Illusory Wealth and Heavenly Investment in the Qur’an and Biblical Traditions

Abstract Scholars have identified various linguistic and textual threads woven into the qur’anic instructions regarding both material wealth and charity ( zakāh , ṣadaqah ). This essay argues that the qur’anic treatment of material wealth and charity is a coherent whole and has an even deeper biblical resonance than is currently appreciated. The article examines first the unreliability of wealth in qur’anic and biblical traditions (I), and then charity as – by contrast – a more secure sort of “investment” or even “loan” made to God (II). Attention to the relationship between charity and atonement in the biblical context may help explain the effects of charity in the Qur’an, namely purification and forgiveness for sin. In light of this, the article thus also suggests (III) that the Qur’an engages what is a coherent matrix of biblical and post-biblical theological understanding of the value of wealth and charity.