19. THE OUTCOME OF GOOD PATIENCE IS GOODNESS
It is remarkable to find a person supporting a family of his own and does not compromise his piety and religion when enduring a financial hardship.
This is because the example of the one who has a family to support is like water, when it splashes it closes and starts working from within endeavouring to open a hole.
The same is the case with the person with a family who seeks all means to provide income when he lacks money. If he is incapable of earning money from lawful sources he would accept to earn it from suspicious sources and if his religion becomes weak he would not mind earning it from unlawful sources.
However, when the believer knows he is unable to earn money, he would postpone marriage. If he was married and had children, he would reduce his expenditure and be content (qanaa) with the little he earns.
As for those who have no source of income such as scholars {‘ulama’) and ascetics {mutazahidun), their safety is at stake because they neither receive aid from rulers nor are looked after by the people; hence when members of their households increase they no longer can be safe from experiencing what ignorant people experience too.
If they are able to ensure a source of income, they should work hard while reducing their expenses and be content with little they have because if any of them compromise their principles, they will earn money that is unlawful for they will take money from oppressors using the excuse of being ascetics.
And if they have wealth they should endeavour to maintain and grow it because people today neither give loans nor help, and most people if not all, seem to be as if they worship money.
Preserving the wealth leads to preserving the religion and they should not pay attention to the advice of the ignorant who advises giving away their wealth because this is inappropriate to do at this time.
You should know that if a person is distracted from the Hereafter with this life, he will neither acquire knowledge {‘Urn) nor perform good deeds {‘aml) nor occupy his mind contemplating (fikr) the greatness (‘azma) of Allah.
The people before used to ensure they are not distracted through taking many means, most of which were that they used to receive financial support from Baytul-Mal on an annual basis, and such support used to reach them and cover their expenses.
Some of them had a trade such as Sa’id Ibn al-Musayyib, Sufyan alThawri and ‘Abdullah Ibn al-Mubarak whose focus on the Hereafter was not distracted at all.
Sufyan used to say to his wealth, ‘was it not for you, they would have mocked and used me!’
When ‘Abdullah Ibn al-Mubarak lost his goods he cried and said, ‘These goods used to help me maintain my religion [i.e. help me from compromising my religion because of my need].’
And some people used to accept assistance of some brothers who used to show no favour on them for doing so.
Ibn al Mubarak used to send money to Al-Fudayl and others. Al-Layth Ibn Sa’d used to check on the senior scholars so he once sent to Malik a thousand dinar and Ibn Luhay’a thousand dinar and gave Mansur Ibn Ammar thousand dinar and a servant three hundred dinar.
People remained behaving with such etiquette until it came to an end (i.e. the allocations provided by rulers have become little and those who look after their close friends and scholars are just too few).
Despite the small aid provided, it used to help protect the religion and honour of people at that time. In contrasting today, the hands of people have shrunk to the point that only a few actually give the alms.
It is nevertheless farfetched to imagine that scholars and ascetics, who work day and night to earn their sustenance, dedicate their time for their Hereafter when they are unable to find the time for it! This situation made them approach rulers and accept what is improper and made ascetics become pretentious in order to receive worldly benefits. Hence, beware if you wish to safeguard your religion! I have already advised you repeatedly to little your efforts and minimise your relations with people as much as possible, and keep some savings as such savings will help you safeguard your religion so understand what I have just explained.
If your ‘self becomes bothered with such a condition as it longs to attain what it desires, say to it, ‘if you believe then be patient and if you only want to attain what compromises the religion, then know what you seek will not benefit you; think of those learned people who collected wealth from unlawful ways, and the pretentious ones who showed piety and lost their Hereafter and worldly life!’
On the other hand, think of the sincere ones such as Ahmad and Bishr whose memory and remembrance remained virtuous despite the passing of time since then. To recap,
“And whoever fears Allah—He will make for him a wayout. And will provide for him from where he does not expect. And whoever relies upon Allah—then He is sufficient for him. Indeed, Allah will accomplish His purpose. Allah has already set for everything a [decreed] extent.” [al-Talaq (65): 2-3]
The provision of Allah can be facilitated for a person in return for being patient with hardships (sabral-bala). Keep in mind that days pass by and the reward of good patience (sabral-jamil) is nothing but good.
(Source: al-Hafiz Abu’l-Faraj ibn al-jawzl [d. 597AH] “CAPTURED THOUGHTS being” a translation of his masterpiece ‘Sayd al-K hatir)
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