“What is the matter with you that you do not believe in Allah, while the Messenger calls you to believe in your Lord, and He has already taken your covenant, if you are believers? (8) He is the One who sends down to His servant clear verses, so that He may bring you out of darkness into light. Indeed, Allah is Most Kind and Most Merciful to you. (9) And what is the matter with you that you do not spend in the way of Allah, when to Allah belongs the inheritance of the heavens and the earth? Those among you who spent and fought before the Conquest are not equal to those who spent and fought afterward. They are greater in rank; yet Allah has promised each of them the best reward. And Allah is All-Aware of what you do. (10)”
“What is the matter with you that you do not believe in Allah, while the Messenger calls you to believe in your Lord, and He has already taken your covenant?” Abu Amr recited it in the passive: “your covenant has been taken,” with the initial hamzah vowelled with dammah, the kha vowelled with kasrah, and “your covenant” in the nominative, since its agent is not named. The others recited it with the hamzah, kha, and qaf vowelled with fathah: that is, Allah took your covenant when He brought you forth from Adam’s loins, that Allah is your Lord and that you have no deity besides Him. This was stated by Mujahid.
It was also said: He took your covenant by establishing the proofs [153/a] or evidences that call for following the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him. “If you are believers”—that is, if you had ever believed at any time, then now is all the more fitting a time for you to believe, because the proofs have been established and the mission of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, has been proclaimed, and the Quran has been sent down.
“He is the One who sends down to His servant”—Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him—“clear verses,” that is, the Quran (1), “so that He may bring you out”—that is, so that Allah may bring you out through the Quran—“from darkness into light.” It was also said: so that the Messenger may bring you out through his call from darkness into light; that is, from the darknesses of polytheism into the light of faith. “Indeed, Allah is Most Kind and Most Merciful to you.”
“And what is the matter with you that you do not spend in the way of Allah, when to Allah belongs the inheritance of the heavens and the earth?” That is, what excuse do you have for refraining from spending in that which brings one near to Allah, when you will die and leave your wealth behind? He then clarifies the virtue of those who preceded others in spending in the way of Allah and in striving in His cause, saying: “Those among you who spent before the Conquest”—meaning the conquest of Mecca, according to the majority of the exegetes. Al-Shabi said: it refers to the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah—“and fought.” That is, in merit, the one who spent his wealth and fought the enemy alongside the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, before the conquest of Mecca is not equal to one who spent and fought afterward: “They are greater in rank than those who spent afterward and fought.” Muhammad ibn Fudayl narrated from al-Kalbi that this verse was revealed concerning Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, may Allah be pleased with him, for he was the first to embrace Islam and the first to spend his wealth in the way of Allah (2).