This is al-Rāzī’s tafsīr (Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb, the Tafsīr al-Kabīr) on the same verse, Āl ʿImrān 3:134. Al-Rāzī organizes it differently from Qurtubī — he treats the verse as a list of attributes you deliberately acquire to earn Paradise, and he ends with a beautiful synthesis that ties all three together. I’ll arrange the actual text faithfully, give Insight/Lessons, then teach the whole thing simply.

The verse

﴿الَّذِینَ یُنفِقُونَ فِی السَّرَّاۤءِ وَالضَّرَّاۤءِ وَالۡكَاظِمِینَ الۡغَیۡظَ وَالۡعَافِینَ عَنِ النَّاسِۗ وَاللَّهُ یُحِبُّ الۡمُحۡسِنِینَ﴾ [آل عمران ١٣٤]

“Those who spend in ease and in hardship, who restrain their anger, and who pardon people — and Allah loves the doers of good.”

al-Rāzī’s framing: When God made clear that Paradise is prepared for the muttaqīn (the God-conscious), He then listed their attributes (ṣifāt) — so that a person can earn Paradise by acquiring those very attributes. The rest of the passage walks through them one by one.

The First Attribute — ﴿الَّذِينَ يُنْفِقُونَ فِي السَّرَّاءِ وَالضَّرَّاءِ﴾ (“who spend in ease and hardship”)

Al-Rāzī gives three aspects (wujūh):

First: They do not abandon spending in times of prosperity, ease and ability — nor in hardship. In short: al-sarrāʾ = wealth (al-ghinā), al-ḍarrāʾ = poverty (al-faqr). It is related of some of the salaf that one of them sometimes gave a single onion in charity; and of ʿĀʾisha (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhā) that she gave a single grape in charity.

Second: Whether they are in joy or grief, hardship or ease, they never abandon doing good to people (al-iḥsān ilā al-nās).

Third: That good-doing and spending — whether it pleases them (because it agrees with their nature) or pains them (because it goes against their nature) — they do not abandon it. And God opened with the mention of spending (infāq) because it is a difficult act of obedience (ṭāʿa shāqqa), and because at that time it was the noblest act of obedience, owing to the need for it in fighting the enemy and supporting the poor among the Muslims.

Insight / Lesson: Notice al-Rāzī’s onion and the grape. The verse isn’t about the size of the gift — it’s about the constancy of the giver. The person God describes gives when rich and when poor, when happy and when sad, when it feels good and when it stings. And there’s a quiet motivational point: God led with spending precisely because it’s the hardest — He puts the heaviest weight first, since that’s where the real test of sincerity lies.

The Second Attribute — ﴿وَالْكَاظِمِينَ الْغَيْظَ﴾ (“who restrain their anger”)

Al-Rāzī splits this into two issues.

Issue 1 — the language of kaẓm

kaẓama ghayẓahu = he stayed silent over it and showed it neither in word nor deed. al-Mubarrid said its meaning is that he concealed it while full of it. You say:

• kaẓamtu al-siqāʾ = I filled the waterskin and sealed it shut.
• fulānun lā yakẓimu ʿalā jarratihi = “so-and-so can’t hold anything in” (can’t bear anything).
• Everything you block — a watercourse, a door, a road — is kaẓm, and what you block it with is called al-kiẓāma or al-sidāda.
• An underground canal is called kiẓāma because it’s full of water like sealed waterskins (al-qirab al-makẓūma).
• akhadha fulānun bi-kaẓmi fulānin = he seized him by his windpipe (the breath-passage) — because that’s the place of being filled with breath.
• kaẓama al-baʿīr kuẓūman = the camel held in what was in its belly and did not chew the cud.

So ﴿وَالْكَاظِمِينَ الْغَيْظَ﴾ means those who hold their rage back from being carried out, returning it into their bellies. This trait is one of the kinds of patience (ṣabr) and forbearance (ḥilm) — like His saying: ﴿وَإِذَا مَا غَضِبُوا هُمْ يَغْفِرُونَ﴾ [الشورى: ٣٧] (“and when they are angered, they forgive”).

Issue 2 — the hadiths

• The Prophet ﷺ: “Whoever restrains rage while able to carry it out, Allah fills his heart with security and faith (amnan wa īmānan).”
• The Prophet ﷺ told his Companions: “Give charity.” So they gave gold, silver, and food. One man brought date-peelings and gave them in charity. Another came and said: “By Allah, I have nothing to give in charity — but I give my honor in charity: I will not punish anyone for what he says about me in his talk.” Later a delegation from that man’s people came to the Messenger ﷺ, and he said: “A man among you gave a charity, and Allah accepted it from him — he gave his honor in charity.“
• The Prophet ﷺ: “Whoever restrains rage while able to carry it out, Allah will marry him from the ḥūr al-ʿīn wherever he wishes.”
• The Prophet ﷺ: “There are no two gulps more beloved to Allah than a painful gulp a person swallows with patience and good composure, and a gulp of rage he restrains.”
• The Prophet ﷺ: “The strong one is not the wrestler — but the one who controls himself at anger.“

Insight / Lesson: Again the imagery is the heart of it: kaẓm is the word for a sealed full waterskin, a blocked canal, even a gripped windpipe — all images of enormous pressure held in. To “restrain anger” is not to feel nothing; it’s to be full to bursting and still seal it shut. And look at the rewards al-Rāzī collects: a heart filled with security and faith, marriage to the ḥūr al-ʿīn — and the unforgettable man who, owning nothing, gave away his honor by vowing never to retaliate against anyone’s words. That’s charity of the soul, not the wallet.

The Third Attribute — ﴿وَالْعَافِينَ عَنِ النَّاسِ﴾ (“who pardon people”)

al-Qaffāl (raḥimahu Allāh) offered three possibilities for what this pardon refers to:

(1) Forgiving debtors. It may connect back to what was condemned in the polytheists’ practice of consuming ribā (usury); the believers were forbidden that and urged to pardon those in hardship (al-muʿsirīn). For God said right after the passage on ribā and lending: ﴿وَإِنْ كَانَ ذُو عُسْرَةٍ فَنَظِرَةٌ إِلَىٰ مَيْسَرَةٍ ۚ وَأَنْ تَصَدَّقُوا خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ﴾ [البقرة: ٢٨٠] (“If the debtor is in hardship, then a postponement until ease; and that you give it as charity is better for you.”)

(2) Waiving blood-money. It may be like what He said about the diya (blood-money): ﴿فَمَنْ عُفِيَ لَهُ مِنْ أَخِيهِ شَيْءٌ﴾ [البقرة: ١٧٨] (“But whoever is pardoned anything by his brother…”) — up to ﴿وَأَنْ تَصَدَّقُوا خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ﴾ [البقرة: ٢٨٠].

(3) The mutilation of Ḥamza. It may be because of the anger of the Messenger ﷺ when they mutilated Ḥamza, and he said: “I will surely mutilate them.” So he was urged to restrain that rage, be patient, and refrain from the mutilation (muthla) he had mentioned — and his leaving that act was itself pardon (ʿafw). God said in that very story: ﴿وَإِنْ عَاقَبْتُمْ فَعَاقِبُوا بِمِثْلِ مَا عُوقِبْتُمْ بِهِ ۖ وَلَئِنْ صَبَرْتُمْ لَهُوَ خَيْرٌ لِلصَّابِرِينَ﴾ [النحل: ١٢٦] (“If you punish, punish with the like of what you were afflicted with; but if you are patient, it is better for the patient.”)

Then two more proofs of the rank of pardon:

• The Prophet ﷺ: “A servant does not become a man of true merit (dhū faḍl) until he connects with the one who cut him off, pardons the one who wronged him, and gives to the one who deprived him.“
• Narrated from ʿĪsā ibn Maryam (peace be upon him): “Iḥsān is not that you do good to one who did good to you — that is mere repayment (mukāfaʾa). True iḥsān is that you do good to the one who did evil to you.“

Insight / Lesson: al-Qaffāl shows that “pardon” isn’t one narrow thing — it stretches from forgiving a loan, to waiving the right to avenge a killing, all the way up to the Prophet ﷺ himself letting go of his rage over Ḥamza’s mutilation. And ʿĪsā’s line raises the bar to its summit: returning good for good is just break-even — the real iḥsān is returning good for evil.

﴿وَاللَّهُ يُحِبُّ الْمُحْسِنِينَ﴾ — and the grand synthesis

First a grammar note: the lām in al-muḥsinīn may be lām of genus (jins) — covering every doer of good, with these people included — or lām of the known (ʿahd) — pointing specifically to the people just described.

Then al-Rāzī delivers the jewel of the whole passage. Doing good to others (al-iḥsān ilā al-ghayr) is only ever one of two things:

(A) Bringing benefit to someone → this is ﴿الَّذِينَ يُنْفِقُونَ فِي السَّرَّاءِ وَالضَّرَّاءِ﴾. And it includes both spending of knowledge (infāq al-ʿilm) — teaching the ignorant and guiding the lost — and spending of wealth in good works and worship.

(B) Repelling harm from someone → and this is itself of two kinds:

• In this world: not answering their evil with more evil → this is ﴿وَالْكَاظِمِينَ الْغَيْظَ﴾ (restraining rage).
• In the Hereafter: clearing their liability (dhimma) from any claims against them on the Day of Judgment → this is ﴿وَالْعَافِينَ عَنِ النَّاسِ﴾ (pardoning people).

So this single verse maps every possible direction of doing good to others. And because all three share in being iḥsān, God gave their reward: ﴿وَاللَّهُ يُحِبُّ الْمُحْسِنِينَ﴾ — for Allah’s love for the servant is the most comprehensive of all the degrees of reward (aʿammu darajāt al-thawāb).

Insight / Lesson: This is the structural masterpiece. The verse looks like a random list — spend, restrain anger, forgive — but al-Rāzī shows it’s a complete system: every kindness is either giving a benefit or removing a harm; and removing a harm is either in this life (don’t retaliate) or the next (clear their debt before God). Nothing is left out. And the prize on top isn’t a garden or a reward — it’s God’s love itself, which contains every other reward inside it.

Now — let me teach you the whole thing, like you’re 15

Picture this: God says Paradise is ready for the “muttaqīn” (people careful about God). Then a student raises a hand: “Okay — but how do I become one of them?” This verse is the answer. It’s basically a checklist of qualities you can train yourself to build — collect these traits, and you’re building your way to Paradise.

Quality 1: Give — in every situation. Most people give when they’re rich and happy. This person gives when rich AND poor, happy AND sad, when it feels good AND when it hurts. And here’s the sweet part al-Rāzī mentions: one of the early Muslims once gave a single onion, and ʿĀʾisha once gave a single grape. It’s not about the amount — a grape is basically nothing — it’s about never switching the habit off. God even put giving first on the list because it’s the hardest thing, and that’s where you find out if someone’s for real.

Quality 2: Swallow your anger. The word here, kaẓm, is amazing. It’s the same word for tying a full waterskin shut so it doesn’t spill, for a blocked pipe, even for gripping someone’s throat — all pictures of huge pressure being held in. So “restraining anger” doesn’t mean you’re calm and feel nothing. It means you’re boiling inside and you keep the lid sealed. You could lash out — you have the power — and you choose not to. Look at the payoffs: God fills your heart with peace and faith, and there’s that incredible guy who had nothing to donate, so he donated his honor — promising he’d never get back at anyone who talked badly about him. The Prophet ﷺ also flips the meaning of “strong”: the strong person isn’t the one who wins fights — it’s the one who controls himself when furious.

Quality 3: Forgive people. Holding your anger in is good — but forgiving is the level above it. You actually let it go. al-Qaffāl shows how big this can get: it can mean forgiving someone who owes you money when they’re struggling, or even a family giving up their right to punish a killer and taking peace instead. And the biggest example: when Prophet Muḥammad’s ﷺ beloved uncle Ḥamza was killed and mutilated, the Prophet ﷺ in his grief said he’d do the same back — and God guided him to let the rage go instead. Then comes the line from Prophet ʿĪsā (Jesus) that says it best: being nice to people who are nice to you is just trading favors — anyone does that. Real goodness is being good to someone who was bad to you.

The punchline: God loves these people. Now the genius part — al-Rāzī shows this isn’t a random list at all. Every good thing you can do for another person is one of just two moves: either you give them something good, or you stop something bad from reaching them. And “stopping something bad” is also two things: in this life (you don’t hit back — that’s restraining anger) and in the next life (you forgive their debt before God — that’s pardoning). So:

• Give good → spending (money, and even teaching/knowledge)
• Block harm, now → restraining anger
• Block harm, forever → forgiving

That’s literally every way to be good to a human being, all packed into one verse. And the reward at the end isn’t gold or gardens — it’s “Allah loves the doers of good.” God’s love — which is the prize that has every other prize hiding inside it.

The whole verse in one line: Want Paradise? Become a person who gives in every condition, who seals their anger shut instead of striking back, and who forgives even those who wronged them — do that, and you win the greatest prize of all: God loves you.