Charity and the Captive Who Ransomed Himself

Wa āmurukum bi-ṣ-ṣadaqah: and I command you to give ṣadaqah, charity. And then he gave them an analogy. He said: the analogy of that is like a man who is captured by the enemy, and they tied his hands to his neck — he's hopeless — and they brought him forward to execution. So this man is tied up; he has no way to run around, no way to defend himself; his hands are tied to his neck, and they're bringing him forward to chop off his head.

So this man, when he's going towards death, is bargaining with them to release him, and he's trying to ransom himself with money — bi-l-qalīli wa-l-kathīr, with little and with much. So he's giving them money, he's giving them money, he's giving them money, until they release him.

The meaning of this analogy is that by ṣadaqah — by giving ṣadaqah, and continuously giving ṣadaqah — we are ransoming ourselves from the Hellfire. We might be in a hopeless case: hands tied to the neck, going in the direction of the Hellfire. Give ṣadaqah throughout the way, until you die. And we hope that Allah (swt) — and we ask Allah (swt) — to free us all from the Hellfire. Ṣadaqah is a way of ʿitqun min al-nār: it's a way to free oneself from the Hellfire. So give, and Allah (swt) will give you more.