PROPERTY FOR FELICITY (I)

The first reason wherefore isrâf is something bad is the high value that property has been invested with. Property is a blessing given by Allâhu ta’âlâ. It is with property that (the felicity in) the Hereafter is earned. It is with property that worldly and next-worldly peace and order are established. It is with property that thawâb for hajj and jihâd is earned. It is with property that the human body attains health and energy. It is property that protects one from needing others’ support. It is with property alone that charities such as almsgiving, visiting kinsfolk, and helping the poor are performed. Property, again, is the sole source of humanitarian services such as constructing mosques, schools, hospitals, roads, fountains, bridges and the like, and training soldiers. Our religion declares: “The best ones of mankind are those who serve them in the most useful manner.” To work and earn for the purpose of serving humanity brings more thawâb than performing acts of nâfila (supererogatory) worship. It is with property that high positions in Paradise are attained. It is stated as follows in a hadîth-i-sherîf which Imâm Tirmizî quotes on the authority of Abû Kabsha-i-Ansârî ‘radiy-Allâhu ta’âlâ ‘anh’, (one of the Ansâr-i-kirâm: “Allâhu ta’âlâ gives property and knowledge to a slave of His. If this slave avoids harâms, pleases his relatives, knows the people who have rightful dues from his property and gives them their rights, he will attain a high position in Paradise.” The following hadîth-i-sherîf is quoted in the books entitled Bukhârî and Muslim on the authority of ’Abdullah ibni Mes’ûd ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’: “If a person has attained either one of the (following) two things, it will be suitable to envy him. Allâhu ta’âlâ has conferred Islamic teachings on a person. And that person always acts compatibly with his knowledge. Second, Allâhu has given a person plenty of property. That person spends that property of his at places liked and approved of by Allâhu ta’âlâ.”