“Fighting has been prescribed for you, though it is hateful to you. Yet it may be that you dislike something while it is good for you, and it may be that you love something while it is evil for you. Allah knows, while you do not know.” (216)

Regarding His saying, “They ask you what they should spend”: it was revealed concerning Amr ibn al-Jamuh, who was an elderly and wealthy man. He said, “O Messenger of Allah, what should we give in charity, and on whom should we spend?” So Allah Most High revealed: “They ask you what they should spend.”

There are two grammatical analyses of the expression “what”: one is that it stands in the accusative as the object of “they should spend,” its meaning being, “What thing should they spend?” The other is that it stands in the nominative, with the meaning, “What is it that they should spend?”

“Say, ‘Whatever good you spend’”—that is, wealth—“is for parents, close relatives, orphans, the needy, and the wayfarer. And whatever good you do, Allah surely knows it well”: He will recompense you for it. The exegetes said: This was before zakah became an obligation, and it was abrogated by zakah.

Regarding His saying, “Fighting has been prescribed for you”: that is, jihad has been made obligatory for you. The scholars differed concerning the ruling of this verse.