A short lesson on money
Money gives a person the ability to protect themselves, live in dignity, and also allows them to make use of opportunities to help others and manifest various types of khayr in the world.
One of shaytan’s tools that he attempts to use against Muslims is to push them to glorify poverty in the name of religion. This is a trap of shaytan and nothing more. The prophet(saw) sought refuge from poverty and taught us to say this dua 3 times in the morning and evening.
O Allah, make me healthy in my body. O Allah, preserve for me my hearing. O Allah, preserve for me my sight. There is none worthy of worship but You. O Allah, I seek refuge in You from disbelief and poverty, and I seek refuge in You from the punishment of the grave. There is none worthy of worship but You. [Bukari]
Money is a tool that can be used for great good. Just as shaytan has some glorify poverty, he pushes others to another extreme.
The other extreme is when a person’s soul becomes entangled with money & they define their self-concept and their fundamental sense of self by the amount of money they possess. When this happens, their judgement of who they are becomes skewed. They think having more money makes them good and having less money makes them not good enough.
They grow blind to their own inner being and character as they become increasingly externally focused. For them, money becomes an anchor and forms the basis of their paradigm through which they understand the world. Money further serves as the yard stick that determines how they treat others.
When money falls higher in the list of priorities than their principles & morals, money becomes a god in their life. The slave of money is not at all like the one who is enslaved to God and uses money to serve Him. We are to be slaves of Allah, not slaves of money. That means Allah is to be at the center and core of who we are.
Part of the problem is that a person who becomes enslaved to money fails to see the hand of God in his/her life, similar to the man with the two gardens in surah al-Kahf. Allah facilitated everything for him & he fell into the mistake of attributing it all to his own self.
Like any other thing we are given, we are also tested through money to see whether we will use it to obey His laws, grow in humility & gratitude, and as a way to serve Him or whether we will make it into a god we bow our hearts to. Through whatever Allah gives us, we reveal our character. Allah already knows what is inside of us. The tests make what is hidden manifest.
This applies to anything external that a person attaches their fundamental sense of self to and becomes defined by such that it gets in the way of their heart’s journey to Allah and serves as a roadblock on the path to Allah. It could be their appearance, their education, their career, their spouse or children, their tribe, their parents and relatives, their group or nation.
Say, ˹O Prophet,˺ “If your parents and children and siblings and spouses and extended family and the wealth you have acquired and the trade you fear will decline and the homes you cherish—˹if all these˺ are more beloved to you than Allah and His Messenger and struggling in His Way, then wait until Allah brings about His Will. Allah does not guide the rebellious people.” [9:24]
We act in accordance with what we love most and are most attached to. That love must always be for Allah and His Messenger(saw) foremost. This is not easy as it is a test after all.