Personal Expenditure
Beyond the obligation of zakat, we find in Islamic teaching a large
number of recommendations about the moral significance of personal
expenditure. The management of one’s possessions can never
be thought of as outside the meaning of being a Muslim. We may distinguish
in the Quran at least four aspects of the moral meaning of expenditure:
1. To please God and make gifts along
the way He sets us. Faith is that intimate conviction
that God sees what we do and knows the intention behind the way
we dispose of our possessions. Maintaining this link with the Creator
means directing all our financial activity toward goodness, transparency,
and justice. It is to give and give again from our plenty, over
and above zakat, in order to live with our rights in harmony with
those of others.
2. Giving fair measure. It
is not necessary to live like a hermit and to give everything without
any sort of account. It cannot be right that we should make ourselves
poor in order to achieve justice. A true gift is one that is motivated
by moderation and awareness of limitations, as well as by responsibility.
Our spirit, our body, those close to us – all have rightful
claims upon us to which we must respond, and out of this response
is born the true gift of oneself to the other and to society as
a whole: fair measure makes it possible to maintain what we need
to sustain our own centre in order to be [in solidarity] with other
people.
3. The struggle against egoism and
acquisitiveness. To neglect giving and to protect
one’s possessions to the point of burying them is to forget
God and to treat one’s possessions like an idol. It means
that one is preoccupied with counting, when what is needed is prayer
and purifying oneself form this natural tendency to egoism. The
revelation has some harsh words for acquisitive people. The image
of a hereafter of suffering is meant to awaken the conscience to
the seriousness of an attitude that borders on idolatry and whose
consequences we see every day.
4. Learning discretion. Humankind
is asked to find the measure in which it will give and to remain
discreet and respectful of others. Indeed, one’s way of giving
is in itself a testimony of faith: if you have no need to be seen
by others, it is a sign that you know God is always with you. Discretion
also safeguards the dignity of those you help. The aim is to prevent
evil, to give before the poor need to beg, and to try to avoid being
seen by anyone so that no one has to be embarrassed or look the
other way for no reason.
