O you who believe, when you contract a debt for a fixed term, write it down.
Do not tire of writing it down, small or large, with its term.
2:282 is the longest verse of the Qur'an: 144 words on a debt, a scribe who writes fairly, and witnesses.
Do not conceal testimony.
Whoever conceals it, his heart is sinful.
Read it again. It does not say: he is sinful. It says: his heart is sinful, âthimun qalbuhu.
Concealing a testimony is done by keeping silent: a fault of the tongue, you would think. The verse names the heart.
Al-Qurtubî asks why the heart is singled out. His first answer: concealing is one of the acts of the heart.
His second: the heart is the morsel of flesh by which, when it is sound, the whole body is sound.
The Prophet ﷺ said: there is a piece of flesh in the body; if it is sound, the whole body is sound. It is the heart.
Al-Qurtubî also cites al-Kiyâ: decided in the heart, held back by the tongue. The sin is on both.
And he concludes: “his heart is sinful” is a figure of speech, and a stronger warning than plain words would be.
Ibn 'Abbâs (may Allah be pleased with him): false testimony is among the greatest sins; hiding a true one is the same.
“His heart is sinful”: that is, say the early commentators, fâjirun qalbuhu, his heart is corrupt.
The Day when neither wealth nor children will benefit,
except the one who comes to Allah with a sound heart.
Qalbun salîm, a sound heart: a heart free of impurity and of shirk, unlike the sick hearts of 2:10.
The expression comes twice in the Qur'an: here, in a prayer of Ibrâhîm (peace be upon him), and in 37:84, about him.
Put the two verses side by side: a heart that sins by hiding, and the only heart that will count on that Day.
The longest verse of the Qur'an is about a debt, a scribe and two witnesses.
Right after it, one phrase names the sinner. Not the man: his heart.
A debt written down, a witness who speaks, a heart that hides nothing: this is what the longest verse asks of you.
Tonight, think of one thing you owe someone, money or a word held back, and settle what you can.