no way out of two disliked options: one is coarse abuse, the other is their declaring me a miser. The charge of miserliness is the worse of the two, so I ward off the greater harm by granting their request.

Miserliness itself is a broad category that contains several kinds—some count as major sins, others as lesser. Allah, Most High, says:

“Let not those who are tight-fisted with what Allah has given them of His bounty think that it is good for them; rather, it is bad for them. That of which they were stingy will be hung around their necks on the Day of Resurrection.” [Āl ʿImrān: 180]

He also says:

“Worship Allah and associate nothing with Him; show kindness to parents… Surely Allah does not love anyone who is arrogant and boastful—those who are stingy and who order others to be stingy.” [Al-Nisāʾ: 36–37]

And He says:

“Nothing prevents their expenditures from being accepted from them except that they have disbelieved in Allah and His Messenger, that they come to the prayer only sluggishly, and that they spend only reluctantly.” [Al-Tawbah: 54]

And He says:

“But when He gave them of His bounty, they became stingy with it and turned away in aversion; so He caused hypocrisy to settle in their hearts until the Day they will meet Him.” [Al-Tawbah: 76–77]

And He says:

“Whoever is stingy is stingy only against himself.” [Muḥammad: 38]

And He says:

“So woe to those who pray—yet are heedless of their prayers, those who make a display and withhold even small kindnesses.” [Al-Māʿūn: 4–7]

And He says:

“Those who hoard gold and silver and do not spend them in the way of Allah—announce to them a painful punishment: on the Day when it is heated in the Fire of Hell and their foreheads, their sides, and their backs are branded with it.” [Al-Tawbah: 34–35]