It is not piety that you turn your faces in prayer to the East and to the West. This was revealed in response to the claim made by the Jews and the Christians to this effect. True piety that is the pious person al-birr is also read al-barr in the sense of al-bārr ‘the dutiful person’ is that of the one who believes in God and the Last Day and the angels and the Book that is the scriptures and the prophets and who gives of his substance however despite it being cherished by him to kinsmen and orphans and the needy and the traveller and beggars and for the setting free of slaves both the captive and the one to be manumitted by contract; and who observes prayer and pays the alms that are obligatory and what was given before alms were made obligatory in the way of charity; and those who fulfil their covenant when they have engaged in a covenant with God or with others those who endure with fortitude al-sābirīna is the accusative of laudation misfortune al-ba’sā’ is abject poverty hardship illness and peril at the height of a battle in the way of God; these described in the way mentioned are the ones who are truthful in their faith and in their claims to piety and these are the ones who are fearful of God.
