Overall meaning : Believe in Allah and worship Him alone, and believe and follow His Messenger, Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace); and spend in the cause of Allah out of His wealth with which He has entrusted you. Those of you who believe and spend in Allah’s cause will have a great reward. What is the matter with you that you do not believe in Allah, when His Messenger, Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), is inviting you to believe in your Lord, and Allah has already made a covenant with you whereby you pledged yourselves to believe in Him, if you are true believers?!
It is He who sends down the clear verses of the Qur’an to His servant, Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), to lead you out of darkness into light. Allah is indeed All-Compassionate, All-Merciful to you.
And what prevents you from giving to the cause of Allah out of what He has given you, when all that the heavens and the earth contain will finally revert to Him?!
Not equal in rank are those of you, believers, who spent their wealth and fought in Allah’s cause before the victory at Makkah and those who did not do so: Those who spent their wealth and fought in Allah’s cause before the victory will be higher in rank than those who spent their wealth and fought in Allah’s cause after the victory at Makkah. Yet to each has Allah promised the Best Reward—Paradise. Allah is fully aware of what you do.
Who is there to spend his wealth in the cause of Allah—thereby seeking Allah’s good pleasure, without following up what they spend with reminders of their generosity or with injury? Allah will surely recompense those who do so many times over and will give them a rich and honourable reward.