Understanding The Prophet's Life
From Issue: 918 [Read full issue]
Spending Wisely
The spiritual nature of the Shariah highlights psychological virtues and moral perfection in contrast with the evil motives that mostly occur to corrupt rich people, causing them to misuse the Provider's (God's) blessing. This characteristic has prevented the Shariah sources from explicitly encouraging people to acquire wealth and property and expounding the virtues of that pursuit. The reason for this is to avoid adding the religious exhortation to human beings' natural impulse to acquire wealth.
In an authentic Tradition, the Prophet (peace be upon him) is reported to have said:
By God, I am not afraid that you will become poor, but I am afraid that worldly wealth will be given to you in abundance as it was given to those [nations] before you. You will start competing with one another for it as the previous nations competed for it, and then it will divert you [from good] as it diverted them. [Bukhari, Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah]
He thus compared the condemned type of competition to that of previous nations, that is, the type of competition whereby people would totally devote themselves to the pursuit of material wealth instead of competing for virtues and moral values. Indeed, such ferocious competition for worldly wealth might even cause people to disprove many values and qualities of human spiritual and moral perfection for the sake of acquiring and accumulating wealth.
Therefore, the Shariah has contented itself with simply not forbidding human beings to acquire wealth by legitimate means and with showing the various aspects of good and evil that might ensue from the different ways of spending it. The aim is to use the tools of desire and fear to persuade people to spend their money wisely and avoid misusing it.
Compiled From:
"Treatise on Maqasid Al-Shariah" - Ibn Ashur, p. 275