Skip to content
الفتوحات المكية في معرفة الأسرار الملكية والمالكية

FUTMAK · Primary-text excerpts

Giving without humiliating the recipient

All annotated passages · Arabic source record · Open in the parallel reader

al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya · Cairo / Maymaniyya · volume 1, page 547 · chapter 70
Site passage ID: fm-p0011

Arabic source excerpt

فتكون المنة لله على السائل لا للمتصدق فإن الله طلب منه القرض والسائل ترجمان الحق في طلب هذا القرض فلا يخجل السائل إذا كان مؤمنا من المتصدق ولا يرى أن له فضلا عليه فإن المتصدق إنما أعطى لله للقرض الذي سأل منه وليربيها له فهذا من الغيرة الإلهية والفضل الإلهي

English translation draft

The favour towards the petitioner therefore belongs to God, not to the giver of charity. God has asked the giver for a loan, and the petitioner is the interpreter of the Real in requesting this loan. If the petitioner is a believer, he should not feel ashamed before the giver or think that the giver has superiority over him. For the giver has given to God, in response to the loan He requested from him and so that He may increase it for him. This belongs to divine protective jealousy and divine bounty.

Terminology and context

  1. Saʾil is the person asking; mutasaddiq is the giver of charity. The pronouns have been resolved in the English where the relation would otherwise become unclear.
  2. Tarjuman al-Haqq is “interpreter of the Real”, an image for the petition’s significance in the argument.
  3. Ghayra is rendered “protective jealousy”, retaining a difficult term rather than silently replacing it with generosity. The passage’s loan image is not a promise of a specified worldly financial return.

Cite this draft

Ibn al-Arabi, al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya, Cairo / Maymaniyya, 1:547, chapter 70. Futmak, “Giving without humiliating the recipient”, editorial translation draft (AI-assisted), 2026-10-25, fm-p0011.

https://www.futmak.com/english/passages/?id=fm-p0011

The source reference belongs to the printed edition; the passage ID belongs to this website.