If you are a good person God will protect you from money that will only cause you harm. There is an interesting story found in Rabi` al-Abrar of al-Zamakhshari and later al-Mustatraf of Baha’ al-Din al-Abshihi wherein Imam `Ali (عليه السلام, peace be upon him) displays a prudent lesson in choosing whether your income is through good or evil.

(ودخل علي بن أبي طالب ـ رضي الله عنه ـ المسجد وقال لرجل كان واقفا على باب المسجد: أمسك عليّ بغلتي، فأخذ الرجل لجامها، ومضى وترك البغلة، فخرج علي وفي يده درهمان ليكافىء بها الرجل على إمساكه بغلته فوجد البغلة واقفة بغير لجام، فركبها ومضى، ودفع لغلامه درهمين يشتري بهما لجاما، فوجد الغلام اللجام في السوق قد باعه السارق بدرهمين، فقال علي ـ رضي الله عنه: إن العبد ليحرم نفسه الرزق الحلال بترك الصبر، ولا يزداد على ما قدر له.)

`Ali bin Abi Talib radi Allahu `anhu (may God be pleased with him) approached the Mosque and said to a man who was standing at its gate, “Please hold my mule for me.” So the man took it by its bridle, but then walked on leaving the mule behind.

`Ali came out of the Mosque with 2 dirhams (silver coins) in his hand so that he could compensate the man for holding his mule. But he found the mule standing there without its ornamental bridle. So he climbed the mule and rode on.

He gave his squire the 2 dirhams to go buy another bridle. The squire found the very same bridle which the thief had sold to whom he bought it from for 2 dirhams.

To this, `Ali remarked:

“The bondsman made forbidden for himself pure earnings by abandoning his patience. And he received naught more than what was determined for him anyway.”

Not a single one of the world’s richest people made their fortunes by winning the lottery. You will not be the first. Work hard and honest for your earnings and you will be rewarded for it, but not at the cost of your honor.

Becoming the Servants of the Most Merciful Series
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII | Part IX | Part X | Part XI | Part XII | Part XIII | Part XIV | Part XV

The distinguishing characteristics of the true Servants of the Merciful have been laid out for us by our Most Merciful Creator. They are humility, forbearance, praying the vigil, seeking the guidance and support of God from sins, fearing the possibility of going to Hell for one moment, balance in spending wealth, avoiding the major sins, protecting the major objectives of Islam, repentance, not witnessing the glorification of falsehood, avoiding useless speech, submitting to scripture, building one’s family on piety and seeking the help of God while doing so.

After guiding us to these most noble characteristics, our Beloved Creator than told us the reward of working to attain them:

“These Servants of the Merciful will be rewarded with a high position in Heaven as a result of their perseverance.  They will be greeted therein with the glad tidings of eternal life free of enmity, discontent or any other defects.” (Qur’an 25:75)

Surely life is a test and it is not easy. The guidance has been facilitated and the path to the eternal bliss in the pleasure of our creator is clear. Now it is upon us to work for it as God said,

“How excellent is the reward of those who work for it.” (Qur’an 3:136)

In the verse about the reward of the Servants of the Merciful, the qualifying clause was “as a result of their perseverance”. This is the translation of “bi maa sabaroo”. God is telling us that the whole of life and the test therein is about perseverance in showing Him our devotion, loyalty, and gratitude.  Our scholars have defined for us the three types of “sabr” that we all face in life. Basically our test is in disciplining ourselves to rise above our carnal egotistical instincts to become spiritual servants of our Creator. There are basically three aspects of perseverance that we are facing.

The first of these is persevering by fulfilling all of our religious obligations. The fact is we value our time and we incline towards instant gratification of our desire to enjoy our time. We must regulate our time so that we do everything we possibly can to fulfill whatever God has commanded us to do (i.e. practicing the 5 pillars of Islam).  In doing this we make the divine obligations the most important thing in life. If they weren’t important then God wouldn’t have obligated us to do them. If we don’t feel the importance of them then we need to strengthen our faith by reading about the miracles of the Qur’an, the biography of the Prophet ﷺ and his companions and the previous prophecies about the coming of our Prophet. After building a strong faith, we must increase our knowledge so we can understand why we have been obligated to perform these acts of worship. After completing these steps we are on our way to a fruitful life of service to the Almighty. In today’s secular world we are brainwashed from a young age that worship is a matter of choice and not a requirement whereas our scripture treats intentionally leaving obligatory worship as even more sinful than committing acts prohibited by God.

The second aspect of perseverance in life is in avoiding all of the things prohibited by scripture. We have certain carnal desires as animals that we are inclined to. A big test in life is in breaking down our ego and our desires so that we may protect our souls. Again weak faith is a reason for committing sins so we must seek to feed and nurture our faith as mentioned previously. Similarly, we should seek the knowledge of the wisdom behind prohibitions so that we may see the big picture and how God is protecting us from great harm by prohibiting us from things we incline to egotistically and materialistically. One of the biggest means in avoiding sins is the environment we choose. If we choose friends and surroundings which facilitate piety then we will be much more likely to stay free of major sins. God almighty commanded us,

“Train yourself to persevere with the company of those who live in sincere servitude to their Lord throughout the day… “ (Quran 18:28)

Our beloved Prophet ﷺ said, “A person is influenced by the ways of his close friends. So pay close attention to those who you take as close friends.” (Abu Dawood 4833)

Finally, we have the last aspect of the perseverance required to pass the test of life. This is the way we deal with hardship and difficulty that we face. One of the main arguments of atheism is that if God is good and in control of everything then why does He decree so much violence, evil, and corruption.  The fact is that this argument doesn’t hold up to a day in court with Islamic theology. It is crystal clear in Islam that this life is a test. We have been blessed with life, intelligence, creativity and all our sustenance at our finger tips. We are asked to persevere through life by disciplining ourselves through knowledge and human struggle to be spiritual entities who are not content as a result of material gain or worldly attachments, but through submitting to our Creator’s divine plan for us. If we fulfill this trust then we will attain eternal bliss. On the other hand, if we allow our ego and desires to get the best of us we will live and die as animals until the hereafter where we will be responsible for our rebellion against our Creator. The hardships and calamities we face in this life are one of two things for a believer. It is either a means of purifying ourselves from sins in this life or a means of pleasing God through showing our pure submission to His will even when it doesn’t serve our desires. The Prophet ﷺ said,

“If God has goodwill towards his servant, He hastens his punishment in this life. If He has bad will for His servant who is deserving of it, He leaves him to pay for his sins on the Day of Judgment.”(Tirmidhi)

“Verily the greatness of reward is according to the greatness of the trial. Surely if God loves a people then he tests them with hardship. So whoever is content with God’s decree then God is content with him and whoever is displeased with it then God will be displeased with them. (Tirmidhi)

We pray the Almighty Merciful One facilitate our struggle with perseverance that we may indeed be counted as His servants! Ameen

As the Prophet ﷺ (peace be upon him) held his hand, `Umar ibn Khattab radi Allahu `anhu (may Allah be pleased with him) told the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, “You are dearer to me than everything except my own self.” When the Prophet ﷺ replied that `Umar would not be a true believer until he loved the Messenger more than everything including himself, `Umar thought for a moment before confirming: “By Allah, you are dearer to me than my own self.”

This beautiful story, recorded in Bukhari, was taught to me to show how important it is that we love Allah’s Messenger ﷺ wholeheartedly – but our religious texts are rich and multi-faceted, and there is hardly a Qur’anic ayah (verse) or hadith (tradition of the Prophet ﷺ) which cannot teach us multiple lessons. It was a friend of mine, gently berating me for the pressure I put myself under to please others and conform to their expectations, who pointed out the flipside to this narration: that it is okay if the person you love most, after Allah subhanahu wa ta`ala (exalted is He) and His Messenger ﷺ, is yourself.

Shakespeare said, “To thine own self be true” – and this had always struck me as selfish and self-centred. People always seemed to use this idea, of ‘being true to oneself,’ to defend the decisions they made which hurt the people around them. What makes any of us so special that we can justify disregarding the wishes of others and putting ourselves and our desires first?

The first mistake we make is thinking that ignoring our own dreams and plans for the sake of those around us will enable us to benefit or serve them better. The boy who studies medicine rather than the English literature he loves because his parents want him to be a doctor, the woman who always dreamed of being a teacher but agrees when her fiancé asks her to leave work and stay at home…they do it because he thinks it will make him a better son, and she wants to be a good wife. But look a couple of years into the future, and the boy is struggling with his studies, snapping irritably at his parents and spending as much time outside the house as possible; the woman is miserable and frustrated, feeling resentful towards her husband and acting cold and distant with him. Everyone else in their households can feel the tension and nobody is happy. These are not imaginary scenarios – I know these families.

The second mistake we make is thinking that Allah (swt) asked us to do this. As the hadith above shows, it is okay to love yourself. Of course, Allah (swt) does tell us to be good to our parents, spouses, children and those around us in society – but He also places limits on the extent to which others can make decisions about our lives. Parents cannot force their children to marry, women cannot be prevented from attending the mosque, and no-one can command others to sin.

This second mistake leads to a consequence even worse than the breakdown of family and friendships – the deterioration of our relationship with Allah (swt) Himself. When we believe that He has commanded us to suppress all our own wishes and plans in order to serve others, we not only end up resenting those people when we are unhappy – we resent Him too. We no longer thank Him gratefully, praise Him or pray to Him lovingly, because we believe He is the One who commanded us to make the choices which have left us miserable. Simply put, we cannot give generously and wholeheartedly, either to other people or to Allah (swt), when we are unfulfilled and frustrated, harbouring resentment and ill feeling towards them. Loving and being true to ourselves is not selfish; it is a means towards enabling us to love and be good towards others.

This is not to say that life with others should not involve compromise or some sacrifice for their sake – give and take is crucial, so long as it is not just about one or the other. Deep down, we know ourselves and our intentions. We know when we are being selfish and ungenerous, and need to fight our nafs (ego). We also know what the vitally important things to us are – the dreams and desires which we can’t ignore, even for those we love most, because suppressing them will kill something inside us.

And of course, this doesn’t mean giving in to unlawful desires – so any kleptomaniacs reading this, don’t go on a shoplifting spree because you‘re being ‘true to yourself’! – but if your personality traits and ambitions are halal (permissible), like studying literature or being a working wife, remember that Allah (swt) created you and He created those dreams. He made sure that we knew the stories of hundreds of diverse Sahaba (companions of the Prophet ﷺ) so that we would understand that there are many ways to be a good Muslim man or woman – from `A’isha the scholar and Khadijah the businesswoman to Fatima, the devoted homemaker; from Khalid ibn Walid the warrior and Hassan ibn Thabit the poet to `Uthman ibn `Affan the trader radi Allahu `anhum (may Allah be pleased with them all).

As Imam al-Ghazali said, “The key to knowing Allah is to know your own self.” It is up to us to choose our path and negotiate that with the people around us. Having that conversation might not be easy, and perhaps they will be disappointed at first. But those who really love you – and that includes Allah (swt) – will want you to be happy, and your happiness and contentment will enable you to give unreservedly and ungrudgingly to them in return, pleasing them too. That Shakespearean line I first thought of as ‘selfish’ turns out to be a vital part of becoming a truly generous and selfless believer.