"Allah Is Poor, and We Are Rich"

Allah (swt) says, in another ayah, referring to another problem the Yahūd suffered from — another disease, that of blasphemy. They would speak ill of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), speak ill of the Muslims, speak ill of Islam, speak ill of Allah (swt). This ayah was revealed after a conversation between Abū Bakr and Finhas. Finhas was one of the Jewish rabbis in Madīnah, and Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (may Allah be pleased with him) was giving him daʿwah. Finhas responded by saying: "Your God is poor, and we are rich. How can He ask you to give charity? If your God is rich, He would not be asking you to give Him money — that proves that He is in need, and we are rich, and He needs us." Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq was quite upset at these words — even though he had given him daʿwah before, he started punching him in the face. Finhas rushed back to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) complaining: "This is what Abū Bakr did to me." The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told Abū Bakr, "Why did you hit him?" Abū Bakr said it was because he said this and that; Finhas then denied that he had said those words. So Allah (swt) reveals the āyah:

And the Jews would speak ill of the Muslims as well, so Allah (swt) said:

Allah (swt) is telling the Muslims that this is expected: they will make negative statements about the Muslims — their newspapers will write blasphemous things about them, their media will accuse them of things that are not true — this is only to be expected. But if they are patient and fear Allah, that is of the matters worthy of determination: such hostility will not affect Islam or the Muslims so long as the Muslims are patient and have taqwā, because the truth remains and lies vanish.