women of sound judgment. ‘Umar knew Abū Bakr better than his wives or anyone else did.

As for the other hadith, namely the saying:

“Do favors for the poor, for they will have their day—and what a day it will be!”

This too is a lie; no one has transmitted it. As for kindness to the poor whom Allah mentions in the Quran, Allah says of them:

“If you disclose your charitable gifts, that is good; but if you conceal them and give them to the poor, that is better for you.”

The passage continues as far as His words:

“For the poor who are constrained in Allah’s cause.”

There are also those entitled to fay’ (spoils obtained without fighting), namely the poor who fight in Allah’s cause, of whom Allah says:

“For the poor emigrants who were driven from their homes and their possessions,”

and the rest of the verse. Whoever shows kindness to them or to others must seek thereby the Face of Allah and seek nothing from any created being, whether in this world or the Hereafter. As the Exalted says:

“But the most righteous will be spared it: he who gives his wealth to purify himself, not to repay anyone for a favor received, but only seeking the Face of his Lord, the Most High. And he will surely be pleased.”

And He says:

“They give food, despite their love for it, to the poor, the orphan, and the captive. ‘We feed you only for the Face of Allah,’”

and the rest of the verse. Whoever asks the poor to supplicate for him or praise him falls outside the description in this verse. For the hadith in Sunan Abī Dāwūd states:

“Whoever does you a kindness, repay him. If you cannot find anything with which to repay him, then supplicate for him until you know that you have repaid him.”

For this reason, whenever ‘Ā’isha sent a gift to some people, she would tell the messenger, “Listen to the supplications they make for us, so that we may make the same supplications for them, and our reward will remain with Allah.”