Encouraging the Self

Encouraging the self; it appears in His saying (And the example of those who spend their wealth seeking means to the approval of Allah and assuring [reward for] themselves)

Tathbīt al-nafs (firming the self): encouraging it to give and strengthening it.

And I leave you to live with the words of Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him):

(This is the example of the one whose spending stems from sincerity and truthfulness; for seeking His pleasure, glorified is He, is sincerity, and firming from the self is truthfulness in giving. For the one who spends is confronted, when he spends, by two afflictions; if he is saved from them, his example is what He mentioned in this verse:

The first of them: his seeking, through his spending, commendation or praise, or one of his worldly aims, and this is the state of most of those who spend.

And the second affliction: the weakness of his self in giving, its reluctance and its hesitation: should he do it or not?

So the first affliction is removed by seeking the pleasure of Allah,

And the second affliction is removed by firming; for firming the self is encouraging it and strengthening it, and pressing forward with it to give)

And also, righteous deeds have inner motives directed toward a single aim, which is Allah the Exalted. And that a person develops his inner motives and encourages himself by himself

"The virtue of spending by way of firming from the self; because it is driven by an inner motive, not by a recommendation from someone else, or advice; due to His saying, the Exalted: wa tathbītan min anfusihim (and assuring [reward for] themselves) " al-Tafsir al-Muharrar

And that he gives with generosity of soul and love of giving, not out of reluctance; because the hypocrite's motives depend on others (istawqada nāran (“kindled a fire”): the hypocrite depends on others in faith and deeds, which is why He said istawqada (literally “sought to kindle”) and did not say awqada; because he seeks the help of others to kindle faith) (and they do not spend except while they are unwilling)

— Shoroog Almehmadi