by Imam Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597 AH)
One of the most deceitful tricks and deceptions of Satan that I have observed is its attempts to ruin the affluent with possessing long wishful hopes and indulging in worldly pleasures which distract them from the hereafter and its deeds.
Satan succeeds to attach people’s hearts to collect and earn money, he then entices them to guard it by keeping it unspent. Turning them into misers, which proves a guile that demonstrates Satan’s skilfulness in deluding people.
It does not even stop there as Satan then conceals within this deception further perverted tricks i.e. he reverses this trick with the believers by making them careless to earn and collect money. So he made those living for the hereafter become undesirous of money, and made those who repent to hasten to give away all what is in their possession.
Satan afterwards continues his deception by disguising himself as a sincere advisor who cares for people’s religion, so he encourages the believers to be undesirous of worldly pleasures, to give them up, and frightens them from taking paths from which they could earn money. This is indeed one of his dazzling hidden deceptions.
It is possible that Satan lures some Sheikhs, whom are highly respected by the repenting persons, to advise them saying, ‘give away all your wealth and join the group of ascetics and know that whenever you have a meal to eat at lunch or dinner then you no longer belong to the group of ascetics and will not achieve the high ranks.
Then such sheikhs may even quote fabricated hadiths or misquote other hadiths that have been said for different reasons and purposes. When someone falls for this deception and as a result gives away his wealth and quits the means from which he earns his source of income, Satan starts making him hope to receive aid from his friends, or beautifies for him accompanying the ruler (to gain some benefit).
This is because Satan knows that he will not tolerate such a hard life except for few days because afterwards, his wishful nature will overpower him again and thus making his affairs worse than the affairs he tried to escape from in the first place. Eventually, the first thing he would compromise is his religion and honour in order to receive all that he needs to sustain himself, and would turn into a recipient instead of being a giver.
If this person had looked into the affairs and life stories of true men, the nobles, and contemplated authentic hadiths concerning their masters, he would have known that Prophet Ibrahim (alayhi as-salam) was extremely rich to the level his cattle were too many to be held in his town. Likewise, Prophet Lut (alayhi as-salam) was not a different case and so were many other Prophets, let alone mentioning many companions who were also known as being affluent and wealthy.
The case with these men is that they were patient when they had nothing and sought lawful means to earn what made them in no need for anyone’s charity, not to mention that none of them ever abstained from eating what is lawful when it was available.
Poverty is a disease
Most of the religious and the people of knowledge whom I contemplated their affairs, seem to fall in this trap; I found them too busy learning and studying to earn money in the beginning so that when they advanced and needed money to cover their basic living expenses they humiliated themselves, even though they are the most deserving for glory and pride.
In old times, the financial aid received from Baytal-Mal used to suffice them and make in no need to receive donations of those they knew. However, as Bayt al-Mal is no longer able to cover their needs in our times, religious people had nothing to compromise except their religion and I wish they calculated the risk! Even worse, it could happen that they comprise their religion and yet receive no benefit.
For this reason, an intelligent person should preserve and maintain his wealth and possessions. Work hard to earn money that suffices him so he does not end up in a position where he has to slither up to an oppressor or play along with an ignorant.
Thus, one should never pay attention to the trivial and extremism of some sheikh who claim that poverty is of a high status, for indeed, poverty is nothing but a disease that inflicts the helpless and the powerless.
As for the one who endures poverty, he will receive the reward of a person who is patient with sickness, except in the case where he is unwilling to take any action and is content with being poor, as this does not represent a rank of championship; rather it represents a rank of cowardice ascetics.
In contrast, he who earns money to be a giver instead of being a receiver is a noble champion without any doubt. And whoever contemplates all this will surely realise the danger of poverty and the nobility of wealth.
From the book: CAPTURED THOUGHTS by Imam Ibn Jawzi, being a translation of his masterpiece ‘Sayd a l-Khatir
Al-Hafiz Abul-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzi, often referred to as Imam Ibn al-Jawzi was a Muslim scholar, jurisconsult, preacher, orator, historian, judge and philologist who played an instrumental role in propagating Islam during the 12th century. He was of Hanbali school of thought. He authored approximately 300 books on different topics and fields. Imam Dhahabl said: “I don’t know of a scholar who has written what this man has”
