Al-Kanz Verse | 9:34

1. Al-Kanz Verse

Al-Kanz Verse, or the Verse of Treasure, is verse of Quran 9:34 in which Jewish clergies and Christian priests are condemned for treasuring up money.

"Kanz" means to treasure up too much wealth without paying God's due shares from it.

The verse concerns issues such as illegitimate possessions and oppositions to Islam by Jewish clergies and Christian priests.

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِنَّ كَثِيرًا مِّنَ الْأَحْبَارِ وَالرُّهْبَانِ لَيَأْكُلُونَ أَمْوَالَ النَّاسِ بِالْبَاطِلِ وَيَصُدُّونَ عَن سَبِيلِ اللَّـهِ ۗ وَالَّذِينَ يَكْنِزُونَ الذَّهَبَ وَالْفِضَّةَ وَلَا يُنفِقُونَهَا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّـهِ فَبَشِّرْهُم بِعَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ

O believers! Indeed most of the (Jewish) rabbis and (Christian) priests misappropriate the wealth of people and hinder them from the way of Allah.

And to those who hoard gold and silver and do not spend it in the way of Allah, proclaim a painful punishment.

— Quran 9:34

2. Contents

The word, "Kanz," and its cognates appear 9 times in the Quran.1

However, only verse of Quran 9:34 has come to be known as al-Kanz Verse, because this and its subsequent verse threaten divine punishment for treasuring up wealth.

Literally, "Kanz" means to gather and store.2

In religious terminologies, it came to mean the accumulation of excessive money without paying its religious due shares.3

Exegetes have interpreted and discussed this verse as a reprehension of illegitimate possessions and opposition to Islam by Jewish clergies and Christian priests4 and as a prohibition of treasuring up wealth.5

3. Interpretation and View of Exegetes

A number of exegetes believe that the 1st part of the verse is an explanation of its preceding verses in which Jewish and Christian clergies and priests are reprehended.6

This verse characterizes them as illegitimately manipulating people's money and property.7

To "misappropriate the wealth of people" is said to consist in receiving bribes for issuing rulings8 in favour of the powerful9

and to sell places in the Heaven in exchange for money,10 as well as taking possession of people's property in illegitimate ways.11

Moreover, "hinder them from the way of Allah" is interpreted by Quranic exegetes as referring to actions by Jewish clergies and Christian priests against Islam,12 their concealment of divine truths,13 and their prevention of people from converting to Islam.14

The majority of exegetes believe that the main theme of the 2nd part of the verse (beginning with "And to those who hoard gold and silver…") to be the prohibition of treasuring up wealth.15

They take "and" at the beginning of this part to be initiatory conjunction, and its following phrase to be independent of the previous part:

Thus, this latter part is addressed to the general audience, including both non-Muslims such as Jews and Christians and Muslims.16

In his al-Mīzān, Allāma Tabātabāʾī quotes al-Suyūtī as saying that when the Quran was compiled by Uthmān,

- an attempt was made to remove the conjunctive, "and those who",

so that the prohibition of, and the threat of punishment for, treasuring up wealth be restricted to the audience of the first part, that is, Jewish clergies and Christian priests,

- and thus, Muslims be excluded from it.

However, due to oppositions by Abu Dharr, the attempt failed.17

4. Notion and Conditions of Kanz

It is agreed by all exegetes that it is prohibited to treasure up and collect wealth.18

However, they disagree over the notion of "Kanz" and its limits, stemming from differences in relevant sources of hadiths.19

In short, different views of the notion of "Kanz" can be classified in 4 groups:

1) If the Zakat of the collected wealth is paid, then it does not count as Kanz.

Al-Sheikh al-Tusi, al-Tabrisī, and others appeal to a hadith from the Prophet (s) concerning the definition of "Kanz" that the phrase "and they do not donate it" means their refusal to pay the Zakat.20

2) Obligatory payments in a collected wealth go beyond Zakat, and thus, if all these religious payments are made, the wealth does not count as "Kanz."

Al-Fayd al-Kāshānī and Allāma Tabātabāʾī21 believe that donation includes obligatory payments other than zakat as well as recommended cases.22

Some people cite Abu Dharr's argument from the verse in his objection to Uthmān's and Muāwiya's (as well as their companions') accumulation of wealth,

- to show that the notion of Kanz goes beyond the payment of Zakat.23

In addition to hadiths, Allāma Tabātabāʾī also appeals to the term, "in the way of Allah," as an explication of the range of Kanz and donation.24

3) It is prohibited to accumulate wealth if it goes beyond the necessities of life, regardless of whether zakat and other religious debts are paid.25

This is maintained by Muhammad Riḍā Ḥakīmī and some Sunni exegetes.26

4) Makārim Shīrāzī believes that in ordinary economic circumstances of Muslims, one's wealth does not count as Kanz if its Zakat is paid, but in other circumstances other obligatory payments should be made in order for it not to count as Kanz.27

In Islamic jurisprudence and economics, the issue of Kanz has been considered by Muslim jurists and intellectuals,28 although the notion of Kanz in Islamic economics is different in both its notion and instances from that of exegetical texts.29

  • 1. Sarmadī, "Āyay-i Kanz," p. 121-122.
  • 2. Mīr Muʾizzī, "Mafhūm-i Kanz az dīdgāh-i ʿilm-i iqtiṣād", p. 28.
  • 3. Mīr Muʾizzī, "Mafhūm-i Kanz az dīdgāh-i ʿilm-i iqtiṣād", p. 28.
  • 4. Tūsī, al-Tibyān, vol. 5, p. 210.
  • 5. Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, vol. 7, p. 390; Tabātabāʾī, al-Mīzān, vol. 9, p. 332-354.
  • 6. Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, vol. 7, p. 390.
  • 7. Tabātabāʾī, al-Mīzān, vol. 9, p. 332-354.
  • 8. Tūsī, al-Tibyān, vol. 5, p. 210.
  • 9. Makārim-i Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, vol. 7, p. 390.
  • 10. Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, vol. 7, p. 390.
  • 11. Tabātabāʾī, al-Mīzān, vol. 9, p. 249; Tabrisī, Majma al-bayān, vol. 5, p. 47.
  • 12. Tabrisī, Majma al-bayān, vol. 5, p. 47.
  • 13. Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, vol. 7, p. 390.
  • 14. Tūsī, al-Tibyān, vol. 5, p. 210.
  • 15. Mīr Muʾizzī, "Mafhūm-i Kanz az dīdgāh-i ʿilm-i iqtiṣād", p. 28.
  • 16. Tabrisī, Majma al-bayān, vol. 5, p. 47.
  • 17. Tabātabāʾī, al-Mīzān, vol. 9, p. 256.
  • 18. Mīr Muʾizzī, "Mafhūm-i Kanz az dīdgāh-i ʿilm-i iqtiṣād", p. 33-40.
  • 19. Maḥmūdī Gulpāyigānī, "Taḥlīl-i fiqhī-yi aḥkām -i Kanz," p. 143-119.
  • 20. Tūsī, al-Tibyān, vol. 5, p. 210; Arūsī al-Ḥuwayzī, Tafsīr-i nūr al-Thaqalayn, vol. 2, p. 213; Tabrisī, Majma al-bayān, vol. 5, p. 47.
  • 21. Kāshānī, Tafsīr al-shāfī, vol. 2, p. 41; Tabātabāʾī, al-Mīzān, vol. 9, p. 332-354.
  • 22. Tabrisī, Majma al-bayān, vol. 5, p. 47.
  • 23. Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, vol. 7, p. 390.
  • 24. Tabātabāʾī, al-Mīzān, vol. 9, p. 332-354.
  • 25. Ḥakīmī, al-Ḥayāt, vol. 3.
  • 26. Mīr Muʾizzī, "Mafhūm-i Kanz az dīdgāh-i ʿilm-i iqtiṣād", p. 23-40.
  • 27. Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, vol. 7, p. 390.
  • 28. Maḥmūdī Gulpāyigānī, "Taḥlīl-i fiqhī-yi aḥkām-i Kanz," p. 119-143.
  • 29. Mīr Muʾizzī, "Mafhūm-i Kanz az dīdgāh-i ʿilm-i iqtiṣād", p. 28.