Spending in the Way of Allah (s.w.t.)

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ 

The following is an adapted extract of Imam Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali’s (r.a.) Ayyuha al-Walad.  When Shaykh Abu ‘Ali Shaqiq ibn Ibrahim al-Azdi al-Balkhi (q.s.) asked his student, Shaykh Hatim Ism (q.s.), who became a great spiritual master, about the benefits of associating with him, he named eight. 

Of the third, he said, “O my teacher!  The third benefit is that when I glanced at the people, I saw that every person, with great pain and hard work, is busy in accumulating the possessions of this mortal world and is very happy that he has a lot of goods and material possessions.  But when I contemplated on the following holy verse from the Bounteous Qur’an: 

سُوۡرَةُ النّحل

مَا عِندَكُمۡ يَنفَدُ‌ۖ وَمَا عِندَ ٱللَّهِ بَاقٍ۬‌ ... (٩٦) 

That which you have wasted away, and that which Allah has Remains … (Surah an-Nahl:96) 

Then whatever I accumulated in the world, I spent it all in Way of Allah (s.w.t.) by distributing it among pious indigents and beggars so that it would be deposited with Allah (s.w.t.), as my trust and will become source of immense good and ransom in the life Hereafter.”



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