“Do not keep your hand chained to your neck, nor extend it completely, lest you become blameworthy and destitute. Indeed, your Lord grants abundant provision to whom He wills and restricts it. He is surely All-Aware, All-Seeing of His servants. And do not kill your children for fear of poverty. We provide for them and for you. Surely killing them is a grave sin.” (29–31)

Regarding His saying, “Do not keep your hand chained to your neck,” Jabir said: “When I was a young boy, I said, ‘Messenger of Allah, my mother asks you to give her a garment.’ The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had nothing but his shirt. He said to the boy, ‘It may become available at some later time, so return at another time.’ I returned to my mother, and she said, ‘Tell him: My mother asks you for the garment you are wearing.’ So the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, went into his house, took off his shirt, and gave it to him, remaining seated unclothed. Bilal then called the prayer, and the people waited for him, but he did not come out. This caused his Companions concern, so some of them entered and found him unclothed. Then Allah Most High revealed: ‘Do not keep your hand chained to your neck.’” (1)

That is, do not withhold your hand from spending in what is right, like a person whose hand is chained and unable to stretch it out. “Nor extend it” in giving “completely,” such that you give away everything you possess, “lest you become blameworthy”: those who ask you will blame you for withholding when you are unable to give them. The blameworthy person is one who has done something for which he blames himself, or for which others blame him. “And destitute”: utterly depleted, with nothing left to spend. One says, “I exhausted him through asking,” when one persistently presses him for something. A beast is described as exhausted when it is weary and weighed down.

Qatadah said: “Destitute” means regretful over what you have done excessively.

“Indeed, your Lord grants abundant provision”: that is, He expands it. “To whom He wills, and restricts it”: that is, He makes it scarce and constricted. “He is surely All-Aware, All-Seeing of His servants.”

His saying, “And do not kill your children for fear of poverty,” means poverty. The people of the Age of Ignorance used to bury their daughters alive for fear of want; thus they were forbidden from doing so and informed that their provision and the provision of their children rests with Allah Most High. “Surely killing them is a grave sin.”

Ibn Amir and Abu Ja‘far recited it as khata’an, with the letters kha and ta carrying the vowel a, without elongation. Ibn Kathir recited it as khita’an, with the letter kha carrying the vowel i and with elongation. The others recited it, 209/a, with the letter kha carrying the vowel i and the letter ta vowelless. All these readings have one meaning: a grave sin.