And His words:

“You would have found Me with him”

are an expression denoting location. Each expression affirms the true meaning of true indwelling—through faith, not in essence—and explains His words:

“I was ill, but you did not visit Me.”

For if the Lord were identical with the sick person and the hungry person, then, upon visiting and feeding that person, one would have found Him to be that very person, and found that He had eaten the food.

There is a fine distinction between His words concerning the sick person:

“You would have found Me with him,”

and His words concerning the hungry person:

“You would have found that with Me.”

The sick person whom it is recommended to visit, and with whom one finds Allah, is the believer in his Lord who is in accord with his God and bound to Him in devoted friendship. As for the person receiving food, the wording may encompass every hungry person whom it is recommended to feed, for Allah says:

“Who is it that will lend Allah a good loan, so that He may multiply it for him many times over?”

Thus, anyone who gives obligatory or recommended charity has lent to Allah, glorified is He, through what he has given to His servant.

It is established in the Sahīh that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Whoever gives in charity the equivalent of a date from wholesome earnings—and Allah accepts only what is wholesome—Allah takes it in His right hand and nurtures it as one of you nurtures his foal or weaned camel calf, until it becomes like a mighty mountain.”

He also said:

“Charity indeed reaches the hand of the True One before it reaches the hand of the beggar.”

The more likely interpretation, however, is that the servant mentioned in connection with hunger is the same as the one mentioned in connection with illness: the servant who is Allah’s devoted ally, in whom there is a kind of union, even though Allah also rewards feeding an openly sinful person or a non-Muslim under Muslim protection.

A parallel to lending is giving support, as in the words of the Most High:

“And so that Allah may know who supports Him