وَأَمَّا ٱلسَّآئِلَ فَلَا تَنْهَرْ
English runs with Arabic on the verb here: the single verb "to ask" reaches both. But the noun splits — questioner on the one side, beggar or petitioner on the other — whereas sāʾil is one word for both. The Qurʾān uses it in both senses:
In the classical works of tafsīr both senses are given for the sāʾil of this verse and no preference is imposed. The reason is the word itself: there is no narrowing indication in the verse.
From the same root come نَهْر (nahr, river) and نَهَار (nahār — daytime). Some of the lexicographers set up the connection thus: a river is water that flows by cutting open its bed; nahār is light that spreads and widens; intahara is to advance on someone with the voice. The common idea is advancing by force and cutting through.
This connection is a relation established by the lexicographers, and I do not present it as a settled etymological ruling.
The act the word describes is not a physical harm; it is a driving away done with the voice. Not striking but shouting. Not shutting the door in his face but scolding him at the door.
In the Qurʾān this verb occurs once more in the form of a prohibition, and its addressee is surprising:
"Your Lord has decreed that you serve none but Him, and that you be good to parents. If one or both of them reach old age with you, do not say to them so much as 'ugh', and do not rebuff them, and speak to them a gracious word" (al-Isrāʾ 17/23).
The Qurʾān's prohibition of rebuffing, then, has been set in two places: on parents and on the one who asks. This parallel is striking, because the two groups look very far apart — one the nearest, the other most often unknown. What they have in common is that both are asking something of the person before them and are not in a position to answer back.
A few verses later Sūrat al-Isrāʾ takes up the same subject once more and makes clear what this verse forbids:
"And if you must turn away from them, awaiting a mercy from your Lord which you hope for, then speak to them a gentle word" (al-Isrāʾ 17/28).
This verse says directly: you may have nothing to give. In that case what must be done is not to announce in a harsh tone that your hand is empty; it is to speak a gentle word.
What is forbidden, then, is not the withholding but the rebuffing. Read together, the two verses make the boundary of al-Ḍuḥā 10 clear.
"Feed the orphan" is not said. "Give to the one who asks" is not said. What is said is "do not crush" and "do not rebuff".
It lowers the threshold. These commands can be carried out even by someone who has nothing in hand. One with nothing to give can still manage not to crush and not to rebuff. The obligation has not been tied to means.
It raises the threshold. Because being a giver does not exempt one from these commands. One can crush while giving; one can rebuff while giving. Indeed this is one of the most widespread forms of help: alongside the thing given, a belittlement is added.
The verse regulates not the amount but the treatment. The Qurʾān formulates this openly elsewhere: "A kind word and forgiveness are better than a charity followed by injury" (al-Baqara 2/263).
Taqhar and tanhar: between the two verbs there is a difference of a single letter (ق / ن). Two words on the same pattern, ending in the same closed syllable, carrying the same guttural sound.
The result is that the two commands stand in the ear as a single pair. And the exit of both words is hard — their utterance resembles the act they forbid. I record this as an observation about the sound.