SPIRITUAL BIASES RELATED TO WEALTH AND GIVING
Scarcity and poverty can be debilitating to one’s perspective on wealth. Scarcity is not only a lack of resources but also a mindset. A scarcity mindset is the subjective perception that there is not enough for everyone, leads to anxiety about not having enough, and impairs decision-making. A scarcity mindset is the opposite of an abundance mindset, where one perceives that there is enough for themselves and others.
One of the consequences of having a scarcity mindset is feeling a sense of personal relative deprivation and diminished perceptions of financial well-being, which lead to making poor financial decisions, such as saving less, taking out high interest loans, and increased participation in lotteries.
Personal relative deprivation refers to feelings of resentment and lack of financial contentment due to believing one is deprived of what they desire and deserve. 44 Believing that one is deprived is related to lower levels of well-being, higher stress, worse physical health, higher levels of materialism, and donating less. In addition to these aforementioned detrimental outcomes, personal relative deprivation is also linked to maladaptive attitudes and behaviors, including delayed discounting tendencies and engaging in risky behaviors. Delayed discounting refers to the preference for smaller, immediate rewards over larger, delayed rewards in the future. Thus, people who feel deprived compared to others are more likely to make irrationally risky decisions in the moment at the expense of better long-term decisions. For example, experiments have shown that inducing feelings of relative deprivation lead to delayed discounting tendencies, which lead to an increased likelihood of gambling. Thus, the person who feels deprived seeks an immediate reward that they irrationally believe can come about by gambling.
Personal relative deprivation is thus a spiritual bias that influences economic behavior, including how willing one is to give their wealth in charity, to gamble, and to take out interest-bearing loans. Believing that one is deprived is thus viewed negatively in Islam. Although the believer is not accountable for fleeting thoughts, deep resentment of one’s financial situation is a door through which Satan enters. Allah refers to Himself as Generous (al-Karīm) and Vast (al-Wāsiʿ) in His bounty in the Qur’an. It is through understanding these names that the spiritual bias is meant to be removed from the heart of the believer. The Qur’an addresses this bias directly in Surat al-Baqara,
Satan promises you deprivation and thus commands you to immorality, whereas Allah promises you forgiveness from Him and bounty. And Allah is all-Encompassing and Knowing. ( Mitchell J. Callan, N. Will Shead, and James M. Olson, “Personal Relative Deprivation, Delay Discounting, and Gambling,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 101, no. 5 (2011): 955. )
The Qur’an frames perceptions of scarcity and abundance as polar opposites stemming from opposing sources. Satan exploits people’s fear of deprivation as a motivator to engage in immoral financial behavior, whereas Allah promises forgiveness and to give from His abundance as a motivator to engage in moral financial behavior. In other words, Allah is informing us that Satan will be diligent in finding ways to make a person feel deprived, which include feeling deprived of a higher income, a bigger home, a nicer car, and even non-material things that a person desires. Once the feeling of deprivation is rooted in the heart, Satan will take advantage of the spiritual bias and encourage the individual to engage in detrimental economic behavior. He will push and prod the person to seek what they desire by any means possible. It may be through encouraging interest-bearing loans to purchase what they desire or gambling to gain quick access to wealth. On an even more subtle level, he will command the person to withhold giving their wealth to charitable causes, suggesting that it is detrimental to be charitable at this particular time in life.(Ibn ʿAbbās said that two things are from Satan: 1. He promises you poverty and says, “Don’t donate your wealth. Hold it for yourself. You need it.” 2. He then commands you to immorality.) The aforementioned findings that feelings of deprivation lead to the religiously immoral behaviors of gambling and securing high interest loans are more interesting and insightful now in light of this verse. Modern social science has provided specific examples of the relation between feelings of deprivation and immorality that the Qur’an highlighted 1400 years ago.
The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم also gave a specific treatment to the spiritual bias of feeling deprived, saying, “Compare [yourself] to those who are lower than you [in wealth] and do not look at those who are above you [in wealth], for it is more suitable that you do not discount the blessings of Allah.”(Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 6490; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 2963) The Prophet is informing us that constant exposure to and comparison with the wealthy will lead a person to belittle the blessings that Allah has bestowed upon them, which again leads to feelings of deprivation. Thus, the psychological intervention that Islam recommends is for the believer to make downward social comparisons (i.e., to compare oneself with someone less wealthy) in order to feel blessed and grateful for the bounties one has been given. Using the wealthy as a reference point may lead to a scarcity mindset that leads to stinginess, whereas using the poor as a reference point should lead to an abundance mindset that leads to generosity.
Although making downward comparisons is preferred, it is likely that people will be exposed to the wealthy and wish for what they have. The Qur’an recommends what to do in this situation in Sūrat Tāhā,
And do not extend your eyes toward that by which We have given enjoyment to [some] groups of them, [its being but] the splendor of worldly life by which We test them. And the provision of your Lord is better and more enduring. (Qur’an 20:131)
In addition to reiterating not to look to the wealthy as a reference point, the verse adds that their wealth and possessions are in reality nothing more than a test from God that one should not wish upon oneself. The test of possessing wealth includes being grateful for it, being humble, and spending it appropriately; therefore, many scholars considered the test of wealth to be more difficult than the test of poverty. (There is a difference of opinion on whether the test of wealth or poverty is more difficult and whether the grateful rich person is more praiseworthy than the patient poor person. One of the reasons why some consider wealth to be a greater test is that wealth opens the doors to many trials and the difficulty of parting with one’s wealth may be more difficult than being patient with less.) The Qur’an is full of stories of those who struggled and failed the test of wealth. (See the story of the people of the garden in Sūrat al-Qalam; they failed to share the wealth of their garden with the poor and thus Allah destroyed their garden. Also, see the story of the man with two gardens in Sūrat al-Kahf who thought his wealth was a sign that Allah honored him, to the extent he believed his wealth in this life was a sign of greater wealth in the afterlife.) These stories are meant to warn us about having the wrong mindset towards wealth and to correct a theological misunderstanding that many hold about wealth.
Theological myth: God rewards believers with wealth
And as for man, when his Lord tests him and [thus] is generous to him and favors him, he says, “My Lord has honored me.” But when He tests him and restricts his provision, he says, “My Lord has humiliated me.”(Qur’an 89:15–16)
In these verses from Sūrat al Fajr, Allah is correcting a theological myth that people hold about wealth, which is the belief that Allah honors people when giving them substantial wealth and that Allah humiliates people by withholding wealth. The reality is that both wealth and lack of it are trials that have no bearing on a person’s value in the sight of Allah. The Qur’an highlights the story of Qarun as an example for us. Allah gave tremendous wealth to Qarun, who was an Israelite in the land of the Pharaoh. His people admonished him not to be arrogant and to seek the pleasure of Allah and Paradise through using his wealth to do good. He responded arrogantly saying, “I was only given it because of the knowledge I have” (Qur’an 28:78) and would flaunt his wealth before the people. Some of the Israelites were enamored with his wealth and fell into the theological bias wishing, “Oh, would that we had like what was given to Qarun. Indeed, he is one of great fortune.” (Qur’an 28:79) Then, Allah caused an enormous sinkhole to destroy Qarun and his palace, opening the eyes of the people to the reality of wealth and Allah’s favors. They said, “Oh, how Allah extends provision to whom He wills of His servants and restricts it! If Allah had not conferred His favor on us, He would have caused the earth to swallow us. Oh, how the disbelievers do not succeed!” (Qur’an 28:82) Thus, we can take a 61 reminder from Qarun’s story not to envy the wealthy amongst us nor consider them more honorable in the sight of Allah. Allah clearly states, “Indeed, the most honorable of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you.” ( Qur’an 49:13)The story is a reminder of the error of the capitalist mindset that “my money is mine because I earned it” and the myth that Allah honors people by giving them wealth.
By Osman Umarji
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