There are several views on the explanation of this choice:

With regard to the third view: it is stated that such a reading is transmitted; since I am not certain to which authority it is ascribed, I give no name.

The subtlety in the second view is worth dwelling on. In Arabic — and in many languages — a command given in the indicative is more binding than one in the imperative. The reason is this: the imperative states something that is wanted done; the indicative states something that is being done. This is the difference between "do this" and "you do this". In the second, the business is described as though it had already happened, and no choice is left before the addressee — because the choice has been buried inside the description.

English uses this construction too: "You're here at nine tomorrow morning." That is a command, but it is not in the imperative; and precisely for that reason it is the more absolute.

And this choice must be read together with the mood of offer in the preceding verse. The tenth verse had asked a question: "shall I show you?" A door had been opened to the addressee. The eleventh verse continues as though the addressee had accepted: you believe, you strive.

That is, the sūra carries the account on without waiting for the addressee's acceptance. This is not pressure; it is an expression of confidence. The offer was made, and without asking what the answer will be, the continuation of the transaction is described.

I present this reading as my own inference.

Wealth first, life second. This order is established in the Qurʾān (al-Tawba 9/111 and elsewhere).

Why wealth first? Several explanations are given in the classical commentaries; the most widespread is this: wealth is the thing more widely possessed and is the first step of sacrifice — everyone has a life, but giving one's life is not always required, whereas giving wealth is continuous.

A second observation may be added, and it is especially apt in the context of this sūra: there are many who say they are ready to give their lives and do not give their wealth. Wealth, that is, is the field in which the distance between word and deed is most often seen.

And the second verse of the sūra took exactly this distance as its subject. Having said "you do not do what you say", the sūra, in enumerating what is asked to be done, puts the item hardest to talk about first.

I present this link as a reading; it is not a transmitted report.

خَيْر — the word can mean both "good" and "better"; here a comparison is implied: better than what? In the language of trade the answer is plain — better than holding on to it.

إِن كُنتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ — "if you know". The conditional clause adds a caveat about knowledge to the sentence.

And this caveat agrees exactly with the metaphor of trade: whether an exchange is profitable is a matter of knowledge. The merchant who does not know the price cannot see the profit; the one who does not know the value of the goods sells cheap. The verse marks as the reason for refusing the offer not ill will but not knowing the value.

At al-Baqara 2/16 it was said of the result of the exchange that "it brought no profit"; here the seeing of the profit is tied to knowledge. Two ends of the same metaphor.