Aslam

The substance of the above talk is that the question who is better among the two rich or poor can be answered from having a look to one's attachment to the wealth. If the poor man and the rich man are equal in their attachment to wealth, their status is equal. Some ancient sage said : The worshiper who seeks the world is like one who wants to extinguish fire by dried grass or like one who washes his hand with clarified butter to remove fat from hands. The saint Solaiman Darani said : The poor man who does not get his coveted things and then breaths a long sigh is better than the rich man who does divine service for one thousand years. The saint Zohhak said :
He who enters a market and greeds for a thing and then keeps patience to acquire virtues, is better than one who spends one thousand Dinars in the way of God. A man asked the saint Bashar bin Hares : Pray from me to God. I am having difficulties in maintaining family. He said : When your wife says to you : We have got no bread or wheat, pray for me as your invocation at that time is better than mine. He used to say : The rich worshiper is like a garden in cowdung. The poor worshiper is like a necklace of pearls in the neck of a most beautiful woman. Hazrat Abu Bakr Siddiq said : O God, when my passion wants to fulfill its desire. I pray then to you for disgrace and I pray to you to be deprived of a thing which exceeds necessity. The best condition of possessing wealth is to earn lawful thing and spend lawful thing. For this also one shall have to wait and render accounts on the Resurrection Day. To wait for long to render accounts is also a punishment.
For this reason the companion Hazrat Abdur Rahman-bin-Auf will be admitted in to paradise with delay as he would be engaged in rendering accounts. This is the tradition of the Prophet. The companion Abu Dara'a said : That I should have a shop near a mosque and that I should not miss a prayer or Zikr are dearer to me than that I should earn fifty dinars and spend them in the way of God. The people asked him : What is the harm ? He said : There is the fear of rendering accounts in that case.

The saint Sufiyan said: The poor selected three things and the rich three. The poor selected peace of mind, vacant mind and scanty accounts and the rich selected self-trouble, engagement of mind and a strict rendering of account. The saint Ibn Ata said :
Freedom from want is an attribute of God. That is good for this

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reason that when a man become indifferent of having wealth or no wealth and when they become equal to him, his condition is like the above.