The good loan to God (qard hasan)

On al-Baqara 245, Sha'rawi holds that spending in God's cause is a loan to God. He takes a good loan to be one made from lawful money, and says its reward is multiplied by God's measure, not ours ^{1 2}.

Sha'rawi says that the word for loan means biting off a piece with the teeth. God uses the word because He knows how hard it is for a person to part with wealth. The lender hands over money hoping for its return, and God undertakes to repay it many times over ¹.

Sha'rawi says that giving to a needy person is in effect a loan to God, since God calls each servant into being and undertakes his provision. In spending for the cause, he says, the giver gives to God directly, not to a named person but to the general cause ¹.

He says the good loan comes from lawful money, and cites the saying about a woman who gave in charity from unlawful earnings: would that she had neither sinned nor given ². He reports a view that the loan's reward is greater than charity's, because charity is given once and lost, while the loan keeps the self attached and each act of patience brings a good deed. He does not name who holds this view ².

On al-Baqara 254 he holds that one spends from God's provision: the mind, the limbs and the material all belong to God, and the poor may one day be oneself ³. He distinguishes goods used directly from the price, which is not used directly, and says gold does not feed the hungry ⁴. He then says that on the Day there is no sale, no close friendship and no intercession except by God's leave, so spending must come before it ⁵.

These are Sha'rawi's readings. The classical jurists' and exegetes' discussion of the good loan, the academic view and any non-Sunni view have not been checked, so none is attributed to them.

The Sheikh cites a verse on lending God a goodly loan, and mentions a hadith in which an angel calls each day for a return for the giver and loss for the one who withholds. ⁶ He says that scholars called the world a loan to be returned, like a borrowed book, and that God lends us our lives, wealth and health. ⁷ He says that God owns a person's health and wealth for a time, and that a person who truly believes in God's ownership says so. ⁸ He says that wealth is lent and returned, that it passes between people, and that whoever respects a person only for his wealth does not respect him. ⁹

The Sheikh cites a verse stating that God bought from believers their selves and their wealth in exchange for paradise, and calls this a serious question of ownership. ¹⁰ He says that a sale implies two sides, asks how God could buy back what He gave, and holds that this needs explanation. ¹¹

The Sheikh recounts Abu al-Dahdah's response when the verse on the good loan was revealed: he gave away his garden and moved his family out of it (needs_source: the account of the story is not sourced in the recording). ¹²

The Sheikh describes a resolve to set aside a monthly sum for relatives and for debts, small but steady. ¹³ He gives the example of setting aside a hundred from a salary of two thousand each month, and says this is a true resolve (needs_source: the figures in the example are not sourced in the recording). ¹⁴

The Sheikh says that the principle of trade with God is love for Him, then love for the Prophet ﷺ, then waiting for His reward. ¹⁵