Surah At-Tawba (9) — Ayah 59

(Ayah59) ➊ {وَ قَالُوْا حَسْبُنَا اللّٰهُ سَيُؤْتِيْنَا اللّٰهُ مِنْ فَضْلِهٖ …:} That is, if only! Instead of taunting and fault-finding, they had said this, because this would have been better for them, and surely Allah would have also bestowed His grace upon them. But where do these ungrateful people have the ability to utter such good words? Whenever they speak, they will speak in such a way that there is an aspect of disparagement towards Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him).

➋ Some people have forcibly tried to derive from this verse that just as Allah gives provision, so does the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), whereas these verses are discussing the distribution of spoils and charity during his lifetime. And if the impurity of shirk is not filled in the mind, then even in this verse, the words {’’حَسْبُنَا اللّٰهُ ‘‘} (Allah is sufficient for us), then between {’’سَيُؤْتِيْنَا اللّٰهُ ‘‘} and {’’ رَسُوْلُهٗۤ ‘‘} mentioning the grace of {’’ مِنْ فَضْلِهٖ ‘‘} Allah and separating the two, and at the end the words {’’ اِنَّاۤ اِلَى اللّٰهِ رٰغِبُوْنَ‘‘} (surely we turn only to Allah) clearly indicate that the only giver is Allah Almighty. Previously it was said: "If only they had been content with what Allah and His Messenger gave them." After that, the words are mentioned which have been mentioned above, whose meaning is that the real giver is Allah, but he used to distribute by His command, as the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: [ إِنَّمَا أَنَا قَاسِمٌ وَاللّٰهُ يُعْطِيْ ] [ بخاری، العلم، باب من یرد اللہ … : ۷۱ ] "I am only a distributor, the giver is only Allah." In his lifetime, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) used to distribute according to Allah's command; now, according to the method he taught, the Commander of the Faithful will distribute. Allah Almighty has commanded His Messenger (peace be upon him) in several places to declare that I do not own benefit or harm for myself or for you, and also that no one can help anyone except Allah. See Surah Jinn (21), A'raf (188, 197, 198), and Fatir (13 to 15). During the Battle of Tabuk, when some Mujahideen would come to him asking for mounts and he would say that I do not have mounts to give you, then the Mujahideen who could not obtain mounts would return weeping. See Surah Tawbah (92).

The exegesis of this verse has been done along with the previous verse.

59. How much better it would have been if they were content [64] with what Allah and His Messenger had given them, and said, "Allah is sufficient for us. Allah will give us of His bounty, and so will His Messenger. To Allah alone do we turn our hopes."

[64] That is, it would have been better for the hypocrites to place their trust in the person of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and to be content and satisfied with whatever Allah had already given them and what the Messenger had now given them. And if, according to their own assumption, they felt any deficiency, then for the future they should have looked towards the grace and bounty of Allah.