hi sister, i remember that reference but could not recall the verse so i looked it up. aside from that given by Muslimah below:

al-Isra, 11 “And man supplicates for evil as he supplicates for good, and man is ever hasty.”

al-Ma’arij, 19-20 “Surely man is created of a hasty (or anxious) temperament; When evil touches him, impatient,”

and several others referencing man’s foolish desire for a hasty world.

anyway the article reminded me of when i bought my car (still have it), and telling the saleswoman that i’m looking for a car that will work reliably given that i was intending to have it for at least 10 years. i mean for certain reliable brands, this is completely achievable. i could see from her face the saleswoman had some difficulty with this, as she asked whether i was not intending to swap it over in 5 years or 7 like most people? (but she recovered quickly and accepted it when i indeed assured her so.) i reckon the next time i consider changing it is when there’s sufficient technological advancement in fuel efficiency technology.

but it’s hard to resist the cultural norms; you’re gonna have to suffer being joked about for still not changing a relatively early (but perfectly adequate) Nokia smartphone running on Symbian… 🙂 i’ve got used to it though.

Assalamu Alikum

I believe the verse is not that Allah (swt) created man in haste. It is that man is a creation characterized by haste.

The actual verse is:

خُلِقَ ٱلۡإِنسَـٰنُ مِنۡ عَجَلٍ۬‌ۚ سَأُوْرِيكُمۡ ءَايَـٰتِى فَلَا تَسۡتَعۡجِلُونِ

“Man is a creature of haste: soon (enough) will I show you My Signs: then ye will not ask Me to hasten them!” (21:37)

I certainly don’t remember reading a verse like that in the Quran. Please, if someone knows it, cite that verse.

May allah reward you, great post.

Another added bonus to not needing the latest cool gadget is a rise in the bank account. If you can keep your current Iphone, to use the analogy from above, working for the long term, you will not have to dish out hundreds to get a new one.

If you can make it habit to purchase older models of the technology gadgets, you save hundreds. If you can make them last also, then even more saved.

After all, they do say “A penny saved is a penny earned.”

With all due respect, the author didn’t say anything about Americans or westernization… More than likely, the author is an American… And as a muslim and a proud American (born and raised), I can tell you that the author had no intentions of saying only “those Americans get wrapped up in all this materialism…” No, it is a very real muslim problem and it has been a very real human problem since the beginning of the first human being… According to the Islamic tradition, as soon as God (All Praise be to Him) breathed life into Adam while he was in heaven, Adam jumped and started running around because of his amazement of all of what he was seeing… heaven. God revealed a verse referring to this story, the meaning translating something to the effect of “Human beings have been created in haste.”

Imam Webb told a story that happened about 1400 years ago that Umar ibn Khattab, the second Caliphate, saw a man running, and he could tell that the man was in a hurry. And so he asked him, “Why are you in such a hurry?” So the man replied, “Because I’m in a rush to go eat my favorite food.” So Umar replied, “Have you no control over your desires?”

Materialism is a very real problem that we all have to deal with, muslims included. So please don’t take it as an offense against the, like you said, lifestyle of a very few number of Americans. Everyone knows Kim Kardashian does not represent the majority of Americans, who are hard-working people. This country was founded on hard-work. But this article was only to give a message, to be grateful for what you have, and recognize that this world is not the target. The target is in the hereafter, heaven. We’re all here trying to improve ourselves, together, am I’m glad that you posted on this website.