The Cow

Surah: 2

Ayat: 271

Verse:

If ye publish your almsgiving, it is well, but if ye hide it and give it to the poor, it will be better for you, and will atone for some of your ill-deeds. Allah is Informed of what ye do.

Tafseer:

If you proclaim make manifest your voluntary almsgivings that is your supererogatory deeds it is a fine thing to show them; but if you conceal them and give them to the poor that is even better for you than making them manifest or giving it to the rich. As regards the obligatory almsgiving it is better to make it manifest so that it serves as an example and so that one is not accused falsely of not giving; as regards giving it to the poor this is obligatory; and it will absolve you of some of your evil deeds read yukaffir ‘it will absolve’ or nukaffir ‘We will absolve’ either in apocopated form with no final vowel yukaffir nukaffir being a supplement to the locus of fa-huwa ‘that is’ or with nominative inflection yukaffiru nukaffiru indicating the beginning of a new sentence. God is aware of what you do knowing its inner and outer aspects nothing of it being hidden from Him.