Children are presented in these verses as an adornment of worldly life, whose abundance can become a lure leading to ruin. By extension, the expression ibn as-sabil, literally son of the road, refers to the traveler, who must be given from one’s wealth and has a share of zakat. The verses also report the claim of some People of the Book to be the children of Allah, and the Qur’an’s reply.
Verses gathered from a topical index of the Quran, in Mushaf order; every verse is quoted in full.
And know that anything you obtain of war booty - then indeed, for Allāh is one fifth of it and for the Messenger and for [his] near relatives and the orphans, the needy, and the [stranded] traveler, if you have believed in Allāh and in that which We sent down to Our Servant on the day of criterion [i.e., decisive encounter] - the day when the two armies met [at Badr]. And Allāh, over all things, is competent.
