Aslam

POVERTY AND RENUNCIATION

WHAT IS POVERTY?

Know, O dear readers, that the meaning of poverty is not to possess what is necessary to remove wants. Not to have a thing what is not necessary is not poverty. If you have what is necessary and if you have got control over it you are not a poor man. In this sense, everybody is poor except God, as He is ever- living. So God alone is above wants and everybody is depehdent on Him. God says: God is above wants and you are poor — 47 : 38.
This is the widest meaning of poverty. We do not mean that in this chapter. What we mean here by poverty is want of riches.
The necessity of man is unlimited. He who has got no riches is poor.

FIVE CLASSES OF POVERTY— (1) The poverty of one who renounced the world. This condition is highest because he does not want riches though they come to him. He flees away from riches being displeased and takes care of their injuries and harms. This is renunciation. These are the people who have renounced the world. (2) The poverty of one who does not hate wealth but likes more to be above wants than to live in wants. If wealth comes to him without efforts, he does not refuse. He is a contented poor man. (3) He loves wealth but he does not make serious efforts for it. He is called a poor man with love of wealth.
(4) He is a greedy poor man who has got desire to earn wealth and finds out various means to earn it. (5) The poor man who has got want of necessities and has got no wealth. (6) The condition of another poor man is highest. It is all one to him whether he has got wealth or no wealth. If wealth comes to him J\e is notpleased, and if it does not come, he is not displeased. He is not pleased to see that wealth should last with him, nor does he want that it should go. He does not feel want out of riches and does not also consider himself rich in case of having riches. He has got self satisfaction, but he is not a rich man. God adorned his heart with the attribute of self satisfaction. He is not a slave of riches. The world renunciation is a basis of all his good works and is highest in his case. Ordinary world renunciation is harmful in this case, as the virtues of the virtuous men are the evil deeds of those who are close to God. Any engagement with anything except God is

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an impediment to meeting with God. Hating the world is an act of engagement. So he who hates the world can be said to remain engaged in an action of the world. Your engagement with your self and your passion mean that you are busy without God. This is just like the lover and the beloved. He who looks to another in presence of his beloved sets up partnership in love. Similarly he who hates another leaving his act of love lessens his love.

MERITS OF POVERTY