Abraham
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[14:31]
[And] tell [those of] My servants who have attained to faith that they should be constant in prayer and spend [in Our way], secretly and openly, out of what We provide for them as sustenance, ere there come a Day when there will be no bargaining, and no mutual befriending.

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* v.31 : See sūrah 2, note 4.
* Cf. 2:254. According to the philologist Abū ‘Ubaydah, as quoted by Rāzī, the expression bay‘ (“selling and buying” or “bargaining”) denotes here the metaphorical “[giving and taking] ransom” which, as the Qur’ān repeatedly stresses, will be inadmissible on the Day of Judgment (cf. 3:91 and the corresponding note 71, as well as 5:36, 10:54, 13:18, 39:47, and 70:11-l5) similarly, the denial of khilāl – which Abū ‘Ubaydah regards as synonymous, in this context, with mukhālah (“mutual befriending”) – expresses the impossibility of “ransom” through intercession on Judgment Day, for “now, indeed, you have come unto Us in a lonely state, even as We created you in the first instance” (6:94).