Wealth Goals and the Prophetic Model

Bismillah Al Rahman Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala Shura, filmora sallins et now and I begin our Maulana Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam more early he was Sofie Jemaine Frobisher Ali surgery via silly Emery was a little awkward at Amelie Cerny of Coco Lee Assalamu alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.

Please and thanks to God to Allah subhanahu wata ilottery Spiess blessings and salutations upon our Master and exemplar Nabina Muhammad sallallahu alayhi. Wa, early he was happy with

all the five objectives of the Sharia we've covered for we said that it is a it is a important framework with which to use so that we can structure our own goals and our own life's pathways.

The last one is heavily Mal, preservation of wealth.

This is an interesting one because when reading about or listening to Islamic discourse on wealth, it is somewhat puzzling, somewhat confusing. How so? Because is wealth good or bad?

Is wealth good or bad? On the one hand, we we hear the importance of not being infatuated with the dunya not loving Pina not aspiring for dunya but rather love for the hero. But on the other hand, we also know that only those eligible to pay Zakah gets to pay Zakah and then gets the reward of that. We also know that those who are wealthier can give more sadaqa

we also know that while the Quran says in nama am Wailuku Allah to come fitna your wealth in your children are a trial for you are a taste for you. On the other hand, the Quran says Xueyan leanness you hope butia Vitamina Nisa UAlbany in our canal three real mukaan para Mina, the heavy oil filter that beautified for human beings in their hearts by Allah is the love for Boucher heart, the love of the desires in Aneesa, it will burnin of the opposite gender and have children and have hoards of wealth of gold and silver.

But then on the other side of the spectrum, again the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said if you were to give the son of Adam a value of gold, they would want to second valley that nothing would fold a belly except for for dust.

But then, we also know that Satan, Abu Bakar Rajala and gave all his wealth in the path of Allah and was extremely praised for that said, now I'm gonna give off of his wealth, save now with man who was for our context, a billionaire of his time, could make many oke off plural of walk off in Medina that still exists up until this day that people are still benefiting from and that requires wealth in a

a weekly ritual

that requires wealth, without that wealth, that will cough the walkups wouldn't be standing. The today that the Sahaba asked the prophets Allah Lo, it was salam, O O Messenger of Allah. The rich ones among us can give sadaqa

for the sake of Allah,

and we can't because we are poor. So then the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam gave a whole list of what is also considered sadaqa and saying Subhan Allah is sadaqa and saying Alhamdulillah is Dhaka and smiling in the face of your Muslim brother is sadaqa and then they said yes, but the effluent ones can do all of that. And gives us the car and then the prophets of Allah Allah wa sallam said, have them informed Lila Oka, McCall. Allyssa. To send this is from the bounties of Allah. Allah gives it to him so every once in a while Ultramoon Xavi once, that's just how it is.

So with all of these seem

contradictory pieces of evidence what do we then walk away with? Is wealth good? Or is it bad? We know that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said that who will be the first to enter Jannah the rich or the poor?

The poor. So if the poor is going to enter Jannah first thing certainly they are on a better footing

or is it something else?

So, today inshallah the few minutes that we have I would like to try to gain some clarity by looking at all of this in sha Allah Tala. Now Islam as one of its objectives as the preservation of wealth. That's a major component of Deen 20% of the focus of deen is about wealth. And here we are not just speaking about the obligatory Zakah or the fact that the Riba is haram, that interesting usually is haram. We're not only speaking about gambling being haram, we are speaking about the holistic principles such as Islam seeks to create the perpetual circulation of wealth, that's holistic, right. This principle in and of itself, circumvents riba because Riba is the hoarding of wealth

depriving the poor of the wealth, right and using money to create more money to create more money, and Zakah institutionalize sorry, Islam institutionalizes czaka, which makes, which makes sure that those who have more give more every year for the sake of Allah subhanaw taala. And even if you were to have say, 5 million in an account, and that account is dormant, it's just they owe you keeping it under your mattress than if anybody still does that. So they keeping the 5 million under the mattress every single year, every Lunia that passes on that wealth 2.5% must be given away. It's not that after you give it once, then it's done every year. So that means that it's constantly being

depleted. So it actually puts that person who has that money on the backfoot. But this leads us to the second principle. Islam seeks to create perpetual investment of wealth, also

built into our Sharia, we have certain formulations, certain contracts, that

are they because it's encouraging investing wealth, like Musharaka, partnerships, for example, and Mudaraba, the type of partnership where one partner invests the money and the other one does the work. Shahrukh is where they pull together the resources and then the work gets done by whomsoever and then it gets divided between them. These are entire Barb's in fifth, they are chapters in Fick, that have no other purpose, except to invest wealth, Islam. You know, in the in the contemporary world, we have loans. That's the basic financial tool that modern contemporary banks utilize loans. So you go to the bank, you take a loan, whether it be a home loan, or business loan or personal

loan, but it's a loan. And the system works whereby you take the money and you pay them back and more. That's it. Islam has different contracts in place that makes the need for a loan at a minimum, but it's not widespread in the community. So very few people actually know how to invest in this way, in the way of Musharaka and Mudaraba, etc. And we don't have the time and the luxury to be able to expound on all of those details because it's a Joomla hooba. Not a fit does.

But the point is that we find the perpetual investment of wealth as something praiseworthy within the Sharia, and incorporated into the Sharia. We find this attitude among the Sahaba Rhodiola and whom, when the mahadji rune came to Medina, the unsought wanted to give them you know, yours some wealth for you yours is one of my wives also Bismillah go for it. You know, I'll set you up in the Mojito and said, No, all you need to do is show us with the marketplaces. Give us a hand show us who the marketplace is and we'll we'll stand up on our own two feet.

Islam seeks the fee and transparent financial practices throughout ladder uku Amala. kubina comb Bilbao do not consume each other's wealth

and justly every single Shara a contract, sale contract, higher lease contract etc. They have to be transparent, the side giving and the side receiving or if it's a mutual transaction in both sides need to be determinately known, which renders things like insurance and life policy.

and so forth problematic because the giving is known by the receiving is an unknown, right? This is a basic principle and axiomatic principle in the Sharia that both sides of the contract needs to be determinately known, it goes all the way down to buying a lucky packet at the shop, you can't buy lucky packet at the shop because you don't know what you're buying.

Right? That is the extent to which you must know exactly what you are buying what you're paying for.

We can't as Muslim sell something food students, you know, take it as ease I'm not going to tell you about the accident and the repair jobs and the Polyfilla on the side of the vehicle and the oil leak and the no smoke that I threw into the into the engine. No, no, no, you buy it as ease you drive down the road and the Campbell snaps. That's your problem, not my problem food students, we can't do that as Muslims. Right? I have one teacher you try to buy an item from Him, you will stand there for maybe an hour hearing about all the defects of that particular item to the point you think does this guy want to sell this thing or not? Because he understands the responsibility in terms of being

absolutely clear. olu colon sadita to speak a straight word.

Islam seeks fair and transparent financial practices. And Islam seeks to build everything on halal. This is a big problem in society. Because people don't have this concern of whether what they are consuming and what they are feeding the family with and what they are waiting on their body, whether it is halal or not. And we're not talking about if it's in zero if it's not in zero, if it's loaded correctly. We're talking about is your job halal?

Is your business halal? Is the money that you're receiving halal food you eat with that money, you feed your body, you nourish your body that body parts, if it is nourished by haram, it is haram to go to Ghana, that body part needs to burn clean first, before that person can enter into Jannah it's a serious, serious issue. And I mean, no one here would sit and feed the child in the some hammies some bacon you know, eat, eat, eat, no one would do that. But it's tantamount to the same thing if what we are feeding them is from a haram source because our income is haram because the business transaction that brought that income is haram.

This is a serious matter. So Islam has this built in

is your shop, or your business or your online business, whatever it is that you're doing is the source that it is bringing you the income is it in fact Hallel

these are some of the major objectives of Islam. But now we look at something very specific because we are talking about financial goals. And often when we when we plan our year ahead in our financial goals, we speak about savings. And we speak about investments. So already we've looked at investments and we said look if it's a halaal investment, if it is a halaal investment, meaning it is it is inspiring good business, somehow the other whether that be through chaise, whether that be through supporting a particular business or buying goods and selling them etc. It is something encouraged in the Sharia as long as it is halal. But what about saving, and this is a tricky one.

And I actually had to go in the read a number of things in order to gain some clarity on this particular issue. You know why? Because Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he did not save.

He personally did not save. So how can how can I then encourage saving or how can we say that Islam encourages saving, if Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam didn't save. But here's the caveat. Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam didn't save for himself, but he saved for his family. So there would be a certain amount of wealth given to his family that would be very well for the what they needed to eat, what they needed for the livelihood for an entire year. And the profit that is that would also consume of that, but for himself. He wouldn't even save for tomorrow. Like there's no concept of tomorrow for the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam it is Tawakkol on another level

that you and I like the Prophet systems fasting we don't fast like he fasted, Elisa that was some we don't make the 100 like you made the 100 the certain aspects we we take a percentage of what he had and they said to us and we aspire to that. But beyond that, it's it's practically unattainable. Rather we look at the prophets apostles behavior with his family and with the Sahaba Rhodiola Anam and they we see that they say

saved that they earned and they aspired for wealth. Not everyone, but some of them, how much of them? Let's just look at one small sample size. Ashura, Elmo Bashara Bill Jana. The tin were given glad tidings of Jana 20% of them were the billionaires of the time, like Abdurahman even

say now man, even a fan, and even Satan, Abu Bakr, Siddiq, Radi Allahu Taala and who they were for in terms of our context, they were the billionaires of data. And they made massive investments into Islam. And not once do we see the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam rebuking them for the wealth that they possess.

So with all of this, in a very summed up form,

my conclusions on the matter is that wealth is neither good nor bad, but it is what you make of it.

Wealth is neither good nor bad, but it is what you make of it.

But the question that we really want to ask is, should we strive to be rich? That's the real question. And now that I, okay, the hour that's, that's up to you. It's nothing to gloss on investment. But should we strive to be rich? And the answer is, absolutely, if you can manage it.

Absolutely, you should strive to be rich. If you can manage it, and manage it managing it means that you're going to be spending it in the course of ALLAH SubhanA horadada. Muslims, all of us we should be striving to be as rich as we can manage, not beyond that. This is why the prophets or some would ask ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada. And I believe in our bus asked Allah Allah and we ask Allah when we drink ZamZam, we say this dua Allahumma inni, Luca Eidelman efia. What is confer yerba or MLM Muto Kabbalah, Allah grants me beneficial knowledge, grant me good, pure risk,

and grant me good deeds, and accept the deeds, why pure risk, because the risk, risk can be a fitna for you. You may fall into wealth and it's an extreme fitna for you, but according to the teachings of Islam, if it's good, that means you know how to manage it. Some scholars explain and I've mentioned this example many times before, if you know that you can keep it in your hand, and you can keep your hand open, then Bismillah. But if you know that it's not going to stay in your hand, it's going to enter into your heart, then hold on, that might just be a bit too much for you. That might just be a curse for you. Should we aspire for more wealth? Yes, if we can manage it, why should we

aspire for more wealth,

to have big bank accounts? No.

To leave millions and billions to our progeny, no, not to that extent because the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, don't leave them impoverished, don't leave your children impoverished. But he still allowed us to give up to 1/3 in South Africa, of our of our bequests, our inheritance, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi, WA It was after us LM taught us and taught the Sahaba to give for the purpose of Allah subhanho wa taala. So any Muslim that wants to be wealthy and can manage wealth should aspire for wealth, for the purposes of giving in the Cause of Allah. We should not be aspiring for wealth to get the next best, latest greatest updated high tech model house call. Next

best brand clothing, next base pair of shoes next base, this next base, that higher education, rather more expensive education, I should say it cetera, et cetera, et cetera. It's not about aspiring for the highest standard of living. It's about aspiring for the highest standard of giving for the sake of Allah. And that is why the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, there is no hassad hazard is prohibited except for to

the one with wealth and he spends it for the sake of Allah, you can be hazard of that person. The hazard they mean something different. It doesn't mean that you want that person to be deprived of it. It means that you also want that the prophets of allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, you can be hassled about that. In other words, you can be an aspirant towards that. The prophets Allah Allah Allah was simply the second person is the one who has beneficial knowledge. And he teaches any learns and he studies for the sake of Allah to the people. You can be jealous about that and you can be an aspirant towards that. The very Hadith

I'm quoting his evidence in and of itself, that aspiring for wealth for those who can manage it is not only encouraged, but praiseworthy, and it should be something on our agenda. So if it was ever in our minds that I would like to become rich and my track record shows, my track record shows that I can manage money when go for it. But your objective must be that I want to increase my standard of giving for the sake of Allah subhanho wa Taala

Can I not sort myself out? Can I not buy a house and a car? No, of course you can get the basics. Get whatever you need for your family, pay for the education you want a nice copy Smilla go for the nice god no problem in that in Allah Yakubu era antaranya mighty Allah. Allah loves to see the traces of His favours upon he servants. Allah favored you wants to see you enjoying the favors, but not to the extent where you become I'm keeping up with the Joneses. I'm keeping up with the Kardashians and keeping up with a you know, I want to get the next one and the next day I don't know this area is not good enough for me anymore. I need to move to the upper area. Right rondebosch East

isn't good enough anymore. I need to go to rondebosch central at Hanover Park East isn't good enough anymore. You know, this is this is not the way to go about it. So you see to your basics, CTO basics, but let your aspirations lie in. What can I do for the deen of Allah aspire to build MSG aspire to sponsor students of Deen aspire to invest into the deen of Islam so that long after we leave this world,

our benefits are still coming in like say now with man raviolo data and for that we should aspire. May Allah subhanaw taala grant us the defeat and the understanding and grant us beneficiary risk that will be a means for us to attain proximity to him attain his love attain the love of his messenger sallallahu alayhi wasallam so that we can stand with a Mutasa Duquesne and the Mutasa Decart and the deaf TM, those who give for the sake of Allah Subhana Allah, may Allah make us from among those who give openly and secretly and always with the right intentions, may Allah enrich us in terms of our role in terms of our culture, in terms of our hearts, minds and souls. And in terms

of our wealth also for the right reasons. May Allah grant us the maturity and the Tofik to manage our wealth, and to not allow ourselves to become infatuated with it. May we use money and not be used by money? May we aspire to be from among those who can help others because their hand on top is better than the hand at the bottom and Allah make us from the hands at the top? Allah make us from the believers who can strengthen this deen and strengthen our family and strengthen the community through this Deen Amina Europa Alameen wa sallahu wa ala Sayidina Muhammad Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa Salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh