God says
Never shall you attain to true piety unless you spend on others out of what you cherish yourselves; …. Q.3: 92
True piety does not consist in turning your faces towards the east or the west* -- but truly pious is he who believes in God, and the Last Day, and the angels, and revelation,** and the prophets; and spends his substance – however much he himself may cherish it – upon his near of kin, and the orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer,*** and the beggars, and for freeing human beings from bondage, and is constant in prayer, and renders purifying dues; and [truly pious are] they who keep their promises whenever they promise, and are patient in misfortune and hardship and in time of peril: it is they that have proved themselves true, and it is they, they who are conscious of God. – Q.2 : 177
*Thus the Quran stresses the principle that mere compliance with outward forms does not fulfil the requirement of piety. The refernce to the turning of one’s face in prayer in this or that direction flows from passages which dealt, a little earlier, with the question of Qibla.
** In this context, the term “revelation” (al-kitab) carries a general significance: it refers to the fact of divine revelation as such. As for belief in angels mentioned here because it is through these spiritual beings that God reveals His will to the prophets and, thus, to mankind at large. (Adaptation from Asad’s explanation)
*** The Arabic expression ibn as-sabil (lit., “son of the road” denotes any person who is far from his home, and specillay one who, because of this ciecumstance, does not have sufficient means of livelihood at his disposal.
Never shall you attain to true piety unless you spend on others out of what you cherish yourselves; -- Q.3: 92
Prophet said
1. “Never has anyone eaten a better food than what he has eaten out of the labour of his own hands” – H: Bukhari. N: Miqdam-b-Ma’de Yakrab.
2. “Wretched man is he who follows his low desires and (then) rests hope in God”-- H: Tirmizi and Ibn Majah. N: Shaddad-b-Aus.
3.. “By Him in whose hand is my life you must enjoin good and forbid evil, otherwise it is near that God will send chastisement upon you from Himself. You will then call Him but you will not be responded to”-- H: Tirmzi. N: Huzaifa.
