The Fifth Point

Allah, out of His perfect generosity, makes a poor man experience the pleasure of His blessings in the same way as a rich man, and one who is needy in the same way as a sultan. The pleasure a poor man derives from a dry piece of bread through hunger and frugality is greater than the pleasure a sultan or a wealthy man derives from the finest pastries when he eats them with weariness and loss of appetite caused by wastefulness.

It is indeed astonishing that some wasteful people accuse the frugal of being miserly. In reality, however, frugality is a mark of self-respect and generosity. Miserliness and meanness are the true inner face of the outwardly generous attitude adopted by wasteful people.

During the year in which this treatise was written, the following incident took place in my room in Isparta, confirming this truth.

One of my students insisted that I accept his gift of nearly three kilograms of honey, contrary to a lifelong principle of mine. However much I tried to explain my principle to him, he continued to insist. Finally, because of his persistence, I agreed and asked my brothers to accept the honey, thinking that during the blessed months of ShabānThe eighth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, preceding Ramadan. and RamadanThe ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, during which Muslims fast from dawn until sunset and in which the Qur’an was first revealed. the three brothers with me could have some of it over thirty or forty days, so that they would not be deprived of something sweet and so that the giver would receive its reward. I myself also had one kilogram of honey.

Although these three friends of mine valued moderation and frugality, they forgot the principle of frugality because of their noble inclination to please one another, continually offering each other honey and preferring the others to themselves. Thus, they finished those three kilograms of honey in three nights.

Laughing, I said: “I intended to let you enjoy that honey for thirty or forty days. You have reduced those thirty days to three. I hope you found it delicious.”

As for me, I used my own kilogram of honey frugally. Throughout ShabānThe eighth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, preceding Ramadan. and RamadanThe ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, during which Muslims fast from dawn until sunset and in which the Qur’an was first revealed., it lasted me, and at every iftārThe meal eaten to break the fast at sunset during Ramadan. I gave each brother a generous teaspoonful of it, which became a means of gaining considerable rewards for the Hereafter.

Perhaps some people regarded my conduct as miserliness and the conduct of the brothers during those three nights as generosity. In reality, however, it became evident that beneath this apparent miserliness lay profound self-respect, great abundance, and remarkable reward for the Hereafter. As for that apparent generosity and wastefulness, had it not been abandoned, it could have resulted in something far worse than miserliness: a state akin to begging, watching the hands of others greedily and expectantly.