Faith and Wealth

 

The World, or Allah?

'And whatever you have been given is (only) the enjoyment of worldly life and its adornment. And what is with Allah is better and more lasting.' (Al-Qasas, 28: 61)

 

In a Hadith narrated by Hazrat Abu Huraira (ra), the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) had said: “Richness does not lie in the abundance of (worldly) goods but richness is the richness of the soul (heart, self).” (Muslim)

 

Only a contented heart or a peaceful and satisfied heart, soul or inner self of a person can attain to true abundance. And this abundance cannot be accounted for in this world. Where there is true love for Allah, the heart is grateful for whatever good Allah gives it. The love of Allah is imprinted so deep that no riches can ever deviate the true lover from his Creator. The lover of God and His Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is bound to be tried in every form, as a measure, as a test of his love, as a gauge to gauge his mettle, faith, and the love he proclaims to have for Allah and His Prophet (pbuh).

The Vicious Circle of 'Riba'

 Money, Interest, Banks, Governments & Slavery

 

My dear brothers, sisters and children, for my sermon today I have chosen to talk to you about the evil influence of money and interest which are governed by those behind the scene and who control the banking system as it still exist today as well as government and who strive to have the upper hand of it all to the detriment of the human race. 

Like we have learnt since our childhood, throughout history, there existed various forms of slavery. In the dark ages, people were captured and sold on the slave markets. Thereafter, the colonial masters enslaved entire nations. Today, we have perhaps the most intricate network of enslavement strategies… such strategies that threaten to enslave the entire human race. 

The institution of “Riba” (interest/usury) through financial houses like the World Bank and (the) IMF govern and control practically every developing country in the world. Under the guise of foreign aid, the mineral wealth of an entire country is usurped and every individual directly or indirectly contributes to servicing the foreign debt of his country. A child is born into this world already indebted. Indebtedness is the unique inheritance and heritage bestowed on him by his country. The tragedy is that these injustices not only go unpunished, they go unrecognized. And people find themselves slaves to the permanent institution of such banks and banking systems that are heartless and power thirst. 

Thinkers who knew the inside-out dealings and transactions of such systems have warned us about their dangers. There is a saying [also known as the Stamp’s Law] which is quoted to be that of Lord Josiah Stamp, a director of the Bank of England who made the following statement before he was killed in the German bombing called the Blitz. The saying is as follows: “Banking was conceived in inequity and born in sin. Bankers own the earth. Take it away from them but leave them with the power to create credit and with a flick of a pen; they will create enough money to buy it all back again…. If you want to be slaves of bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, then let bankers control money and control credit”.

'Live Prudently; Resist Desires'

On Spending Habits

Allah the Almighty has given all people all the necessary with which they can live and seek their livelihood to satisfy their needs. But sometimes the problem that crops up is the desire which man seeks to acquire/ fulfill through show-off and extravagance, which is way beyond his means, or he it may be that he can acquire it through the means which he has at hand but by foregoing something important from his budget. This kind of imbalance begins there itself, for very often he sets off to fulfill his desires to the detriment of much more important and essential things.

Let us take a simple example so that we may understand this. A person can dress up in a convenient and simple way, in cheap clothes. But then he desires to clothe himself in haute couture or clothes of high class and made. This desire propels him to spend more. Thus, he needs to forego more essential needs such as food and drink only to satisfy this desire of his. He, therefore, makes some adjustments to his budget by cutting off essential needs. When we do this with a child who needs good/ quality food for his physical and mental development, we thus commit a grievous crime against our own child. How many are there among us who seek to borrow money only to clothe themselves in a fashionable way? And afterwards these kinds of people see it difficult to reimburse the money! (We call this "Israaf", i.e. bad spending).

Thus, it is the children who have to bear the brunt because of the financial crisis in the house, and moreover disputes between spouses ensue. At the end of the day, it is the children who have to bear the consequences. This is how turbulence amidst the family and espousal units occur, all because of extravagant spending. We deprive ourselves from what we need and we go after what we do not need. In other words, extravagant spending is illicit (Haraam).

Faith: Prudence versus Excesses 

Deen (Religion, i.e., Islam) teaches us moderation in all things. This applies to Ibaadat (prayer) also. We must make time for the accomplishment of our Ibaadat but we must not do it in such an excessive way as to neglect our other responsibilities or more important Ibaadat which are more essential.

Watching Too Much TV

TV’S HARMFUL EFFECTS

Today the subject of my sermon shall be on the harmful effects of television. TV in itself is a favour for us from Allah (swt). You shall notice that in all good favours that Allah gives man, little by little Satan makes his way in them, leaving his mark, thus spoiling the favours which Allah have enabled us to have, especially in this past era and the actual era in which we are living with the introduction of television. There are programmes on TV which are essential for viewers, to learn from the given information, such as documentaries, news, educative programmes and others.

Now attraction to all the good effects of TV has disappeared, especially among the youths. Are you people now pondering over the arrays of TV Channels which are available today? I recall the past when there was only one television channel in Mauritius and there were interesting programmes, educative ones (such as documentaries etc.) which started around 3.00 pm and ended at 10.00 pm. Even the radio ended early just like for television. It was years later that a second channel was introduced and today there are a whole lot of TV channels besides the basic national TV channels. Now there are TV stations such as CANAL + proposing new programmes and channels and there is also the MY.T which proposes different new channels. Recently MY.T through publicity done have given viewers 3 months (till October 2015) free viewing of all its channels (more than 73 channels), with the hope that this attracts more and more people to subscribe to these usually paid channels. From what I have learnt, all kinds of Hindi and other serials are being broadcast, one after the other.

Now, what one sees is that all people are before the television, morning and evening. And there is even the option now to get to view the missed programmes and films of the past days.

So the believers need to ponder a lot over the harmful effects of television. Nowadays, a TV in a house has become for the people like a dangerous enemy. It has become such an enemy which is destroying your Iman (faith), time and money when you go to have paid subscriptions to get to view such channels which are dirty. At the same time, you are inviting your wives and children to partake of the harmful effects of these immoral movies and as a result, they also get to be negatively affected by these. 

Money: Spend Prudently

Money is not easy to obtain, especially if we mean the lawful source of money. Certainly, the acquisition of wealth requires great efforts. “One must work to earn his bread” is a phrase we hear very often. 

Allah, the Regulator of all that is in this world and in heaven has commanded us in His Blessed Book:

“It is He Who has made the earth manageable for you, so walk through its tracts and enjoy of the Sustenance which He furnishes: but unto Him is the Resurrection.” (67: 16).

Allah is the Lord of immense grace, and all that is in heaven and on earth belongs to Him. Therefore, man must know that although he is the actor of his efforts, but all that which is in his hand really belongs to Allah. Allah is He Who has power over everything he is and everything he owns. Certainly man is not the true owner of the property/wealth which is in his hands. Allah exposes this fact very clearly in His Glorious Book: “And give them of the wealth of Allah which He has given you.” (24: 34). 

If this is the case, man must be very careful about how he spends his wealth. The Quran, best guide for humanity gives him better guidance about it. “Those who when they spend, are neither extravagant nor niggardly, but they hold a just balance between the two.” (25: 68). The believer should not be an extravagant spender and on the other hand, he/she must not also be stingy. He must hold firm to a just position between the two, practicing the middle way.

Wealth is without a doubt a great trial, or even a great temptation. When a person accumulates money, he tends to make unnecessary expenses. Like the one who buys what he wants as and when he pleases without even reaping the benefit of this money/expenditure in any way. Otherwise he tries to have the money multiplied through illicit means or thrown in gambling without taking into account the great lost that awaits him both in this world and in the hereafter. Or he may spend this money in vain pursuits (reaping no benefit whatsoever) such as alcoholic drinks, cigarettes, giant screens (home cinemas), etc.