Whatever God provided to His messenger from the people of the townships, then it shall be to God and His messenger; for the relatives, the orphans, the poor, and the wayfarer. Thus, it will not remain monopolized by the rich among you. You may take what the messenger gives you, but do not take what he withholds you from taking. Be aware of God, for God is mighty in retribution.
Translation endnotes
[59:7] The Quran clearly warns us against the power of a few wealthy people, and asks us to distribute the wealth of a nation among its population in a more egalitarian way. See 58:12. Contrary to the political alliance of many clergymen with the wealthy and the privileged throughout history, the Bible too contains many verses protective of the weak and poor. "He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous" (Psalm 146:7-8). "Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me: to break unjust fetters, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break all yokes? Is it not sharing your food with the hungry, and sheltering the homeless poor…?" (Isaiah 58:6-7). "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound" (Isaiah 61:1). The following verses from the Bible are very instructive today since it rejects unequivocally the deity of Jesus and the baptizing of Capitalism. "As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. 'Good teacher,' he asked, 'what must I do to inherit eternal life?' 'Why do you call me good?' Jesus answered. 'No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'' 'Teacher,' he declared, 'all these I have kept since I was a boy.' Jesus looked at him and loved him. 'One thing you lack,' he said. 'Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.' At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, 'How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!' The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, 'Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.' " (Mark 10:17-25). Muhammed was both the messenger of God and elected leader of a diverse group in the city-state of Yathrib. As a leader and commander, he had the right to allocate the spoils of war. The verse does not mean that Muhammed gave us another book, or a television set, or silly stories, or numerous prohibitions; it is about a specific case, that is, the distribution of spoils of war. The followers of hadith and sunna, abuse this verse and take it out of context hoping to justify volumes of books containing numerous contradictory and silly hearsay reports. They want us to believe that to "take whatever Muhammed has given" means to take whatever story Bukhari and his ilk told several centuries after Muhammed's departure! See 49:1.