وَمَا لِأَحَدٍ عِندَهُۥ مِن نِّعْمَةٍ تُجْزَىٰٓ إِلَّا ٱبْتِغَآءَ وَجْهِ رَبِّهِ ٱلْأَعْلَىٰ
Wa mā li-aḥadin ʿindahū min niʿmatin tujzā Illā'btighāʾa wajhi Rabbihi'l-aʿlā "No one has with him a favour to be repaid — only seeking the good pleasure of his most high Lord (does he give)."
The sentence begins with a negation: مَا — there is not. And what is negated is one of the reasons for giving:
That is: this man is in debt to nobody. The person he gives to has done him no earlier kindness. There is no account he is settling.
- لِأَحَدٍ — "of anyone". Aḥad — one, single; in a negative sentence, "no one". (This word was treated in detail in Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ.)
- عِندَهُ — "with him, in his keeping". The address of the obligation.
- مِن نِّعْمَةٍ — "a favour". The مِنْ at the head is a redundant (emphatic) particle; it generalises the negation: "no favour at all".
- تُجْزَىٰ — "to be repaid". Root ج-ز-ي: to give a return, to repay. From the same root jazāʾ (requital — for the good and for the bad alike).
The exception introduced by إِلَّا is of the kind the lexicographers call munqaṭiʿ (disconnected): the thing excepted is not of the kind of the set it is excepted from.
That is, the sentence does not say: "he has nobody's favour, only the favour of his Lord's good pleasure". It says: "there is no debt he has to repay; on the contrary he seeks only his Lord's good pleasure."
Though it is rendered into English as "only" or "except", its logical function is "on the contrary".
To see the boundary the verse draws, the reasons that may lie behind an act of giving have to be counted:
1. Repaying a debt — a kindness has been received from him before. 2. Investment — something is expected from him later on. 3. Standing — to be seen, to be well thought of. 4. Relief — to be rid of a feeling of guilt. 5. Compulsion — social pressure, family, custom.
The verse eliminates the first item openly: "there is no favour with him to be repaid." And it closes off all the rest with a single positive expression: إِلَّا ٱبْتِغَآءَ وَجْهِ رَبِّهِ — only seeking his Lord's face.
Root: ب-غ-ي. Its original sense is to want, to seek, to go after. Baghy — wanting; the word also has a sense of "overstepping the bound, wronging" (wanting to excess).
Form VIII (ibtighāʾ) — to seek with effort, to demand. Frequent in the Qurʾān: "and seek of God's bounty" (al-Jumuʿa 62/10).
There is effort in the word. The one who seeks the good pleasure is demanding it; he is not waiting for it.
The expression "to seek God's face" recurs in the Qurʾān: "those who are patient, seeking their Lord's face" (al-Raʿd 13/22); "We feed you only for the face of God; we want from you neither return nor thanks" (al-Insān 76/9).
This last verse is the closest counterpart of al-Layl 92/19-20 and says the same thing: we want neither a return nor thanks.
On the meaning of the expression. Without entering into the theological debates about the attributes, it is enough to say this: "wajh" here conveys orientation. To do a work "for someone's face" is to seek in that work no addressee other than that person. This usage is widespread in Arabic and requires no tashbīh (likening).
Root: ع-ل-و. Height. And again an elative — the sūra's third elative pattern (al-ashqā, al-atqā, al-aʿlā).
The placing of the attribute here is not for nothing. In enumerating the reasons for giving, the verse sets up a hierarchy: when people give something, whose face do they look at? The one they give to, the people around, themselves. The verse states the one face that is to be looked at, and places it at the very top.
And there is this: aʿlā (most high) stands like the opposite of the word shattā (scattered) at the beginning of the sūra. The strivings were scattered — because everyone was looking in a different direction. Here a single direction is shown. I record this as my own reading.