of the Prophet, peace and blessings of God be upon him: "{And out of what We have provided for them they spend}: this is a man's spending on his family. And this was before Zakat was revealed (1)."

The most appropriate of the interpretations of the verse, and the most fitting for the description of the people, is that they were fulfilling all that was obligatory upon them in their wealth, whether that was Zakat or the maintenance of those whose maintenance was obligatory upon them, such as family, dependents, and others whose maintenance is obligatory upon them by virtue of kinship, ownership, and the like. This is because God, may His praise be exalted, generalized their description when He described them as spending from what He provided them, and thus praised them for this attribute of theirs. So it was known that since He did not restrict His praise and description of them to one type of praiseworthy spending to the exclusion of another type, by a report or otherwise, they are described by all forms of praiseworthy spending from the good things their Lord provided them of their wealth and possessions, and that is the lawful part of it which is not mixed with the prohibited.

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The statement concerning the interpretation of His statement, may His praise be exalted: {And who believe in what has been revealed to you, and what was revealed before you}

The explanation of those described by this attribute, and which categories of people they are, has already preceded (2). However, we will mention what has been narrated regarding that from those from whom a statement concerning its interpretation has been narrated:

289- Ibn Ḥumayd narrated to us, he said: Salama narrated to us, from Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, from Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad the freed slave of Zayd ibn Thābit, from ʿIkrima, or from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās: "{And who believe in what has been revealed to you, and what was revealed before you}: meaning, they believe you