The Ocean of the Quran

A verse by verse explanation of The Ultimate Scripture

Al-Humazah – Verse 3

يَحسَبُ أَنَّ مالَهُ أَخلَدَهُ

He supposes his wealth will make him immortal.

EXEGESIS

Yaḥsabu (he supposes) is the imperfect tense of the verb ḥasiba, which literally means he thought, he supposed, and he assumed. Different derivatives of this term have been used forty-four times in the Quran with various conjugations and structures to indicate that certain concepts believed by people are misconceptions and wrong thoughts or beliefs.‎[1]

Akhlada (make immortal) is the transitive form of khalada which literally means he stayed in a place for a long period without any interruption, or he lived eternally.‎[2] In this verse the imagery used indicates the thought of the obsessed person, in that he thinks his wealth has the capacity to make him live eternally. So, the meaning would be: He thinks that his wealth has made him or will make him immortal, and that he can continue his life without the interruption of death or sickness. This obsession has made him replace God with his wealth.‎[3]

EXPOSITION

A desire of living eternally is embedded in every human, and this may be an indication that the human is created to live eternally.‎[4] Those who believe in the hereafter desire a better immortal life there, while those materialistically obsessed desire immortal life in this world.

According to the Quran and the Islamic narrations, wealth can be praiseworthy as long as it is taken as a means and does not become an end goal. In addition, wealth should not control its owner in a way that he becomes the slave of it; rather, he should have total control of it and be the master over it.‎[5]

Those obsessed with wealth, due to their great expectations and deep hopes of living eternally in this life, keep collecting and counting wealth because they think whatever they collect is not going to be enough to fulfil their expectations and hopes to live a longer life. Hence they are not satisfied, and the more their wealth increases the more their endless greed and lust increase in a way that they think they need more wealth to live longer. Thus, the lustful state of continuously collecting and counting their wealth converts them from being a simple rich person to an arrogant transgressor and oppressor over others, as indicated in 96:6-7: Indeed man becomes rebellious, when he considers himself self-sufficient. Consequently, this attitude makes him mock and slander others in order to diminish them,‎[6] perhaps thinking that others may take over his wealth or his economical position.

INSIGHTS FROM HADITH

  1. When Imam Ali (a) returned from the Battle of Ṣiffīn, he came to some graves outside Kufa and said: ‘O residents of the desolate houses in the deserted areas and inside the dark graves! O people of the dust! O victims of a strange place! O people of loneliness! And O people of desolateness! You have preceded us and we will follow and join you. Your houses have been inhabited [by others], the wives [you left] have been married, and the properties have been distributed [amongst your heirs]. This is the news from our side; what is the news from your side?’ Then Imam Ali (a) turned to his companions and said: ‘Beware! If they were allowed to talk, they would tell you: take provision, for indeed the best provision is God-wariness [2:197].’‎[7]
  2. Imam Ali (a) said to Kumayl ibn Ziyād: ‘O Kumayl! Knowledge is better than wealth, for knowledge guards you, while you must guard wealth; and wealth diminishes as it is spent, while knowledge increases as it is disbursed; and the results of wealth go away with the disappearance of wealth. O Kumayl! Those who hoard wealth perish even while they live, but the knowledgeable endure for as long as time subsists; their [material] forms are absent, but their [spiritual] images in the hearts are present.’‎[8]
  3. Imam al-Ṣādiq (a) said: ‘God, the almighty the exalted, has never created an inevitable thing as death in which there is no doubt. However, it resembles as a doubtful incident in which there is no certainty.’‎[9]

Note: Death is inevitable and certain, however, people are negligent in its occurrence, and thus the Imam has likened it to something doubtful, to express his astonishment at the attitude of people towards it.

REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE

An opinion about the use of the past tense verb akhlada, says that it means: he thought his wealth was what made him remain alive until now rather than the decree of God.‎[10] However, the context of the verse indicates otherwise, and therefore the meaning is more appropriately: he thinks that his amassed wealth would make him live eternally and forever.

INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS

  1. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.‎[11]

 

[1] https://corpus.quran.com/wordmorphology.jsp?location=(104:3:1).
[2] https://www.almaany.com/quran/104/3/4/.
[3] Imani, An Enlightening Commentary into the Light of the Holy Qur’an, https://www.al-islam.org/enlightening-commentary-light-holy-quran-vol-2.
[4] Imani, An Enlightening Commentary into the Light of the Holy Qur’an, https://www.al-islam.org/enlightening-commentary-light-holy-quran-vol-2.
[5] Imani, An Enlightening Commentary into the Light of the Holy Qur’an, https://www.al-islam.org/enlightening-commentary-light-holy-quran-vol-2.
[6] Mizan, 20/358.
[7] Nahj, saying 130.
[8] Maraghi, 30/239.
[9] Faqih, 1/194, h. 596.
[10] Qīsī, al-Hidāyah ilā Bulūgh al-Nihāyah, 12/8430.
[11] Timothy 6:9-10.