property should be maintained out of the profits of the property, the management being clearly in other hands. Thus wealth, though possessed by individuals, is recognized as a national asset, and a check placed upon the rights of the individual if money in his possession is being wasted. Sufahā’ is the plural of safīh which means a person deficient or unsound in intellect or understanding or having little or no understanding (TA., LL.). The commentators make various suggestions as to what is here meant by this word, some saying that it applies to women or children, but Ibn Jarīr rightly points out that this view is wrong, and the word conveys a general significance (IJ-C. IV, p. 153). In fact, minors are not spoken of in this verse at all, since they are mentioned separately in the verse that follows, and the sufahā’ of this verse are persons who, on account of deficiency or unsoundness in intellect, are unable to manage their own property.
This conclusion is further corroborated by the use of the word safīh in connection with the contracting of debts: “But if he who owes the debt is unsound in understanding (safīh) or weak (dza‘īf), or if he is not able to dictate himself, let his guardian dictate with fairness” (2:282). Here the safih and the dza‘īf are mentioned separately; the former signifying the weak in understanding, whether male or female, and the latter minors. Thus the Holy Qur’ān requires that persons who, on account of weakness of intellect, mismanage their property and squander their wealth should be deprived of the control of their property and maintained out of its profits, the control being handed over to some person who is called a waliyy (guardian) in 2:282.
This restriction on the exercise of rights of property by individual owners is spoken of in Ḥadīth collections as ḥajr (Bu. 43:19), which literally means what is forbidden, that being also the terminology of the jurists. Ḥadīth lays great stress on saving wealth from being wasted. Bukhārī has the following heading for one of his chapters: “There is no charity unless a man has sufficient to give, and whoever spends in charity and he is himself in want or his family is in want or he has a debt to pay, it is more in the fitness of things that the debt should be paid than that he should spend in charity or free a slave or make a