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GREED
AND CONTENTMENT
In
the name of God, the Merciful, the
Compassionate
Surely
God it is Who is the All-Provider,
the Possessor of Strength, the
Steadfast .
(51:58)
How
many a creature that bears not its
own provision, but God provides for
it and you! He is the All-Hearer,
the All-Knower.
(29:60)
Greed
is another great disease, as harmful for
the life of Islam as enmity
O
people of faith! You will have
understood by now how harmful enmity is.
Understand also, that greed is another
great disease, as harmful for the life
of Islam as enmity. It brings about
disappointment, sickness and
humiliation, as well as deprivation and
misery.
Greed
demonstrates its evil consequences
throughout the world of animate beings,
both at the level of species and of
particular individuals. Seeking one’s
provision while putting one’s trust in
God is, by contrast, a means to
tranquility and demonstrates everywhere
its good effects. For example, fruit
trees and plants, which are a species of
living beings and accordingly need
provision, stand still where they are,
‘contentedly, putting their trust in
God, showing no impatience’. That is
why their provision hastens to them of
itself and why they reproduce more
vigorously than animals. The animals, by
contrast, are able to attain their
provision only insufficiently and at the
cost of great effort since they pursue
it with impatience. In the animal
kingdom only the young, who ‘demonstrate
their trust in God through their
weakness and impotence’, receive in
full measure their rightful and
delicious provision from the treasury of
the Divine Compassion, while wild beasts
that leap greedily at their provision
are able to obtain an ‘illicit’ and
coarse food at the cost of great effort.
These examples show that greed is the
cause of deprivation, while trust in God
and contentment are the means to Divine
Mercy.
The
likeness of a contented and greedy one
The
contented and the greedy can be likened
to the two men who enter the audience
hall of a great personage. One of them
thinks: ‘It is enough that he should
admit me so that I can escape from the
cold outside. Even if he seats me in the
lowest position, it will be a favor to
me.’
The
second, in his arrogance, hopes for the
highest position, as if he had some
right to it and as if everyone were
obliged to respect him. He enters with
greed and, fixing his gaze upon the
highest position, attempts to advance
toward it. But the owner of the audience
hall turns him back and seats him in a
lower position. Instead of thanking the
owner, the man is angered against him in
his heart and criticizes him. The owner
of the hall is annoyed with him.
The
first man enters most humbly and shows
his willingness to be seated even in the
lowest position. His modesty pleases the
owner of the hall and he invites him to
sit in a higher position. This increases
his gratitude.
Now
this world is like an audience hall of
the Most Merciful One. The surface of
the earth is like a banquet laid out by
Divine Compassion. The different degrees
of provision and grades of bounty
correspond to the seating positions in
the audience hall.
Even
in the most particular of affairs,
everyone can experience the evil effects
of greed. For example, everyone will
have noticed how, when two beggars ask
something of him, he is offended by the
one who importunes greedily, and is
inclined therefore to refuse his
request; whereas he will give to the
other, peaceable one out of pity. Or to
give another example, if you are unable
to sleep at night and wish to go to
sleep at once, you may succeed if you
remain indifferent to it. But if you
desire with impatience to get to sleep
immediately, you may lose your sleep
completely.
In
the arrangement of all things there is a
certain deliberation decreed by Divine
Wisdom.
Yet
another example is this, that if you
await impatiently the arrival of someone
for some important purpose, continually
complaining that ‘he has still not
come’, ultimately you will lose
patience and get up and leave. But a
minute later the person will come and
your purpose then remains frustrated.
The
reason for all this is as follows:
In
order to produce a loaf of bread, you
must cultivate the field, harvest the
crop, take the grain to a mill and bake
the loaf in an oven. In the same way, in
the arrangement of all things there is a
certain deliberation decreed by Divine
Wisdom. If, because of impatience, one
does not act in compliance with this
deliberation and neglects to follow all
the steps in the arrangement determined
for all things, one will either overleap
or omit some step, and so fail to
achieve the desired result.
O
brothers, dizzied by preoccupation with
your livelihood, and stupefied by your
greed for this world! When greed is so
harmful and injurious, how is it that
you do all kinds of humiliating deeds
for its sake; that you accept all kinds
of wealth without distinguishing between
what is allowed and forbidden by your
religion and sacrifice much of the
Hereafter. In order to satisfy your
greed, you have even abandoned the
payment of zakat, which is one of
the most important pillars of Islam and
a means of being blessed with increase
and fertility and of repelling
misfortunes. The one who does not pay zakat
is bound to lose the amount of wealth
equal to the amount that he had to pay
as zakat; either he will spend it on
useless things or it will be taken from
him by some misfortune.
During
the fifth year of the First World War, I
was asked the following question:
What
is the reason for this hunger, this
financial loss and bodily trial that now
afflict the Muslims?
I
replied:
From
the wealth He grants to us, God
Almighty demands from us, as zakat,
either a tenth or a fortieth1
so that we may benefit from the
grateful prayers of the poor and
avoid being the target of their
rancor and envy. But we have not
paid the zakat because of
our avarice, so God Almighty has
taken from us the accumulated
amount of the zakat, thirty
out of forty or three-fourth where
a fortieth was owed, and eight out
of ten or four-fifth, where a
tenth was owed.
He
wanted us, as fasting, to endure,
for no more than one month each
year, a hunger that has as many as
seventy beneficial purposes. But
we took pity on ourselves and did
not endure that short and
beneficial hunger. As a
punishment, God Almighty compelled
us to fast for five years, with a
hunger that combines almost
seventy kinds of afflictions.
God
also required of us, out of each
twenty-four hours, one hour to be
assigned to a form of Divine
training, pleasing and lofty,
illuminating and beneficial. But
in our laziness we did not perform
five prayers a day and wasted that
one hour along with the rest of
the hours of the day. God
Almighty, in return, chastened us
by making us undergo a form of
training and physical exertion for
five years.
All
immorality and disturbances in human
social life proceed from two sources,
from these two attitudes:
Once
my stomach is full, what do I care
if others die of hunger?
You
work and I will eat.
What
perpetuates these two attitudes is the
prevalence of usury on the one hand and
the abandonment of zakat on the
other. The only remedy for these two
awful diseases can only be provided
through implementing zakat as a
universal principle and duty and banning
usury. Zakat is a most essential
pillar not only for individuals and
particular communities, but for the
whole of mankind to live a happy life.
Mankind usually comprise two classes;
the elite and the commonalty. Only the
obligation of zakat can arouse
compassion and generosity in the elite
towards the commonalty and respect and
obedience in the commonalty towards the
elite. In the absence of zakat,
what will come to the commonalty from
the elite is oppression and cruelty and
what will rise from the commonalty
towards the elite is rancor and
rebellion. That will give rise to a
constant struggle and a constant
opposition between the two classes of
mankind, resulting finally in the
confrontation of labor and capital, such
as happened in Russia at the beginning
of the century.
O
people of nobility and fairness! O
people of munificence and liberality! If
acts of liberality are not performed in
the name of zakat, they bring no
use; they may even cause three harmful
results. For, if you do not give in the
name of God, you are actually making a
poor man indebted to you, imprisoning
him in some feeling of obligation.
Thereby you deprive yourself of his
prayer which would be acceptable in the
sight of God. Also by not giving in the
name of God, you are imagining yourself
to be the real owner of the wealth which
God has bestowed on you to distribute
among His servants, and thus committing
an act of ingratitude for the bounties
you have received from God. If, by
contrast, you give in the name of zakat,
you will be rewarded for having given
for the sake of God Almighty and you
will have offered thanks for the
bounties received. What is more, the
needy person will not feel obliged to
flatter you or fawn upon you, so his
self-respect will not be injured and his
prayer on behalf of you will be
accepted.
See,
then, how great is the difference
between on the one hand, giving as much
as or more than the amount one would
give in zakat, only to earn, in
return, the harm of ostentation, fame
and the imposition of obligation, and on
the other hand, performing the same good
deed in the name of zakat, and
thereby fulfilling a religious duty, and
gaining a reward, the virtue of
sincerity, and the acceptable prayers of
the poor.
Glory
be to You, we have no knowledge
save that which You have taught
us. Surely You are the
All-Knowing, the All-Wise.
O
God, bestow blessings and peace on
our master Muhammad, who said: ‘The
believers stand together like a
firm building, one part of which
supports the other’, and who
also said: ‘Contentment is a
treasure that will never be
exhausted’ ;
and on his family and his
Companions. And all praise be to
God, the Lord of the Worlds.
1.
A tenth of wealth such as corn which
every year yields a new crop; a fortieth
of whatever yields a financial surplus
in the course of the year, or of the
pasturing animals (such as sheep or
goats) numbering at least forty.
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