بخل

Core meaning

To keep for oneself what one has received, refusing to give of it: stinginess, which ends by turning against the stingy one.

Uses

1. بَخِلَ, يَبْخَلُ → "to be stingy" : to hold on to the good received, when called to spend it.

   • «ٱلَّذِينَ يَبْخَلُونَ بِمَآ ءَاتَىٰهُمُ ٱللَّهُ مِن فَضْلِهِۦ» — "those who are stingy with what God has given them of His favor" (3:180)
   • «فَلَمَّآ ءَاتَىٰهُم مِّن فَضْلِهِۦ بَخِلُوا۟ بِهِۦ» — "But when He gave them of His favor, they became stingy with it" (9:76)

2. ٱلْبُخْل → "stinginess" : the fault itself, which the stingy enjoin upon others.

   • «وَيَأْمُرُونَ ٱلنَّاسَ بِٱلْبُخْلِ» — "enjoin stinginess upon men," (4:37)

3. يَبْخَلُ عَن نَّفْسِهِۦ → "to be stingy only against oneself" : stinginess falls back on the one who practises it.

   • «فَإِنَّمَا يَبْخَلُ عَن نَّفْسِهِۦ» — "is stingy only against himself" (47:38)

Evidence from the text

Stinginess always bears on a good received: what God has given "of His favor" (3:180, 4:37), what He gives to those who had promised to spend (9:75-76). It does not remain a private fault: the stingy "enjoin stinginess upon men," (4:37), as again in 57:24, and hide what they received.

The text turns it against its author. What was held back becomes what encircles: "They will be encircled by what they were stingy with" (3:180). The stingy one "is stingy only against himself" (47:38). In 92:8, stinginess opens a sequence of acts, considering oneself self-sufficient and denying the best, that leads toward hardship.

Distinctions

• شحح — greed: the disposition of the Self that holds back and covets, whereas stinginess is the refusal to give what one has received

See also

نفق (to spend) · كتم (to hide)