ECONOMIC SUNNAH OF SPENDING
Many Muslims ask: If we are
not allowed to place our savings in Fixed Deposits or Savings Accounts in the bank,
then what shall we do with such money? The answer is that it must be spent, not
hoarded. Spending, however, must be balanced and productive, not for
extravagance and waste. When people spend of their wealth in charity, or as an
investment, then the whole society and economy benefits. When spending is for
ostentation and waste then the individual and society are corrupted. And so the
Qur'an describes the true servants of Allah the Most High, as:
. ..
those who, when they spend (their wealth, time, energy, talents etc.) are
neither extravagant nor sparing, but hold a just balance between those extremes.
(Qur’an: al-Furqan:-25:67)
Abu Dharr
said: I was with the Prophet when he saw the mountain of Uhud. He said: I would
not desire that this (mountain) should be turned into gold for me, then there
should remain with me one dinar out of it beyond three days, except a dinar I
should keep for payment of a debt!
(Bukhari)
This hadith establishes the
economic Sunnah which discourages the hoarding of wealth and encourages
spending instead, thus the Prophet (s) would have spent the mountain of
gold within three days. When wealth is spent it is injected into the economy
and this strengthens the economy.
Allah the Most High,
condemns hoarding (i.e. the non-utilization of wealth) in the most forceful
language:
. . .
there are those who hoard (in safety deposit boxes in banks. for example) gold
and silver (i.e. money) and spend it not in the way of Allah; announce to them
a terrible punishment on a day when heat will be produced out of that wealth in
the fire of hell, and with it will be branded their foreheads, their sides and
their backs, (and it will be said to them): This is the treasure which you
hoarded for yourselves; taste the treasure you hoarded.
(Qur’an: at-Tauba.-9:34-35)
Spending should be effected,
however in such a way that the Sunnah of simplicity and austerity of the
personal lifestyle of the Prophet (s) is maintained! Thus spending is to
be directed towards production rather than consumption. Spending is also for
charitable purposes. This does not imply that one should not spend on one's own
self or one's family. That would amount to miserliness. The Qur’an condemns
such miserliness. Those who act in such a way will end up being treated with
contempt by Allah the Most High, and by their fellowmen:
Verify
Allah does not love the arrogant, the vainglorious; - nor those who are
niggardly and command mankind to niggardliness and hide the bounties which
Allah has bestowed on them: and we have prepared for the ungrateful (who commit
such an act of kufr) a punishment that steeps them in contempt. . .
(Qur’an: al-Nisa;-4:36-37)
The Prophet (s) in
fact, specifically recommended spending on one’s own self when he declared:
Allah loves to
see the effects of His bounties on the person of His servant.
(Tirmizi)
Rather one should not be
extravagant in spending on oneself. There should be no waste! Thus Allah the
Most High commands;
. . .
and squander not (your wealth) in the manner of a spendthrift. Surely
spendthrifts belong to the family of the Satan. And Satan is (himself)
ungrateful to his Lord.
(Qur’an: al-Isra:-17:26-27}
Numerous verses of the Qur’an
as well as ahadith establish the importance of nourishing the body with that
which is halal and scrupulously abstaining from nourishing it with that which
is haram, thus requiring that Muslims exercise vigilance in ensuring that
income and wealth must be halal. Indeed deviation from this path would amount
to following the footsteps of Satan and that surely is the road to hell:
Eat (or
consume) of whatever is on the earth which is lawful (halal) and wholesome
(tayyib), and follow not the footsteps of Satan (by consuming that which is
haram or unhealthy). Surely he (Satan) it your avowed enemy.
(Qur’an: al-Baqarah:-2:168)
Jabir reported
Allah's Messenger as saying:
Flesh which
has grown out of that which is unlawful (haram) will not enter paradise, rather
hell is more fitting for all flesh which has grown out of what is unlawful
(haram).
(Ahmad Darimi, Baihaqi)
Abu Bakr
reported Allah's Messenger as saying;
No body which
has been nourished with that which is unlawful (haram) will enter paradise.
(Baihaqi)
Abu Tamima
said that the Prophet (s) said:
. . . the
first thing in a man to cause corruption is his belly, so if anyone is able to
eat only what is good (halal) he should do so. . .
(Bukhari)
Ibn Umar said
that if anyone buys a garment for ten dirhams among which one (dirham) is
unlawfully acquired. Allah Most High will not accept prayer from him as long as he
wears it. He then put a finger in each ear and said; May I become deaf if the
Prophet was not the one I heard say it.
(Baihaqi)
Abu Huraiah
reported Allah’s Messenger as saying: A time will come to mankind when a man
will not care whether what he gets comes from a lawful (halal) or unlawful
(haram) source.
(Bukhari)
to be continued . . . .
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