“Whatever charity you spend, or vow you make, Allah knows it; and the wrongdoers will have no helpers. (270) If you disclose your charities, how excellent they are; but if you conceal them and give them to the poor, that is better for you, and He will erase some of your misdeeds. Allah is fully aware of what you do. (271) You are not responsible for their guidance; rather, Allah guides whom He wills. Whatever good you spend is for your own benefit. You spend only seeking the Face of Allah; and whatever good you spend will be repaid to you in full, and you will not be wronged. (272)”

Concerning His saying, Most High: “Whatever charity you spend,” meaning, in that which Allah has made obligatory upon you; “or vow you make,” that is, whatever you yourselves (1) have made binding upon yourselves in obedience to Allah, and then fulfilled; “Allah knows it,” meaning, He preserves it until He recompenses you for it. He said, “He knows it,” rather than, “He knows them,” because the pronoun refers back to the latter of the two, just as in His saying, Most High: “Whoever commits a fault or a sin, then casts it upon an innocent person” (al-Nisāʾ 4:112). Alternatively, it may be taken as referring to “whatever,” just as in His saying: “And what He has sent down to you of the Book and wisdom, admonishing you thereby” (al-Baqarah 2:231); He did not say, “thereby both.”

“And the wrongdoers”—those who give charity improperly, out of ostentation, or who give in charity from unlawful wealth—“will have no helpers”: that is, assistants who can ward off Allah’s punishment from them. It is the plural of naṣīr, just as ashrāf is the plural of sharīf.

Concerning His saying, Most High: “If you disclose your charities,” that is, make them public, “how excellent they are”: meaning, “What an excellent quality it is!” The word mā is in the nominative position, while hiya is in the accusative position, just as you say, “What an excellent man he is!” When it is made definite, it is put in the nominative, and you say, “What an excellent man Zayd is.” Its original form was niʿma mā, which was then joined together. The people of Madinah, other than Warsh, as well as Abū ʿAmr and Abū Bakr, recited it with the nūn vowelled with kasrah and the ʿayn quiescent. Ibn ʿĀmir, Ḥamzah, and al-Kisāʾī recited it with the nūn vowelled with fatḥah and the ʿayn with kasrah. Ibn Kathīr, Nāfiʿ in the transmission of Warsh, Yaʿqūb, and Ḥafṣ recited both with kasrah. All of these are sound linguistic forms, and likewise in Surat al-Nisāʾ.

“But if you conceal them,” that is, give them secretly, “and give them to the poor,” meaning, give them to the poor in secret, “that is better for you,” and more excellent. Both are accepted when the intention is sincere, but charity given in secret is better. In the hadith: “Charity given in secret extinguishes the Lord’s wrath.” (2)