al-Tawba 9:34-35

Yā ayyuha'lladhīna āmanū inna kathīran mina'l-aḥbāri wa'l-ruhbāni la-yaʾkulūna amwāla'l-nāsi bi'l-bāṭili wa yaṣuddūna ʿan sabīli'llāh; wa'lladhīna yaknizūna'l-dhahaba wa'l-fiḍḍata wa lā yunfiqūnahā fī sabīli'llāhi fa-bashshirhum bi-ʿadhābin alīm · Yawma yuḥmā ʿalayhā fī nāri jahannama fa-tukwā bihā jibāhuhum wa junūbuhum wa ẓuhūruhum; hādhā mā kanaztum li-anfusikum fa-dhūqū mā kuntum taknizūn

"O you who believe! Many of the rabbis and the monks devour people's wealth by false means and turn others from the way of God. And those who hoard gold and silver and do not spend it in the way of God — give them the news of a painful punishment. · On the day when these are heated in the fire of Gehenna and their foreheads, their sides and their backs are branded with them: 'This is what you hoarded for yourselves; taste, then, what you were hoarding!'"

The word order must be recorded, and it is often missed.

The verse begins with "many of the rabbis and the monks"; then it continues with wa'lladhīna yaknizūn — and the subject of this second sentence is left unspecified, tied to no group.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is that the relative pronoun comes without restriction: the ruling on hoarding is tied not to a group but to an act. The sentence does not say "those of them who hoard"; it says "those who hoard".

And the qualification inna kathīran min must also be recorded separately: kathīran min — "many of." Even the first sentence, that is, does not cover the whole. Per the method (Method): no wholesale ruling is issued about any community, and the wording of the verse does not do so in the first place.

The word is analysed here for the first time in this series.

The concrete sense of the root: to press a thing together and gather it, to heap it up. The lexicographers record that kanz properly means "property buried in the ground and hidden"; and that the verb is also used of filling a vessel and pressing it down.

The word occurred in al-Kahf at 18/82 (wa kāna taḥtahū kanzun lahumā) — there it was property kept for two orphans. The two uses can be set side by side, and I give this as my own reading:

The difference lies not in the property itself but in whom it is held for. In al-Kahf the property is kept for another; in al-Tawba it says li-anfusikum (for yourselves) — and indeed the word appears openly in verse 35.

The hoarding of wealth was analysed in detail in al-Humaza, and I rely on what was recorded there. What was analysed there was this: alladhī jamaʿa mālan wa ʿaddadah — to gather and to count; and yaḥsabu anna mālahū akhladah — the assumption of permanence underlying accumulation. And this was recorded there: "The verse says neither 'rich' nor gives any amount. What it describes is a chain of behaviour."

The same measure holds for al-Tawba 9/34, and the wording of the verse supports it:

This difference must be recorded, and I give it as my own reading: al-Tawba does not censure accumulation on its own; it adds a negative beside it. The subject of the warning is not the heaping itself but the heaping taking the place of the spending.

The measure recorded in al-Ḥadīd at 57/7 is the ground of this place, and I rely on it: anfiqū mimmā jaʿalakum mustakhlafīna fīh — "spend out of that in which He has made you successors." It was recorded there: "that ownership is a trust is the ground of spending." al-Tawba 9/34 is the negative face of the same principle: a trust, when it is not spent, turns into a heap.

And in al-Ḥadīd the difference between spending and the alms was recorded (the alms a fixed proportion, spending general). The legal scope of this verse — whether property on which the alms have been paid counts as "kanz" — has been debated in the classical sources. I convey the disagreement, and issue no ruling and count no view as binding:

Three parts of the body are enumerated, and the order must be recorded: forehead, side, back.

The root ك-و-ي: to brand — to burn with heated iron. This is a concrete operation used in the branding of animals and in old medicine.

I record this as an observation: the very metal that was hoarded is heated and turned into an instrument of branding. The punishment, that is, is of the same kind as the thing hoarded.

And explanations are transmitted in the classical commentaries about the choice of these three parts (the turning away of the face, the sidling off, the turning of the back). I do not present these explanations as certain knowledge; the wording of the verse enumerates three parts and gives no reason.

A note on the word order: all three parts are outward-facing surfaces of the body — the forehead looks forward, the sides to either hand, the back behind. I give this as my own reading: the enumeration covers every direction of the body.

The clause must be recorded: li-anfusikum — "for yourselves."

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is this word: the verse sets before them the intention behind the hoarding — and that intention is counted as having been fulfilled. "You hoarded for yourselves; here it is before you." This comes out at the same place as the diagnosis yaḥsabu anna mālahū akhladah recorded in al-Humaza: wealth secures its owner no permanence; it stays with its owner.