fai if without fighting,

What God has bestowed
On His Messenger (and taken
Away) from the people
Of the townships,- belongs
To God,-to His Messenger,
And to kindred and orphans,
The needy and the wayfarer;
In order that it may not
(Merely) make a circuit
Between the wealthy among you.
So take what the Messenger
Gives you, and
Refrain from what
He prohibits you.
And fear God; for God
Is strict in Punishment.

(Some part is due)
To the indigent Muhajirs,
Those who were expelled
From their homes and their
property,
While seeking Grace from God
And (His) Good Pleasure,
And aiding God and His Messenger:
Such are indeed
The truthful;-


The Jews had originally come from outside Arabia, and
seized on the land near Madinah. They refused to adapt
themselves to the people of Arabia, and were in fact a
thorn in the side of the genuine Arabs of Madinah. Their
dispossession is therefore a restoration of the land to
its original people. But the word "Fat" is here understood
in a technical sense, as meaning property abandoned by
the enemy or taken from him without a formal war. In
that sense it is distinguished from "Anfal", or spoils, taken
after actual fighting,

"The people of the townships": the townships were the
Jewish settlements round Madinah, of the Banu Nadhir,
and possibily of other tribes. "townships" mentioned
The reference cannot be to the Wadi-ul-Qura
(Valley of Towns), now Madain Salih, which was subjugated
after khaibar and Fadak in A.H. 7, unless this verse
is later that the rest of the Sura.

"Belongs to God": i.e., to God's Cause; and the beneficiaries
are further detailed. No shares are fixed; they depend upon
circumstances, and are left to the judgement of the Leader.
Compare a similar list to those entitled to Charity,
but the two lists refer to different circumstances and have
different beneficiaries in addition to the portion common
to both.

The Muhajir are those who forsook their homes and
property in Makkah in order to assist the holy Prophet
in his migration to Madinah (Hijrat). Their devotion
and sincerity were proved beyond doubt by their
self-denial, and they were now to be rewarded.