الآية رقم (7) - وَيَمْنَعُونَ الْمَاعُونَ

(7) - (And withhold assistance. (6))

The assistance is anything that can help and is beneficial, such as, a needle, an axe, a pot and others of the house instruments that can be borrowed and that which are not found in all houses since the poor do not have them. On the other hand, the assistance may refer to the all the good deed in general.

Thus, this is another characteristic of the materialist humans, that is connected with driving away the orphan.

Humans’ ways of dealing with the material issues in life are indeed connected with understanding the Islamic method, that is, the human soul naturally loves money and very assiduous in collecting it, so that, when money becomes insignificant to you, against what Allah (swt) commands you to do, then, you know that you are on the true path, otherwise, you are on the opposite side, in this case you have to reconsider yourself.

Pondering upon this Surah, we find that it includes commands that are connected with material issues which are the pillars of life and it includes, as well, innermost matters represented by the true prayer that leads to closeness to Allah (swt).

When these matters become straight the whole society becomes straight since everyone will feel that his loyalty is just to Allah (swt).

From here we notice the relation between Surah Al-Maa’un and Surah Quraysh which ends with:

    الَّذِي أَطْعَمَهُم مِّن جُوعٍ وَآمَنَهُم مِّنْ خَوْفٍ ﴿

 (Who has fed them, [saving them] from hunger and made them safe, [saving them] from fear.) (Quraysh: 4)

By which we realize that the essence of religion relates to granting the good to others.