GREED

The Twenty-Second Letter – II

 This treatise concerns greed.

بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحٖيمِIn the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate

اِنَّ اللّٰهَ هُوَ الرَّزَّاقُ ذُو الْقُوَّةِ الْمَتٖينُ“Indeed, Allah is the Provider, the Possessor of unwavering strength. – The Quran 51:58

وَكَاَيِّنْ مِنْ دَٓابَّةٍ لَا تَحْمِلُ رِزْقَهَا اَللّٰهُ يَرْزُقُهَا وَاِيَّاكُم وَ هُوَ السَّم۪يعُ الْعَل۪يمHow many living creatures are there that do not carry their own provision! Allah provides for them and for you. And He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. – The Quran 29:60

O believers! Know that greed, like enmity, is one of the most destructive diseases for Islamic life. Greed is the cause of disappointment, sorrow, and humiliation; it brings deprivation and misery. The humiliation and misery of the Jewish people, who cling to the world with more greed than any other nation, is a decisive proof of this judgment.

Indeed, throughout the world of living beings, from the largest groups to the smallest individuals, greed has a harmful effect. By contrast, seeking one’s livelihood with tawakkulTrust in Allah after making the necessary effort and fulfilling one’s responsibilities. is a source of ease and shows its beneficial effect everywhere.

Take, for example, fruit-bearing trees and plants, which in a certain sense are living beings and are in need of sustenance. They remain in their place with complete surrender and contentment, without showing signs of greed, and therefore their sustenance comes to them. In a sense, they have far more children than animals and provide them with sustenance. Animals, on the other hand, because of their greedy pursuit of food, often obtain their food only with great effort and in an insufficient manner.

Moreover, weak and powerless young animals— through their tawakkulTrust in Allah after making the necessary effort and fulfilling one’s responsibilities. —receive lawful, fully satisfying, and delicate nourishment from the treasury of divine mercy, while predators that greedily pursue their sustenance acquire unlawful and unpleasant food only after extraordinary effort. This situation illustrates that greed leads to deprivation, while tawakkulTrust in Allah after making the necessary effort and fulfilling one’s responsibilities. and contentment serve as means of mercy.

Moreover, the Jewish people cling to the world with greater greed and attach themselves to worldly life with more passion than any other nation. They acquire, with great effort, unearned usurious gain, for which they act merely as treasurers, and this gain benefits them little. The humiliation, misery, and killing they suffer from other nations because of it show that greed is a source of humiliation and loss.

There are countless examples showing that greedy people have always suffered loss, so much so that the saying

اَلْحَرٖيصُ خَائِبٌ خَاسِرٌThe greedy person ends in loss and failure.

has become a proverb and is accepted by everyone as a truth. Indeed, if you want the goods you value so much to come to you in abundance, seek them not through greed, but through contentment.