The Command for Prayer and Charity

Allah orders His servants to obey Him, fulfill His rights and be kind to His creatures. He ordained the prayer, which affirms the worship of Allah alone, without partners, and to spend from the provisions that He has granted them, by paying the due Zakah, spending on relatives and being kind to all others. Establishing the prayer requires performing it on time, perfectly, preserving its act of bowing having humility during it, and preserving its prostrations. Allah has ordained spending from what He granted, in secret and public, so that the people save themselves,

مِّن قَبْلِ أَن يَأْتِىَ يَوْمٌ

Said in the last sentence of verse 31 was: مِّن قَبْلِ أَن يَأْتِيَ يَوْمٌ لَّا بَيْعٌ فِيهِ وَلَا خِلَالٌ (be-fore there comes a day in which there is neither trade nor friendship). The word: خِلَال (khilal) used here can be taken as the plural form of خُلَّۃُ (khullah) which means selfless friendship. Then, this word could also be taken as a verbal noun of the derived form of مُفَاعلۃ (mufa` alah), such as qital, difa` etc. In that case, it would mean a friendship between two per-sons which is mutual and sincere. This sentence relates to both the injunctions of Salah and Sadaqah described above.

The core sense of the injunction is that now is the time to act. Allah Ta` ala has blessed you with the necessary strength and time to make your Salah. And if you have missed any of your Salah in the past due to negligence, make amends and do the qala' (replacement of missed Salah) for it. Similarly, your wealth is in your possession today and by spending it in the way of Allah you can make it work for you particularly for the good of your eternal life. But, lest you forget, the day is coming when both these options will be taken away from you. Neither will your bodies remain active enough to make your Salah, nor will you have any wealth in your possession which you could use to pay for rights wasted. And on that day, there is going to be no buying and selling, no transactions through which you could buy something, through which you could expiate for shortcomings and sins. And on that day, mutual friendships and personal relationships will not work as well. No friend, no matter how dear, will be able to carry the burden of sins committed by another, nor will he find any way to somehow remove the punishment due against him.