11/04/2026
It has been authentically transmitted in both al-Bukhārī and Muslim that our noble Prophet (ﷺ) struck a profound comparison for this when he (ﷺ) said,
*_“The comparison of a stingy person and a giving person is like two men wearing two chain-mail cloaks from their chests to their collar bones. For the giving person, whenever he gives it expands” – or he said “it increases” – “over his body until it covers his fingers and covers his traces. As for the stingy person, he does not want to give anything. It sticks to him and every ring gets stuck in its place. He tries to make it looser but it does not loosen.”_*
[Reported by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ, no. 1443 and Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ, no. 1021. The wording here is al-Bukhārī’s]
The Prophet compared a giving person and a stingy person to two men each wearing a cloak made of iron to protect them. The norm is that this cloak covers the area from their chest to their collar bone - i.e. above the chest and below the neck.
Whenever the giving person increases in his gooddoing towards others and spending on the needy, this cloak expands and its chain-mail links increase, that is, they become wider and bigger until they cover his entire body and cover his fingertips. That is what the Prophet’s phrase, “until it covers his fingers” means. They also wipe away his footprints wherever he steps due to their length and size, which is the meaning of his statement, “and cover his traces.”
As for the stingy person who does not do good to others or spend his wealth in charity, then every link of this chain-mail cloak stays in its spot and no matter how much he wants to loosen this cloak to protect his body he is not able to do so.
This is such a profound comparison showing the effects of charitable spending versus stinginess on servant’s condition and spiritual life. Charitable spending, giving, and good-doing are all factors that expand one’s provisions, bring tranquility to one’s heart and relax one’s mind. They also contribute to erasing the traces of the sins which one has committed.
But the stingy person is the opposite of that. Whenever he wants to give charity, his soul feels constricted and he becomes tight-fisted with his wealth. This leads him to have a miserable life and a constricted chest. This misery and constricted feeling corresponds to how stingy he is and how far removed he is from doing good to others.
