Chapter IV: Poverty and Renunciation
The Prophet said: whose is guided to Islam, gets the provision of his livelihood and whose is satisfied with both should be thankful. He said : O assembly of the poor, give pleasure from your heart to God and you will then get the merits of poverty or else not It appears from these traditions that the greedy poor man will not get meats for his poverty. The Prophet said : There is key to everything and the key to paradise is love for the poor They will sit with God on the Resurrection Day for their patecnce. The Prophet said : The poor man who is dearest to God is he who remains satisfied with what is with him and with the provision God gave him The Prophet said : O God, give sufficient provision for the family members of Muhammad. The Prophet said : There will be no poor or rich man who will not wish and say on the Resurrection Day : It would have been sufficient if there would have been for me bare provision of life in me world God revealed to the Prophet Ismail : Search Me near one who is broken hearted. The Prophet said : If a poor man 'remains satisfied, there is nobody better then him. The Prophet said : God will say on the resurrection day : Where are those among My creations who are pure-souled? The angels will ask : O God who are those people ? He will say They are those Muslims who remain satisfied with My gifts and with what I decreed for them Take them to Paradise, They will take there food and drink in paradise, while others will remain confined to rendering accounts.
Sayings of Sages. Hazrat Omar said: Greed is poverty and despair is wealth. He who remains satisfied with being despaired of what is with the people remains free from them or indifferent.
The sage Abu Mas'ud said : No day passes on which an angel does not proclaim below the Throne : O son of Adam, a little provision sufficient to sustain your life is better than enormous riches which attract towards infidelity. The sage Abu Darda said : There is no man who has got no defect in his intellect. The reason of this is that when the world comes to him with great wealth and property, he becomes satisfied but the days and nights which are destroying his span of life do not grieve him. O son of Adam, alas for you. When your span of life is decreasing, what is the good of increasing wealth ? Some wise man was asked: What is wealth?
154 THE BOOK OF CONSTRUCTIVE VIRTUES Vol-IV
He said : Your little hope and your satisfaction with necessary things.