At a glance
counted111×
occurrences of the root n-f-q
88%
Madanī
The parable of the seed
interpreted· quran by quranThe Qur'ān prices the reward as a concrete image, not an abstraction.
مَّثَلُ ٱلَّذِينَ يُنفِقُونَ أَمْوَٰلَهُمْ فِى سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ كَمَثَلِ حَبَّةٍ أَنۢبَتَتْ سَبْعَ سَنَابِلَ فِى كُلِّ سُنۢبُلَةٍ مِّا۟ئَةُ حَبَّةٍ وَٱللَّهُ يُضَٰعِفُ لِمَن يَشَآءُ وَٱللَّهُ وَٰسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ
The example of those who spend their wealth in the way of Allah is like a seed [of grain] which grows seven spikes; in each spike is a hundred grains. And Allah multiplies [His reward] for whom He wills. And Allah is all-Encompassing and Knowing.
The founding image: 1 → 7 → 100.
وَمَثَلُ ٱلَّذِينَ يُنفِقُونَ أَمْوَٰلَهُمُ ٱبْتِغَآءَ مَرْضَاتِ ٱللَّهِ وَتَثْبِيتًا مِّنْ أَنفُسِهِمْ كَمَثَلِ جَنَّةٍۭ بِرَبْوَةٍ أَصَابَهَا وَابِلٌ فَـَٔاتَتْ أُكُلَهَا ضِعْفَيْنِ فَإِن لَّمْ يُصِبْهَا وَابِلٌ فَطَلٌّ وَٱللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌ
And the example of those who spend their wealth seeking means to the approval of Allah and assuring [reward for] themselves is like a garden on high ground which is hit by a downpour - so it yields its fruits in double. And [even] if it is not hit by a downpour, then a drizzle [is sufficient]. And Allah, of what you do, is Seeing.
The garden on a hill — giving that yields double whatever the rain.
Play with the multiplier
interpreted· quran by quranThe arithmetic of 2:261 is exact (1×7×100); the 'and Allah multiplies further' clause is beyond counting.
1
seed sown
7
ears each
100
grains per ear
1×7×100=700
The arithmetic is the verse's own image: one seed grows 7 ears, each bearing 100 grains — a 700-fold return on a single seed. The verse then adds a clause no slider can hold: “and Allah multiplies for whom He wills.” The count is the floor, not the ceiling.
What surrounds the mention
interpreted· quran by quranIn Al-Baqara the reward is priced, then immediately fenced by how the gift is given.
- Before2:254
First, the command to spend
Earlier in the same sūra the believers are told to spend from what We have provided before a Day comes with no bargaining and no intercession 2:254. Giving is urged long before its reward is priced — and it is rooted in having been provided for (the root r-z-q, infāq's closest statistical companion).
- The mention2:261
Spending 'in the way of Allah'
The seed-parable prices the act: fī sabīl Allāh, in the way of Allah, is what carries the multiplier 2:261. The direction of the spending, not merely the amount, is what is rewarded.
- After2:262
Then the gift is fenced
The very next verse guards the reward: those who spend and do not follow it with reminders or injury keep their wage 2:262. The gift is fragile — the giver can undo it after the fact.
- Then2:263
Kind words over wounding charity
The passage resolves not in more giving but in speech: a kind word and forgiveness outrank a charity followed by injury 2:263. The ethic finally turns on the receiver's dignity.
Guess first
interpreted· traditional Makkī/Madanī classificationTest your reading
Before you scroll: is spending (infāq) mostly a Makkan or a Medinan theme?
Where nfq lives in the Qurʾān
countedWord occurrences per sūrah, QAC morphology over the Ḥafṣ/Tanzil text. Revelation order is the traditional chronology, not a computed fact.
ن-ف-ق111 occurrences · 31 of 114 sūrahs
Counted from the QAC morphology over the Ḥafṣ ʿan ʿĀṣim (Tanzil) text — hover a bar for the sūrah. The Makkī/Madanī labels and the revelation ordering follow the traditional chronology: an inherited scholarly ordering, not a computed fact.
One root, two lives
interpreted· lexicon (Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, Mufradāt)The root n-f-q lives a double life. As the verb anfaqa it means to spend — open-handed giving, 68×. As the participle munāfiq it means the hypocrite — the two-faced, 27× more 63:1. Classical lexicographers trace both to nafaq, the tunnel with two exits 6:35: the giver lets wealth flow out one end, the hypocrite keeps a second, hidden exit for his faith. The bars above that rise in At-Tawba and Al-Munāfiqūn are largely this second sense — the same three letters, turned inside out.
The meeting verse — called to spend, tempted to withhold
interpreted· quran by quranThe one āya where spending (n-f-q) and withholding (b-kh-l) collide — the corpus's single infāq↔bukhl verse.
هَٰٓأَنتُمْ هَٰٓؤُلَآءِ تُدْعَوْنَ لِتُنفِقُوا۟ فِى سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ فَمِنكُم مَّن يَبْخَلُ وَمَن يَبْخَلْ فَإِنَّمَا يَبْخَلُ عَن نَّفْسِهِۦ وَٱللَّهُ ٱلْغَنِىُّ وَأَنتُمُ ٱلْفُقَرَآءُ وَإِن تَتَوَلَّوْا۟ يَسْتَبْدِلْ قَوْمًا غَيْرَكُمْ ثُمَّ لَا يَكُونُوٓا۟ أَمْثَٰلَكُم
Here you are - those invited to spend in the cause of Allah - but among you are those who withhold [out of greed]. And whoever withholds only withholds [benefit] from himself; and Allah is the Free of need, while you are the needy. And if you turn away, He will replace you with another people; then they will not be the likes of you.
You are the needy: withholding harms only the withholder — and God can replace a people who turn away.
Infāq and its opposite
interpreted· quran by quranThe Qur'ān stages the pair in one breath — you are called to spend, yet some withhold 47:38.
Infāq
الإنفاقSpending that circulates wealth and is rewarded many-fold.
What voids a charity?
interpreted· quran by quranTest your reading
The Qur'ān says a charity can be voided even after it is given. By what?
What spending leads to
interpreted· quran by quranOutcomes the Qur'ān attributes directly to giving.
How to give — the Qurʾān's own preferences
interpreted· quran by quranThe Qurʾān rarely commands that you give without saying how. Where it sets one way of giving above another, this is what it prefers — every ranking is the text's own word (khayr, «better»).
Openly, or in secret?
سِرًّا وَعَلَانِيَةًBoth are rewarded — those who give by night and day, in secret and in the open, have their wage with their Lord 2:274. But to conceal it and hand it to the poor is called better for you, and it wipes away some of your sins 2:271.
A gift, or a kind word?
قَوْلٌ مَعْرُوفٌA kind word and forgiveness are better than a charity followed by injury 2:263. Help that wounds the one helped is worse than no money given at all.
From your best, or your leftovers?
مِمَّا تُحِبُّونَYou will not attain true piety until you spend from what you love 3:92 — and do not single out the poor and worthless of your wealth to give away 2:267.
«They ask you what to spend»
interpreted· quran by quranTwice al-Baqara records the community asking mādhā yunfiqūn — what should we spend? 2:215 answers to whom; this āyah answers how much.
يَسْـَٔلُونَكَ عَنِ ٱلْخَمْرِ وَٱلْمَيْسِرِ قُلْ فِيهِمَآ إِثْمٌ كَبِيرٌ وَمَنَٰفِعُ لِلنَّاسِ وَإِثْمُهُمَآ أَكْبَرُ مِن نَّفْعِهِمَا وَيَسْـَٔلُونَكَ مَاذَا يُنفِقُونَ قُلِ ٱلْعَفْوَ كَذَٰلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ ٱللَّهُ لَكُمُ ٱلْـَٔايَٰتِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَفَكَّرُونَ
They ask you about wine and gambling. Say, "In them is great sin and [yet, some] benefit for people. But their sin is greater than their benefit." And they ask you what they should spend. Say, "The excess [beyond needs]." Thus Allah makes clear to you the verses [of revelation] that you might give thought.
Asked what to spend, the answer is one word: al-ʿafw — the surplus, what remains beyond need.
The rate the text never states
countedThe absence is checkable over the corpus: no percentage or fraction of wealth is attached to zakāt anywhere in the text (Ḥafṣ/Tanzil). The familiar 2.5% is sunnah and fiqh, not Qurʾān. Its meaning is interpretation.
The noun zakāh occurs 32 times, most often welded to prayer in one command — establish the prayer and give the zakāh. Yet the Qurʾān, which legislates inheritance in exact eighths and sixths 4:11, never once attaches a number to zakāt. No 2.5%, no threshold, no schedule — that arithmetic lives entirely in the sunnah. Where the text is asked directly for a quantity, it answers with a measure of a different kind: al-ʿafw — the surplus 2:219. On a page full of counted things, the one figure missing is the one most often asked for; the text fixes the direction of giving and leaves the amount between the giver and their need.
The ethic in full
interpreted· quran by quranيَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ لَا تُبْطِلُوا۟ صَدَقَٰتِكُم بِٱلْمَنِّ وَٱلْأَذَىٰ كَٱلَّذِى يُنفِقُ مَالَهُۥ رِئَآءَ ٱلنَّاسِ وَلَا يُؤْمِنُ بِٱللَّهِ وَٱلْيَوْمِ ٱلْـَٔاخِرِ فَمَثَلُهُۥ كَمَثَلِ صَفْوَانٍ عَلَيْهِ تُرَابٌ فَأَصَابَهُۥ وَابِلٌ فَتَرَكَهُۥ صَلْدًا لَّا يَقْدِرُونَ عَلَىٰ شَىْءٍ مِّمَّا كَسَبُوا۟ وَٱللَّهُ لَا يَهْدِى ٱلْقَوْمَ ٱلْكَٰفِرِينَ
O you who have believed, do not invalidate your charities with reminders or injury as does one who spends his wealth [only] to be seen by the people and does not believe in Allah and the Last Day. His example is like that of a [large] smooth stone upon which is dust and is hit by a downpour that leaves it bare. They are unable [to keep] anything of what they have earned. And Allah does not guide the disbelieving people.
The warning: charity voided by reproach and injury.
إِن تُبْدُوا۟ ٱلصَّدَقَٰتِ فَنِعِمَّا هِىَ وَإِن تُخْفُوهَا وَتُؤْتُوهَا ٱلْفُقَرَآءَ فَهُوَ خَيْرٌ لَّكُمْ وَيُكَفِّرُ عَنكُم مِّن سَيِّـَٔاتِكُمْ وَٱللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرٌ
If you disclose your charitable expenditures, they are good; but if you conceal them and give them to the poor, it is better for you, and He will remove from you some of your misdeeds [thereby]. And Allah, with what you do, is [fully] Acquainted.
Secret giving is better.
ٱلَّذِينَ يُنفِقُونَ أَمْوَٰلَهُم بِٱلَّيْلِ وَٱلنَّهَارِ سِرًّا وَعَلَانِيَةً فَلَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
Those who spend their wealth [in Allah 's way] by night and by day, secretly and publicly - they will have their reward with their Lord. And no fear will there be concerning them, nor will they grieve.
No fear, no grief.
لَن تَنَالُوا۟ ٱلْبِرَّ حَتَّىٰ تُنفِقُوا۟ مِمَّا تُحِبُّونَ وَمَا تُنفِقُوا۟ مِن شَىْءٍ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ بِهِۦ عَلِيمٌ
Never will you attain the good [reward] until you spend [in the way of Allah] from that which you love. And whatever you spend - indeed, Allah is Knowing of it.
You will not attain piety until you spend from what you love.
ٱلَّذِينَ يُنفِقُونَ فِى ٱلسَّرَّآءِ وَٱلضَّرَّآءِ وَٱلْكَٰظِمِينَ ٱلْغَيْظَ وَٱلْعَافِينَ عَنِ ٱلنَّاسِ وَٱللَّهُ يُحِبُّ ٱلْمُحْسِنِينَ
Who spend [in the cause of Allah] during ease and hardship and who restrain anger and who pardon the people - and Allah loves the doers of good;
Those who spend in ease and hardship alike.
وَأَنفِقُوا۟ مِن مَّا رَزَقْنَٰكُم مِّن قَبْلِ أَن يَأْتِىَ أَحَدَكُمُ ٱلْمَوْتُ فَيَقُولَ رَبِّ لَوْلَآ أَخَّرْتَنِىٓ إِلَىٰٓ أَجَلٍ قَرِيبٍ فَأَصَّدَّقَ وَأَكُن مِّنَ ٱلصَّٰلِحِينَ
And spend [in the way of Allah] from what We have provided you before death approaches one of you and he says, "My Lord, if only You would delay me for a brief term so I would give charity and be among the righteous."
Spend before death comes and the plea for delay.
Infāq in the web of concepts
interpreted· ijtihadi rayA hand-drawn map of neighbouring ideas, not a computed graph.
Return to the seed 2:261: one grain buried in the dark becomes seven ears, a hundred grains in each, and then — the verse says — God multiplies for whom He wills, past any number a page can hold. This atlas can count the root, map where it falls Makkī and Madanī, and show the single āya where giving meets withholding. What it cannot weigh is the intention that turns a coin into a seed — that the text leaves between the giver and God.