لن تَنَالُواْ ٱلبِرَّ حَتَّى تُنفِقُواْ مِمَّا تُحِبُّونَ
You will never attain virtue until you spend from something you are fond of. (3:92)
Isn’t it always a priority to keep the best for ourselves? Or at least keep those beloved things and give what’s unnecessary or less favored to us? This element of giving and taking is a necessary part of human life, and it’s quite rational to give something less favored to obtain a more favored one, especially in charities when, objectively speaking, there is no taking. However, it seems this is not exactly how the Holy Quran sees it. As mentioned above, we are expected to spend from what we ourselves are fond of so that we can attain virtues! So, the Holy Quran accepts the general idea of exchanging something for something better, but it says this transaction works only when you spend from what you yourself like. And the “virtue” this verse is talking about is whatever perfection possible, whether it’s spiritual or physical, social or personal; which in short means “whatever good and desirable.” So, this verse is telling us that if we want to achieve anything good, we have to spend what we like, as if giving something we really like to obtain something even better!
The next time you are about doing any charity, please consider this Quranic notion; for if you spend what you like, you’ll definitely attain something valuable in return.
