فَـَٔاتِ ذَا ٱلْقُرْبَىٰ حَقَّهُۥ وَٱلْمِسْكِينَ وَٱبْنَ ٱلسَّبِيلِ ذَٰلِكَ خَيْرٌ لِّلَّذِينَ يُرِيدُونَ وَجْهَ ٱللَّهِ وَأُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْمُفْلِحُونَ
Fa-āti dha'l-qurbā ḥaqqahu wa'l-miskīna wa'bna's-sabīl, dhālika khayrun li'lladhīna yurīdūna wajha'llāh, wa ulāʾika humu'l-mufliḥūn
"So give the near relative his due; and the needy and the wayfarer too. This is better for those who seek the face of God. Those are the ones who attain."
That is, what is given is named not as a donation out of the giver's property but as the receiver's due.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the word itself: ḥaqq — root ح-ق-ق: to be fixed, to fall into its place. The word conveys not a favour but a settling into place. And the pronoun must be recorded: ḥaqqahu — "his" due, not the giver's.
مِسْكِين — root س-ك-ن. The word was analysed in al-Māʿūn and in al-Ḥashr, and what was recorded there was this: the idea of "stopping, motionlessness" in the root describes the miskīn as the person who has been brought to a state of not being able to move. I do not repeat it here.
| Verse | Word | What it conveys |
|---|---|---|
| 21 | Li-taskunū ilayhā | Coming to rest — positive |
| 38 | al-Miskīn | Being brought to a standstill — negative |
The same root, the one repose and the other helplessness. I record this as an observation about the language: the ceasing of movement runs to two contrary values according to its context.
ٱبْنَ ٱلسَّبِيلِ — "the son of the road": the person stranded on the way. The construct was treated at al-Baqara 2/177 and at al-Ḥashr 59/7. I do not repeat it here.
وَجْهَ ٱللَّهِ — "the face of God", that is, His good pleasure and His direction. And the word had occurred in the thirtieth verse of this sūra as well: fa-aqim wajhaka — "set your face straight".
| Verse | Whose wajh | What is done |
|---|---|---|
| 30 | Man's | It is set straight — a direction is given |
| 38 | God's | It is sought — that which is turned towards |
The same word, eight verses apart, on two different sides. This is a repetition that can be verified from the text. I record this as my own reading: in the thirtieth verse a turning was commanded; in the thirty-eighth the form that turning takes when it is done with property is recounted. The two verses hold the two ends of one line with the same word.