Moderate Spending, Universal Miracle, External Heretics
Issue 925 » December 16, 2016 - Rabi Al-Awwal 17, 1438
Living The Quran
Moderate Spending
Al-Isra (The Night Journey) - Chapter 17: Verse 29
"Do not be miserly, allowing your hand to remain shackled to your neck, nor stretch it out fully to the utmost limit, lest you find yourself being blamed or reduced to destitution."
The Quran orders moderation in all spending. Striking a proper balance is the Islamic rule. To move to either extreme leads to imbalance. The verse employs subtle imagery to enhance the intended meaning. It paints miserliness as a hand tied up to one's neck, while a spendthrift is shown as one with hands stretched out completely, unable to hold on to anything. The end of miserliness and the end of squander is drawn as a person sitting down, facing blame, powerless. It implies a position of weakness like that which makes an animal refuse to move. This applies to the miserly person whose miserliness weakens him to the point of inaction, and to the spendthrift who finds himself deprived of all power. Both are blamed in the end, one for stinginess, the other for squandering. The best attitude is a middle of the road one, tilting neither towards a tight fist nor towards careless extravagance.
Compiled From:
"In The Shade of The Quran" - Sayyid Qutb, Vol. 11, p. 122
Understanding The Prophet's Life
Love Conquers
The softness and compassion of the heart, the warmth of love, the benevolence and tranquillity of the inner self, all constitute an immense wealth. If your heart is at peace, your attitude too will be serene, the words will be gentle and the tone kindly, and there will be an all-encompassing tenderness in your interaction with others. "Adopt tenderness." [Muslim] "Whoever is deprived of tenderness is deprived of all good." [Muslim]
Love conquers the world. That which can be had with tenderness and leniency cannot be won by harshness. Whatever can be won with love will not come by enmity or hate. When your loving and hating and your giving and your withholding is for the sake of none except Allah, your Iman will become perfect. [Abu Dawud] The Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, was and is a mercy for the whole world, one full of love and compassion for the believers. By talking in a harsh tone, by being mean in your transactions, by putting on a grim face, you shall not gain anything. By softness and love and compassion, your heart shall be rewarded with inner peace and a feeling of sweetness, your worldly affairs shall become smooth and pleasant, and all this will ensure Allah's Paradise in the Hereafter.
Compiled From:
"Dying and Living for Allah" - Khurram Murad
Blindspot!
External Heretics
There is a kind of people who admire strong power, who like discipline, who adore the outer order similar to that of the army, "where it is known who gives orders and who obeys them." They like the new parts of a town where all the houses are the same, in straight rows, and with identical facades. They like uniforms, military music bands, spectacles, parades, and other lies that "embellish" life and make it easier. They particularly like "everything to be according to the law." These are the people with the mentality of dependents. They simply like being dependents; they like safety, order, establishment; they like being praised by their heads; they like being recipients of mercy. Moreover, they are honest, peaceful, loyal, conscientious citizens. Dependents like having authority, and authority likes having dependents. They go together, as parts of a whole.
On the other side, there are those who are unhappy, damned, or cursed, who are always in revolt against something, who always want something new. They talk less of bread and more about freedom, less about peace and more about human personality. They do not accept the idea that the king gives them their salary; on the contrary, they claim that they feed the king ("it is not government that supports us, but we support the government"). These external heretics do not like authority, nor does authority like them. In religions, dependents adore people, authorities adore idols; lovers of freedom and rebels, however, praise only God. In fact, idolatry does not hinder slavery or subjection, and religion does not hinder freedom.
Compiled From:
"Islam Between East and West" - Alija Ali Izetbegovic, p, 170