Surah Al-Layl; Those Who Spend for Cause of God
Both groups will experience death and neither will take their money with them to the next world, according to Surah Al-Layl.
Al-Layl is the 92nd chapter of the Quran that has 21 verses and is in the 30th Juz. It is Makki and the 9th Surah revealed to the Holy Prophet (PBUH).
The word Layl (night) is mentioned 92 times in the Quran, including in the first verse of Surah Al-Layl, which has given it its name.
This chapter talks about two groups of people: Those who are pious and generous and those who are stingy.
Those in the first group give away on the path of God and spend their money to gain God’s contentment and purify their Nafs (self). The Quran promises them God’s contentment and salvation and happiness.
Those in the second group have impure hearts. They are stingy and consider the next world and paradise to be lies. The Quran threatens this group of facing destruction.
The Surah says these people do not help others due to their stinginess but they should know that their wealth will be of no benefit to them after death and on the Resurrection Day.
The Surah seeks to warn and help people understand what the result of their efforts will be. It says that some give away on the path of God and accept God’s promises. God, in return, gives them everlasting life full of happiness. Others are miserly, consider themselves independent and reject God’s promises. That is why they move toward destruction.
In interpreting Verse 12 of Surah Al-Layl, “Surely, in Our hands is guidance,” Allameh Tabatabei says in Al-Mizan Exegesis of the Quran that guidance sometimes refers to showing the path and sometimes means taking someone who is seeking guidance to where he wants to go. Guidance in this verse could mean both the first and the second.
If the first is the case, it means guiding people toward worshipping God, which is the aim of creation of mankind. And in the second case, it means guiding people to a pure life, paradise and eternal salvation.
