Own Your Wealth

Own Your Wealth

By Abdal Hakim Murad - Ramadan Moments 2

Opening

(Traditional Islamic opening)

The Human Love of Wealth

The Holy Prophet, (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), says:

(Sahih al-Bukhari Hadith 6436, Sahih Muslim Hadith 1048)

"If the son of Adam had a valley full of gold, he would want to have a second valley full of gold, but at the end only dust will fill his mouth."

Another of our deep problems as human beings is this (حُبُّ الْمَالِ - hubb al-mal) - this love of wealth.

It's no coincidence that some of the very first verses of the holy Quran to be revealed were condemnations of this human sleepy acquisition of stuff - a futile exercise because the more we have, the more we tend to want:

"Rivalry in worldly increase has distracted you."

There's three important lessons in those two words: not just the problematic nature of wanting worldly increase, but the fact that we compete with each other - "this guy's got a billion, I want to have two billion or I can't sleep well" - and then the fact that (أَنْهَاكُمْ - anhaakum) - it distracts you:

"Until you go to the graves."

All of these people at the very last moment of their life are still checking the footsie and the Dow Jones just to see what's happening to their fortune. They can't see the dark mouth of death yawning in front of them waiting to swallow them whole. But this is how we are, but at the end only dust will fill our mouths.

The Hadith Qudsi About Wealth

The Holy Prophet, (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), says this is a (حَدِيثُ قُدْسِيُّ - hadith qudsi):

(Sahih Muslim Hadith 2959)

"O son of Adam, do you own any of your wealth except for something which you ate and it passed away, it goes through you - it's no longer yours - you destroy it, or you wear it and you wear it out, or you give it in sadaqah and make it eternal?"

This is the irony: we think if I give £10 to the Cambridge Muslim College, I'll be £10 poorer. Nope, actually you're poorer if you hold on to it because it's not going to go with you into the grave. But these (صَدَقَاتُ - sadaqat) they are investments, deposits in the eternal bank:

"This transaction which never diminishes."

This (حساب - hisab) this account which is the account of the (آخرة - akhira).

The Believer's Response to Wealth

And the believer knows this and with the expression of pain perhaps he produces his (زَكَاةٌ - zakat) when he can, as much as he can, and his (صَدَقَةٌ - sadaqah) and his (فِطْرِ زَكَاةٌ - fitr zakat) and these things. But there's an element of pain which is foolish because he's actually liable to lose these things. He may not even enjoy them himself if he walks around his life with all of these coins jingling in his pocket.

What should he do? Put them in the bank - but not the bank of this corporation or that corporation that may or may not in the current reckless world of casino capitalism and financial free fall go on - but instead the only bank which once the deposit has been made with the (بِسْمِ اللهِ - bismillah) will keep it for eternity and will yield dividends eternally. That's intelligence, that's wisdom.

The Problem of Economic Inequality

But unfortunately, even though ours is a world of overflowing wealth (استِفَاضَةُ الْمَالِ - istifadat al-mal) - gigantic cornucopias of money and money breeding money thanks to the riba system - riba upon riba upon riba

and derivatives and futures and all of these very strange instruments which human ingenuity concocts in order to conjure money out of money that you haven't even borrowed yet - it's a very strange magical world.

So much money and yet so much poverty. So many rich people, so many poor people. But the (اسْتِقْطَابٌ - istiqtab) the polarization of wealth between rich and poor gets greater and greater, and we know that this brings the divine anger because it's an injustice.

And having 2 billion doesn't feel very different in practice to having 1 billion or even 1 million for most purposes. But for the poor, having 200 dollars is very different to having 100 dollars. But still they get poorer and the rich get richer and the world is kind of shaking as a result. It's one of the major imbalances of our time.

And so this condemnation of (أَنْهَاكُمُ التَّكَاثُرُ - anhaakum at-takathur) was from the very beginning of revelation, but it's absolutely appropriate to our time now.

Islam as the Religion of Giving

And Islam is the religion that says give and give and give - the zakat and the sadaqah and the nafilah, obligations and the optional forms of giving again and again. A child is born, there's the (عَقِيقَة - aqiqa) Somebody dies, there is the inheritance which can't go to just one person but gets distributed out again, particularly to the young. This is our system: give, give, give.

We are a people who are (مُتَصَدِّقِينَ - mutasaddiqin) who give and sadaqah is related to (صِدْقٌ - sidq) which is a word which means sincerity, truthfulness, being real. This is the nature of the Holy Prophet, (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam):

(Sahih al-Bukhari Hadith 6, Sahih Muslim Hadith 2308)

"Who was the most generous of people."

"And he was most generous in the month of Ramadan."

(Sahih al-Bukhari Hadith 6, Sahih Muslim Hadith 2308)

"The Holy Prophet, (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), was more generous and swift in giving good than the wind let loose."

There is no calculation. He just gives and gives and gives because he is not afraid of poverty.

The Prophet's Prayer for Simplicity

So that's the moral aspect, but there is also the human aspect. And one of the most challenging aspects of prophecy is that the Holy Prophet, (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), prayed to be with the (مسَاكِينٌ - masakin) - the masakin who are the really poor, the destitute, those who have nothing:

(Sahih al-Bukhari Hadith 6460, Sahih Muslim Hadith 1055)

"O Allah, make the food for the family of Muhammad enough for today."

That would panic us. We think: "Oh maybe we'll run out in three months time. I've got a cushion. The bank says this. I've got these financial projections." But tomorrow? That's inconceivable.

And he used to pray:

(Sunan at-Tirmidhi Hadith 2352)

"Resurrect me in the company of the destitute."

Not the super rich, not the sleek Hollywood actors and the so-called elites who are our role models and who everybody wants to gossip about, but the poor - the asylum seekers, the refugees, the homeless, the people sleeping rough, the broken-hearted.

The Holy Prophet, (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), wished to be resurrected with those people. And this is challenging because we like to have those coins jingling in our pockets.

The Warning About Love of Wealth

There's a story that says that when the first gold and silver coin were minted, created, when somebody first had this idea, Iblis (عَلَيْهِ اللَّعْنَةُ - alayhi al-la'na) raised them and put them to his eyes and kissed them and said:

(Mentioned in various sources)

"Whoever loves you is in reality my slave, my servant."

So the wealth that the believer has - which can be legitimate (حَلّالٌ - halal) wealth:

"God blesses you with wealth and children" - it can be a blessing, has to be on the basis of the lack of the heart attachment to those things.

It's for (صِدْقٌ - sidq), it's for supporting the family, it's for supporting neighbours, it's for giving iftar to people who can't afford it, it's for hospitality. And this is the (الريحُ الْمُرْسَلَةٌ - ar-rih al-mursala) which is the quality of the Holy Prophet, (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) - more generous in giving what is good than the winds let loose. Such a beautiful kind of desert image - just free, unrestrained giving.

Why? Because there is peace in the heart and there is no (خَشْيَةُ إِمْلَاقٍ - khashyat imlaq) - fear of poverty - an extraordinary state.

Accounting for Our Wealth

So the coins that are in our pockets, the numbers that are in our bank balances, are to be accounted for. It's said that you take them out only when you have taken them out of their source (فِي حِلِّ وَإِنْفَاقُهَا فِي حَقِّ - fi hilli wa infaqiha fi haqq) - you take them in a way that is halal and you dispense with them again in a way that represents what is the right of human beings. In other words, they are part of our service.

So in this month, this time when there is less to spend our unnecessary wealth on, when we have to walk past cafes and so forth even if they were open and we can't do anything about it, and at the end of the day perhaps there's more coins jangling in our pockets than there were before - this is the month of giving, this is the month of Ummah solidarity, this is the month of remembering neighbours, of thinking of family members who we haven't checked up on for a long time.

This is the time of (صلة الرحم - silat ar-rahm) this is the time of connecting family ties:

"Fear Allah concerning whom you ask each other and the ties of kinship."

Important in our religion. How are the old doing, particularly at present? Make sure you know, make sure they feel attended to, that they feel noticed, that somebody cares, because the age of wealth has become the age of loneliness as well.

The Ummah of Solidarity

But ours is not the Ummah of loneliness. Ours is the Ummah of solidarity:

"A single Ummah."

And we are to be an exemplary community to show how human beings can and should be together in solidarity, in cooperation, in sharing - not in hoarding but in sharing, in giving. We are to be open-handed people.

Closing Dua

So may Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, in this blessed month when we have fewer worldly temptations to distract us and when perhaps we are thinking of higher things and we have tasted in worship and in the Quran something that is sweeter and truer and more nourishing to our hearts than any physical pleasure or experience of status could ever be - when we have been shown an alternative, reminded of what we truly are and of our homeland to which we are called - may He make us people of generosity, people who are soft-hearted towards the poor, people who do not just pay lip service to the Sunnah but actually walk in the footsteps of the Chosen One, (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), by loving the poor, by supporting the poor, by seeking them out, and by as it were putting our money where our mouths might be by actually being people of generosity of (جُودٌ - jud) in this blessed month.

So may Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, open our hearts to this and grant us the blessings of Ramadan in its blessed nature for the poor as people of giving, people who are not misers, people who are open- hearted and open-handed, an example to an increasingly lonely and selfish and self-centered age.

(Traditional Islamic closing)