2/219 — Wine, gambling and "what is left over"
"They ask you about wine and gambling. Say: in both there is great sin and some benefits for people; and their sin is greater than their benefit."
The construction of the answer is worth recording and is a frequent instance in the Qurʾān's language of ruling:
1. The harm is stated — ithmun kabīr 2. The benefit is also stated — manāfiʿu li'l-nās 3. Then it is weighed — wa ithmuhumā akbaru min nafʿihimā
The benefit is not denied. What gambling brings in, and the commercial and social place of wine in the society of that day, are not disregarded. The ruling is laid down not by refusing the benefit but by showing the balance.
A note on a variant reading: instead of ithmun kabīr (great sin), the reading ithmun kathīr (much sin) is also transmitted. The difference between the two readings is between magnitude and multitude, and I record it because it changes the meaning.
وَيَسْـَٔلُونَكَ مَاذَا يُنفِقُونَ قُلِ ٱلْعَفْوَ — "they ask you what they should spend; say: al-ʿafw."
The root ع-ف-و: to wipe out, to pardon; and what is left over, what is surplus to need. The lexicographers give the second sense here: what remains over from one's own need.
At verse 215 the same question was asked and the answer was given as an address. Here the same question comes again and this time a measure is given: not all one has, but what is left over. The two answers complete one another: to whom, and how much.