“Be lenient”—that is, do not be exacting, as though you did not see. The expression derives from closing the eyelid: it is as though someone looking at something he dislikes does not look at it fully, but partly closes his eyes and averts his gaze in aversion. Hence the poet’s words:
No people have escaped us with a wrong unavenged;
Yet some men accept humiliation and turn a blind eye.
The passage conveys two meanings:
First: how can you offer Allah and present to Him what you would not willingly accept yourselves, and what none of you would be pleased to receive as a gift from another? Allah is most deserving of having the finest and most precious things chosen for Him.
Second: how can you assign to Him what you dislike for yourselves, when He, glorified is He, is pure and accepts only what is pure?
He then concluded the two verses with two attributes appropriate to their context, saying:
“Know that Allah is Self-Sufficient, Praiseworthy.”
His self-sufficiency and praiseworthiness preclude His acceptance of inferior things. Whoever accepts something inferior and bad does so either because he needs it, or because his own lack of perfection and nobility leaves him unaverse to it. But one who has no need of it, whose standing is noble and whose attributes are perfect, will not accept it.
[Surah al-Baqarah (2): verse 268]
“Satan threatens you with poverty and commands you to commit immorality, while Allah promises you forgiveness from Him and bounty. Allah is All-Bountiful, All-Knowing.” (268)
This verse encourages spending and urges it in the most eloquent words and with the finest meanings. It identifies the one who calls to miserliness and the one who calls to giving and spending; it explains what each calls people to and the means by which each makes his appeal.
He, glorified is He, tells us that the one who calls them to miserliness and stinginess is Satan, and that he makes his appeal by threatening them with poverty and making them fear it should they spend their wealth. This is the prompting that prevails among people. For a person may intend to give charity and be generous, only to find within his heart