they have done (1).

The reason is that they were asked for this in worldly life but refused to give it, as in His words,

“Yet had they been asked for sedition, they would surely have yielded to it” (al-Aḥzāb 33:14),

and, as noted earlier, in His saying:

“A Book whose verses have been set out in detail, an Arabic Qur’an for a people who know—bringing glad tidings and warning” (Fussilat 41:3–4) and the verses that follow. He has informed (2) that the Messenger summoned them—and that his summons and what he required of them were the same (3). He merely asked of them what He also said:

“And woe to the polytheists—those who do not give the zakah” (Fussilat 41:6–7),

meaning: they withhold what was demanded of them (4).

Thus this wording contains the establishment of proof against them through the Messengers, for he calls them only to that by which their own selves would be purified.

Among the indications that zakah entails purification—because its very sense conveys purification—is His statement:

“Take from their wealth a charity by which you cleanse them and purify them thereby” (al-Tawbah 9:130),

“cleanse them” (5) from evil and raise them by goodness, so that their misdeeds depart and they become free of them, and their souls then flourish through righteous deeds once the sins have been removed (6).

The Prophet ﷺ said: “O Allah, wash me with water, snow, and ice; O Allah, purify me of my sins just as a white garment is cleansed of dirt…”