has authority over you. The believer therefore wishes to be subject to no authority except that of Allah, His Messenger, and those who obey Allah and His Messenger. Accepting people’s money gives them authority over him. If his intention is to free himself from this authority and coercion, that is good and praiseworthy, and it safeguards his religious integrity. But if he intends to place himself above them, assume leadership over them, and make an ostentatious display of the former attitude, that is blameworthy. By refraining from accepting their money and leaving it with them, he may also intend to maintain his independence from them.

These, then, are four worthy aims: his own independence; his dignity, so that he neither depends on people nor abases himself before them; and the preservation of their wealth and their religion. Their wealth is thus not diminished: he neither deprives them of it nor, by accepting it from them, draws them into exercising a dominance over him that he would not wish for them. This benefits him by sparing him humiliation and dependence on them, and benefits them by preserving their wealth and religion.

There may also be benefit in winning their hearts by leaving their money with them, so that they accept what he tells them. Just as their hearts are won by giving to them, they may likewise be won by leaving their money with them. This may also safeguard their religion, for when money is accepted from them, they too may become emboldened to commit various sins and abandon various acts of obedience, refusing to accept commands to do what is right and prohibitions against what is wrong. There are other benefits and worthy aims in this as well.

If, however, accepting their money leads them to expect something of him, so that they enlist his help in sin or prevent him from an act of obedience, these are further harms. They are numerous, and all stem from his subservience to them and his dependence on them. They cannot prevent him from an act of obedience unless he is subservient to them or dependent on them, nor can they employ him in sin except under those same conditions. For giving calls for recompense and reciprocation. If no worldly repayment is forthcoming in the form of money or some benefit, all that remains is the benefit they expect to receive from him.