Basic
الإنفاق
Surah: Al-Isra (29)
Do Not Make Your Hand Tied — The Young Man Who Asked for Charity
وَلَا تَجۡعَلۡ يَدَكَ مَغۡلُولَةً إِلَىٰ عُنُقِكَ وَلَا تَبۡسُطۡهَا كُلَّ ٱلۡبَسۡطِ فَتَقۡعُدَ مَلُومًا مَّحۡسُورًا
— الإسراء الآية 29
Verse: "And do not make your hand tied to your neck nor extend it completely and then sit blamed and regretful." (Al-Isra 29)
Context:
Moderation in wealth is a Quranic virtue — the generous person is not one who gives everything they have, but one who gives according to their means while keeping what suffices them.
Context:
- Commentators narrate: a man — in some reports a young man — came to the Prophet (peace be upon him) asking for money for equipment or a necessity. The Prophet had nothing and apologized
- The verse was revealed teaching balance in spending: neither blameworthy miserliness nor destructive excess
- "Tied to your neck" is a metaphor for extreme miserliness — a bound hand that gives nothing
- "Extend it completely" is a metaphor for prodigality — spending without reckoning until nothing remains
- "And sit blamed and regretful" — blamed for the waste, regretful and exhausted by what was spent
Moderation in wealth is a Quranic virtue — the generous person is not one who gives everything they have, but one who gives according to their means while keeping what suffices them.
Source: Al-Tabari (17/429); Ibn Kathir (5/64); Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi (p. 283)
Test Yourself
What is the rhetorical image in "do not make your hand tied to your neck" and what contrast does the verse form?
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