through you, while others may suffer harm on your account. O Allah, bring my Companions’ migration to completion and do not turn them back upon their heels. But pitiable indeed is Saʿd ibn Khawlah!” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ felt sorrow for him because he died in Mecca.
Lexical notes
– al-shaṭr (half): It may be read in the genitive by coordination with “two-thirds,” or in the accusative on the basis of an omitted governing verb such as “I allot.” The word carries several senses, one of which is “half,” and that is what is intended here.
– kathīr: with a thāʾ (ث) in most narrations, and this is the established wording.
– an tadhara (“that you leave”): the hamza of ʾan may be pronounced open (fatḥ) to denote purpose, or broken (kasr) to introduce a conditional clause. Al-Nawawī judged both readings sound. Some rejected the conditional reading because the subsequent word khayr (“better”) lacks the prefatory faʾ; Ibn Mālik, however, held that khayr itself serves as the apodosis, with the faʾ understood. The sense in either case is “it is better.”
– ʿālah / ʿāla: the plural ʿālah means “the poor,” derived from ʿāla yaʿīlu, “to fall into poverty.” Al-ʿaylah denotes poverty itself.
– yatakaffafūn al-nās (“to beg from people”): from kaff, “palm,” meaning they ask others with their outstretched hands.
– Saʿd ibn Khawlah: so named after his mother. He was a Qurashī from the ʿĀmir clan that included Abū ʿUbaydah ibn al-Jarrāḥ; another view holds he was a Persian from Yemen allied to Banū ʿĀmir. A veteran of Badr and one of the distinguished Companions, he died in Mecca during the Farewell Pilgrimage. His wife, Subayʿah bint al-Ḥārith, was pregnant at the time. The Prophet ﷺ lamented his death because Saʿd died in the very city from which he had emigrated; accordingly, the Prophet ﷺ prayed that the emigration of the rest of his Companions be brought to completion.
Overall meaning
During the Farewell Pilgrimage Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, may Allah be pleased with him, fell gravely ill and feared that death was near. The Prophet ﷺ visited him, as was his custom in caring for and consoling his Companions. Saʿd then presented to the Prophet ﷺ the reasons he believed justified giving away a large share of his wealth in charity.