WHAT IS INFAQ (SPENDING IN GOD’S WAY)?

Depending on its place of use, infaq may mean to become fashionable, to encourage, to intend, to decrease, to leave, to die, to cease and to spend.18 A portion of these meanings can be found in the Qur’an and sunna. In the Qur’an, the term “infaq” is generally used in reference to spending.

While the term infaq means to run out or to end in the following verse, “…you would have held them (treasures of mercy) back for fear of them running out,” (Isra 17:100) it primarily indicates spending and the giving of charity in the way of God as demonstrated by the following verse: “O you believers! Spend from what We have granted you!” (Baqara 2:254; Munafiqun 63:10). Moreover, infaq embodies a variety of meanings in numerous recorded hadith. In one hadith, infaq denotes to encouragement and demand, whereas in another instance, it stands for the loss of blessings, “Giving fallacious vows in business eradicates its blessings.”19 It is worth mentioning that the word infaq is made use of in many verses that explicitly command sadaqa (charity) or zakat (prescribed purifying alms) in the way of God and this practically relates to spending in the required places when the necessity arises.20 And though infaq may have coalesced with zakat in many aspects, it is ultimately a concept of greater depth and more substantial meaning.