You Can Have Everything… and Still Be Miserable (Quran Warning)

The Illusion of Material Success

You might stay wealthy, but you are suffering. You will become more and more lonely. You become more and more paranoid. You become more and more sick. And you get a kind of sickness. No doctors are able to help. No physicians are able to help. Nobody's able to help. Where did the wealth go then? Where did the money and the power go then?

The Perfect Life of Waleed Ibn Mughira

If there was a documentary about him on YouTube, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Today we have Waleed Ibn Mughira. Here are his business empires. You're like, whoa, pretty amazing. He started off poor. This is his family. My God, this guy's got everything. Family, wealth, fame. He's got everything. Everybody respects him.

You'd be, this would be the documentary of a successful, like they got the life. They got everything you want in life. But when you become that famous and that powerful, you will always have enemies and you will always have somebody who's trying to take you out or hurt your business in some way or take your place. That's life. That's gonna happen.

Allah says:

And I understand the word مَهْد. مَهْد means to make something, when you make the land low and soft, then the land is actually soft from the earth, lowered in ease and evenness. When a mother holds the baby, she holds him soft. You don't hold the baby tight. You hold the baby softly and that's called مَهْد. So you create a comfort for the child when you're holding them. So it's got gentleness, softness. This is the word that's actually used for land that there's no rocks, there's no obstacles. It's super soft. It's ready for you to farm on it.

Allah says, وَمَهَّدْتُ لَهُ تَمْهِيدًا - It could be that you've got a big business, but when you have a big business, don't you get big problems too? Somebody didn't send in the payment, some employee quit their job, somebody was stealing from you, some storm came and destroyed one of the farms. When you have a big business, you're always solving problems.

Allah is saying, مَهَّدْتُ لَهُ تَمْهِيدًا - Every one of his businesses is running smooth. No problems anywhere. And Allah keeps making things easier and easier and easier for him. Management is not a problem, finances are not a problem, security is not a problem. Transportation, logistics, everything's taken care of.

If you know people that are trying to run a business, you know that they don't have any time off. Even if they're sitting at a dinner table, "What happened? Where's the payment? What happened? Where's the delivery man? Where's my money?" They're constantly, they're even at work when they're sleeping. They can't help it. But he gets to make all this money and also Allah has facilitated everything for him. There's no obstacles in his path.

The Insatiable Desire for More

This is the description of the best possible life you could have from a material perspective in this world. You can't have better than this. You got no competition, you got your whole family beside you, your sons are beside you, they're your strength, you got your security taken care of. Everybody respects you and speaks highly of you, even though you came from lowly origins. And you're proud of that elevation you had and the money keeps on coming in and coming in and coming in and no problems in sight.

Now when you have that, you're on top of the mountain, you could say, I could relax now, I could sit back. It's amazing what he does, what Allah describes about him.

Allah says, and now he wishes that I should give him more? He wants more? Actually, Allah is describing that he has everything. If any human being today was described with these things, they would say, I have everything, what can I want? There's nothing I want. Everything I want is there. And Allah says, ثُمَّ يَطْمَعُ أَنْ أَزِيدَ - And after all of that, ثُمَّ is for amazement here. After all of that, he has hopes that I will give him more?

The Mindset of Success

I want you to understand something about that mentality. People that were very poor and they made it that way in business or people that were very small and they made it in politics, they're not normal people, not just in terms of intelligence. They're tougher than most people. They're tough. They don't give up. People tell them, "You're going to be a millionaire?" Nobody believes them. Their parents don't believe them. Their brothers and sisters don't believe them. Their friends don't believe them. Everybody thinks they're stupid.

Imagine some football player that used to be in some village somewhere playing football with rolled up aluminum foil. He's like, "I'm going to win the World Cup." And what happens 15 years later? He's the MVP at the World Cup. Does that happen in the world? Now, those kinds of people, yes, Allah opens doors for them. But do they have a certain kind of toughness in them? That no matter what people say, they can just block it out, keep going, keep going, keep going. Nothing demotivates them. They're almost insane with their commitment. They're insane in their belief that they're going to pull this off. They have that grit in them.

When you develop that, what do you learn? What do you program yourself to do? I don't care what anybody says, I know what I'm going to do. So, who's the ultimate source of your truth when you have that kind of mentality? Yourself. Belief in yourself. Belief in your intelligence. Belief in your decision-making. Belief in your strategy. You're going to tell me strategy? I got here because of my strategy. You think you're going to tell me strategy? You're going to give me financial advice? How much money do you make? They developed this mentality that they didn't get here by listening to people. They got here by not listening to people. So, I don't have to listen to anybody. I'm going to do my own thing.

And the other part of this, they would never get to where they got to if they took a break. I can't stop. When I got my 10,000, I can't stop. I got to get to 100. When I got to 100, I'm just as thirsty to get the million. When I got to the billion, I'm just as thirsty to get the 10 million. And now, he's got every... There's no competition left. Nobody left to impress on top of the world. And yet, the programming is what? I can't stop. I have to keep going. The wheels got to keep turning.

And so, he says, ثُمَّ يَطْمَعُ أَنْ أَزِيدَ - Allah says, and he wants that I should give him more. He wants more wealth, more status, more fame, more security. He's not satisfied.

The Pattern of Allah's Favor

Now, one last observation about these verses so far. Look back. ذَرْنِي - Leave me. وَمَنْ خَلَقْتُ - And the one I created, I. وَجَعَلْتُ - And I made him. I furnished for him extensive wealth. وَبَنِينَ شُهُودًا - And I made and I furnished for him children that he can witness. وَمَهَّدْتُ - And I facilitated. I made the ground smooth. I got rid of the competition. I got rid of all of his problems. I, I, I, I. ثُمَّ يَطْمَعُ أَنْ أَزِيدَ - And then he wishes that I should give him even more.

The word I, this many times, is unusual in the Quran. You don't find it. Not like this kind of repetition. You find هُوَ for Allah, He. You find we for Allah. I for Allah in this frequency is very, very unusual. And Allah does that for a number of reasons here. One is His anger, special anger towards a person because He blessed him more than other people.

The Right Reasons vs The Wrong Reasons

Now did Allah, is Allah against wealth? No. And by the way, if you have dunya, if Allah gave you a lot of wealth, what should you do with that wealth? Should you not want to make more wealth? Yeah, actually you should. Allah gave Dhul Qarnayn all kinds of resources.

We gave him all kinds of resources. What did he do with those resources? What did Allah say in the next ayah?

Then he pursued even more resources. Dhul Qarnayn has power. إِنَّا مَكَّنَّا لَهُ فِي الْأَرْضِ - We gave him stability in the government. So Dhul Qarnayn has stability in the government. Is he staying home or is he going to new places? He's going to places he's never been before. He's going to places perhaps nobody else has ever been before. Why is he expanding the empire? Why is he doing that? Is this, are these ayah Allah's way of cursing the billionaire? No.

Allah is not saying wealth is bad, power is bad, expanding the empire is bad. Allah is saying, expanding the empire for the wrong reasons is bad. Creating the larger business for the wrong reason is bad. Look, a giant corrupt corporation can only be fixed by replacing it with a giant ethical corporation. Huge pharmaceutical companies that are killing humanity can only be, the problem can only be solved when there are other huge pharmaceutical companies that are helping humanity. Corrupt medical systems, ethical medical systems. Corrupt farming, ethical farming.

You can't sit here and say, oh, these mega corporations and these businesses, look at what they're doing. Look at all the restaurants that are serving alcohol. And you're like, أستغفر الله, when is that going to change? When you have more successful restaurants that are not serving alcohol. You can't just sit there and say, they're serving alcohol, أستغفر الله.

ثُمَّ يَطْمَعُ - And you can, and Allah is not even against him wanting more as we will see. But he wants more for the wrong reasons. He wants more for the wrong reasons. سبحان الله. That's the takeaway I want you to not confuse what's happening here with what Allah wants. Our message is not a message of don't pursue the resources and power and building empire in this dunya. Actually, it is a message of that. But build it for the right reasons.

The Difference Between Worldviews

So what's the difference between Dhul Qarnayn pursuing more and this Waleed Ibn Mughira pursuing more? What's the difference between him pursuing more and Sulayman pursuing more when he says:

Ya Rabb, give me more kingdom than is not suitable for anybody else after me. Give me more. Basically, he's saying more also. So then what's the difference between them? That's the difference between the... to understand how we are different in this case from the Christian account of the worldly life and the Jewish account of worldly life.

So I'm gonna give you a kind of a synopsis of the Jewish view, the Christian view. Then we can properly understand the Quran view. The reason I do that is because a lot of times we start thinking about the Quran's view not realizing that we're actually being influenced by more of a Christian view or more of a Jewish view.

So what's the Jewish view? You are entitled to the world. Pursue it. Enjoy it. Live in it. It's basically Jannah already for you. You don't owe an explanation. Just live your life. Whatever you want, it's yours. It's promised to you. That's it. So basically, if you're Waleed ibn Mughira, that's what you should be.

The other side of the problem is the Christian view. And the Christian view is not all Christians because there's a new narrative of Christianity, evangelical Christianity that celebrates this world. But like, for example, Catholicism. This world is bad. Adam disobeyed God and he was cursed. And because of him, the entire planet Earth was cursed. So this world is a curse. This dunya is nothing. This dunya is garbage. This dunya is trash. Akhira is everything. So don't pursue this dunya because if you pursue this dunya, you'll become a materialist person. If you really want to love Allah, then you only pursue the afterlife. You don't pursue this life. And this life is so bad that Jesus died here. So life is bad. This worldly life is bad.

The Quran comes along and restores the original balanced message. Allah made this world beautiful for human beings. Allah put blessings here for human beings. Allah put the opportunity for you to build more and more wealth for human beings. But Allah is not against wealth. Wealthy people are not worse than poor people or poor people are better, wealthy people are worse.

Abu Bakr as-Siddiq was one of the wealthiest people in Mecca. And he is extremely pivotal in the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ, the migration from Mecca to Medina could not happen without the financing of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. So you have in the Quran and on multiple occasions, even in the text, the stories of the Quran, the power and the importance of wealth.

In fact, when people travel to make an income, when they travel to get a job or pursue a degree or whatever, sometimes people say, "Oh, you're leaving to go get dunya, أستغفر الله." And Allah says:

It's a sign from Allah that we allow them to board on to ships. Why did people board on to ships back in the day? To do trade, to start a new life. That's something Allah has blessed in the Quran. But when is it blessed? When you follow ethical principles.

The Quranic Economic Revolution

The Quran is a comprehensive worldview. The way I want you to think about it is, it has all the pieces of a puzzle. And some hadith and some ayat and some stories, they are a piece of that puzzle. But if you don't understand the entire board, you're gonna miss out on what picture is being painted here. What is the picture the Quran is actually painting? It's not against wealth, it's against greed that is unchecked. It's not against you having better and better things, it's you having better and better things at the expense of your employees, at the expense of those who need help, at the expense of the society.

If you want to make more money, go ahead, make more money. No problem. But give more too. Give back more too. Create more opportunity. Create more good. It shouldn't just rest with you and your family.

How did it happen before Islam? When people became wealthy, and of course, some of the wealthiest people became closer to politics because the wealthier you are, the closer to power you get. And of course, the ultimate king back in the early systems of government in the world, wealth and power came together. So the king is the wealthiest one and is the most powerful one. So all together.

So what did those kings used to do? They want to make sure that the wealth stays with them. And when they're going to die, they want to make sure the wealth stays within the family. To protect their wealth, what did they do? They killed their brother because the wealth should go, the kingdom should go to the son. And my brother might want the kingdom. So they'll kill their own brother. They'll kill their own sister. They'll kill their this one or that one. And if they have multiple children, then one child might kill the other child because they want to... Everybody wants it. Who's going to be king next?

Then things got even more disgusting. They would even marry brother and sister together. Or the son would marry his former mother. Why? Because they want to keep the bloodline pure. They want to keep the royal bloodline. They don't want the money and the power to go anywhere else. They want to keep it inside.

Quran comes along. And Allah says, for example, as Medina came, Allah talked about inheritance law. Inheritance is not distributed by poor people. If you left behind one date, it's not going to get sliced into six pieces. It's the people who had a property. They had a garden. They had a well. They had a house. They had animals. That's what's being distributed. So the ayaat of inheritance are about people that have some kind of economic ability.

When Allah says, أَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَ... What? آتُوا الزَّكَاةَ. Who's going to give zakah? People who need charity or people who give charity? People who give charity. Allah is talking to people who make money.

And what is the inheritance law? Inheritance law is the son will get this much. The daughter will get this much. The mother will get this much. The brother will get this much. The father will get this much. Everybody is getting a piece. So the empire is being broken. You get it? The empire got broken. And then each one of those people that received the inheritance, they have their own wife or husband. They have their own children. They have their own family. And when they die, what happens again? It gets broken again. So one family doesn't get to keep all the money. One group doesn't get to keep all the wealth. Inheritance law itself keeps breaking empires.

And so you never end up with the Koch brothers. And you never end up with the Rockefellers or the Adelsons or whoever other powerful families that control all of the wealth. And they controlled it for generations and generations and generations. That's just not how it works.

Why is it always a huge controversy if the royal prince marries someone outside the royal family? Why is that such a huge controversy? Because they want to keep that bloodline within. Quran came and just made everybody equal. What bloodline? What royal? All of you are children of Adam. All of you make mistakes. All of you are equal. The only one great is Allah. وَرَبَّكَ فَكَبِّرْ - And then nobody is كبير. Nobody has كِبْرِيَاء. If Allah is... We'll all become equal. This is a revolution in not just how humans treat each other. It's also a revolution in economics.

And Rasul ﷺ encouraged trade. When he moved to Medina, he started a marketplace. He started economic activity.

Allah's Rejection: "No!"

So, what I was saying before, this person wants more. They want more. But that's the thing. They just want more for themselves. Allah didn't say, ثُمَّ يَطْمَعُ يَزِيدَ - They want more. They want Me to give them. Allah attributed that Himself. They forget that I'm the one giving them. And attributing that to Himself. Waleed doesn't acknowledge Allah. But Allah brought Himself into the conversation anyway. Why? As if to say, Waleed, you may acknowledge it or not, but it's Allah who's giving it to you. And when you realize Allah is the one giving to you, then you owe Allah something back.

The description of the best believers in the Quran, الْمُؤْمِنُونَ - Allah says, they concentrate in their prayer and they're humbled in their prayer. They're powerless in their prayer.

Zakah got mentioned, purification. Then giving to the poor and those who need got mentioned. As if at the core of our belief is giving, giving, giving. One of the blessings of having more is you get to do an act of ibadah that other people can't do, which is what? Giving more.

Why is Dhul-Qarnayn, let's go back to Dhul-Qarnayn, why is he traveling to all these different places? Because he knows people need help out there. I'm gonna find out what's going on and who I can help. So he goes and brings justice to these people, builds... These people have resources but they don't have the knowledge of engineering. Let me teach them how to build a wall. And then sometimes he even finds people he can't help. So he says, I want nothing from you and I'm not in a position to help you. I'm just gonna leave you as you are. كَذَٰلِكَ وَقَدْ أَحَطْنَا بِمَا لَدَيْهِ خُبْرًا - He leave them alone. But he has a mentality to build something, to go further. So this is actually the concept behind ثُمَّ يَطْمَعُ أَنْ أَزِيدَ.

Now the word طَمَعَ means when you want something great. You have high aspirations. And these people I told you, they have a mindset. They just wanna build more and more and more. They don't know when to stop.

No, no, no. Not at all. Meaning, he wants more. That's not how things are gonna happen. He's wrong about that. As if Allah has rejected his desire that he wants more. And Allah has said, Nope, no more for you. No more for you.

And we'll learn in history that from the revelation of this ayah on, Waleed, for the first time in his life, started suffering losses in business, losses in property, losses in sons. His son becomes Muslim down the road. And little by little, he died. We don't know how he died. But one thing we do know is he died poor. He did die poor. One word from Allah, كَلَّا - That's it. That's the end.

The Mufassirun say that Waleed kept on suffering losses after Allah said, كَلَّا until he became bankrupt and died poor.

The Prayer of Musa Against Pharaoh

This is Allah saying, no, you become so materialist, that is your religion. Just like Musa when he was crossing the water and the Pharaoh was behind him ready to kill every man, woman and child. Musa turned to Allah and said this:

Oh our master, you are the one who gave Fir'aun and his generals beautiful things and lots of wealth in this worldly life. And our master, they ended up using that money and that beautiful life to misguide others from your path. Our master, crush their wealth, smudge their wealth, wipe out their wealth. وَاشْدُدْ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِمْ - and tie up their hearts. فَلَا يُؤْمِنُوا حَتَّىٰ يَرَوُا الْعَذَابَ الْأَلِيمَ - And they shouldn't accept the faith until they see the punishment. Ya Allah, take their dunya away and don't even give them the blessing of deen anymore.

Allah is now saying كَلَّا - And this ayah teaches us that when you become ungrateful for what Allah has given you and ungrateful doesn't just mean you say الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ and remain greedy. "Oh Allah has given so much I'm so grateful to Allah. Ya Allah more I said الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ. Now I want... Give me, give me, give me."

There's difference between feeling grateful, being grateful and also doing grateful. اعْمَلُوا آلَ دَاوُودَ شُكْرًا - Do gratitude. Not just be grateful. Do grateful. What does it mean to do gratitude? It means to do with that money what Allah wants you to do. Do with it what Allah wants you to do.

It's amazing in our religion Allah didn't tell us take 90% of your wealth. If you're a billionaire take 90% of your wealth and give it to somebody else. You don't need that much money. Allah gave us give what you can, give what you can, give what you can. Give as much as possible. But He didn't put a number on it. He didn't put a percentage on it. There's a minimum zakat percentage. Fine. But that's so minimum. So minimum that you can't even feel it. But other than that لِيُنفِقْ ذُو سَعَةٍ مِّن سَعَتِهِ - Allah says the one who has more can give more based on their more capacity. That's it. Give what you can. قُلْ الْعَفْوَ - Whatever you can handle. Whatever.

So it's such a beautiful religion that some people will be able to give more. Some people will be able to give less. But they won't be condemned for it. But at least you're giving. At least you're giving. And you're giving and giving.

The Principle of Gratitude and Its Consequences

But rejecting the favor of Allah, meaning not being grateful with the wealth Allah has given you, is guaranteeing that it will stop coming.

If you remain grateful I will give you more and more. And if you become ungrateful then my punishment is extremely severe.

That's why Shaykh Ibn Ata'illah said: Whoever isn't grateful for the favors Allah has done for them has guaranteed themselves that their wealth is going to decline. And whoever is grateful for the blessings they have, it's like they tied them up with a rope. Like they're not gonna escape. Like an animal won't escape if you tie it. You tied up your blessings by being grateful to Allah for your blessings.

Of course, that's actually also not a principle in the Quran necessarily. You could be very grateful and suffer great losses still. But generally speaking, in gratitude, blessings will go away. And blessings go away in two ways. It doesn't just mean you're wealthy and you'll become poor. Actually, you might die wealthy but miserable. You might stay wealthy but you are suffering. You will become more and more lonely. You become more and more paranoid. You become more and more sick. And you get a kind of sickness. No doctors are able to help. No physicians are able to help. Nobody's able to help. Where did the wealth go then? Where did the money and the power go then? When you're suffering from internal pain.