(254) “O you who believe, spend from what We have provided you before there comes a Day in which there will be no trade, no close friendship, and no intercession. It is the disbelievers who are the wrongdoers.”

It is part of Allah’s kindness to His servants that He commands them to offer some of what He has provided them in obligatory and voluntary charity, so that it may become a treasure stored up for them and an abundant reward on a Day when those who did good will need even an atom’s weight of goodness. There will be no trade on that Day. Even if a person offered an earthful of gold to ransom himself from the punishment of the Day of Resurrection, it would not be accepted from him. Neither close companion nor friend would benefit him, whether through influence or intercession.

It is the Day on which the followers of falsehood will suffer loss and disgrace will befall the wrongdoers. They are those who put things where they do not belong: they neglected their obligations toward Allah and His servants and transgressed beyond what is lawful into what is forbidden. The gravest form of wrongdoing is disbelief in Allah, which means taking worship that must be devoted exclusively to Allah and directing it instead to a created being like oneself. Allah Most High therefore said, “It is the disbelievers who are the wrongdoers.” This is a statement of exclusivity, meaning that they are the ones in whom wrongdoing is fully realized, as Allah Most High said, “Indeed, associating partners with Allah is a grave wrongdoing.” Then Allah Most High said: