The Attitude of the Prophet towards Wealth (3/4)

The precious legacy of this sublime fervour, subtle sensibility and self-scrutiny were kept successively preserved by Muslims, generation after generation.

Their ‘profound-in-knowledge’ clerics and the protagonists of education and edification   kept   fully   representing,   in   every country and during every era,   this way of life, conduct and fervour.

The annals of history and tomes of biographical anthologies are replete with narratives of their prodigious events, anecdotes, feats and sacrifices. But, more mind-boggling and astounding than the incidents and episodes compiled by the peerless chroniclers are the incidents found in a lot of such books as have no direct bearing on this subject and about which it never occurs to one that such material could be found therein.

The principle and the motto of these truthful, saintly  clerics  and  venerated  people  has  always been that no money should be left in their house when the night fell; that keeping the fulfillment of their own needs on hold, others’ needs must be fulfilled  first;  that  whatever  gifts  and  offerings were  received  from the  rich  and  the  well-to-do must be exclusively used in rendering help to those poor and the needy living in the town who are deprived of them and are deemed not worthy of being  given  any  thought.  Their motto was:  ‘It (money) should be taken from the well-to-do and given away to the poor.’ Their table-spreads were, like their hearts, larger, wider and more inclusive of the commoner than those of the rich and the lords.

Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jeelani (the vanguard and torch-bearer of this entire clan of Sufis) is reported to have said once: ‘I have got a hole in my palm.  Nothing stays in it.  Even if I got a thousand dinars, they would be spent before the night falls’.[1] On another occasion he said, ‘I wished the whole world was put at my disposal and I kept on feeding the hungry.’[2]

There was, within the vast expanse of the Islamic world, no nook or corner which lacked such people. Moreover, one region’s share of them was no less than that of the others. The biographies of  these  devoted  and  Godly  clerics,  seers  and saints, are replete with incidents of asceticism and austerity, altruism and self-denial, commiseration and  compassion,  maintenance  of  brotherliness, fondness  of  generosity,  eagerness  for  bringing succour to the destitute and fervour for making others  comfortable  at  the  expense  of  their  own ease and comfort. We narrate hereunder only two specimens out of innumerable instances which are seen in the lives of this clan of people with such uniformity and regularity as is seen in the leaves of any particular tree. They were all the blooms and blossoms of the ‘Tree of Apostleship’ and had sprouted from the same ‘root’ of the tree which is defined in the Glorious Qur’an thus:

“…Its roots firmly fixed, and its branches reaching the heaven; giving its fruit at every season by the command of its Lord.” [Surah Ibrahim: 24-25]

About Khwaja Nizamuddin Aulia the testimony is given by his attendant that he would place before him the Sahari[3] comprising all sorts of dishes. He would, however, partook very little of it. About the rest he would instruct to have it preserved for the children. It was Khwaja Abdur Raheem who was assigned the responsibility of taking the Sahari to him. He states that more often than not he would partake nothing of it. “I would plead with him saying: ‘your holiness does not take much even at Iftar.

If you did not have the Sahari also you would become very weak.’ Thereupon he would burst into tears and say, ‘How many poor and destitute are there in the corners and platforms of the mosque lying hungry and passing the night starving. How can I have this food gone down my throat then? Hence, it would happen very frequently that I would take back the Sahari untouched by him and as was brought to him.

When the moment to breathe his last approached, he summoned all the attendants and disciples  who  were  around  and  facing  them  he said:  Do  bear  witness  to  it  that  if  Iqbal  (the attendant) has kept any of the provisions withheld in the house, he would have to answer for it before the  God  on  the  Day  of  Judgement’.

Iqbal  (the attendant)  submitted  that  he  had  kept  withheld nothing;  everything  had  been  given  away  in charity on his (Sheihk’s) behalf. And true to his word, that magnanimous young man had really done the same. Barring the food-grains that could have sufficed for the indigent inmates of the Khanqah (monastry) everything was given away.

Syed Hussain Kirmani told the Sheikh that save the food-grains everything had been given away to the needy.  It made the Sheikh displeased with Iqbal. He sent for him and said to him, ‘why did you keep this wretched sand-dust withheld?  Iqbal said, ‘whatever there was in the house had been distributed among the destitute save the food- grains. The Sheikh then ordered to get the hordes of the people collected. When they arrived, he said to them, ‘Break open the storeroom of food-grains and take it all away without any compunction; and get the place swept with broom. It was not long before a multitude got collected and had the food-grains looted.’[4]

Another specimen of such a life-style is presented below from the life of Syed Mohammad Saeed Anbalwi.[5]  His biographer chronicles that once Nawab Raushan ud-Daula called on him and presented a purse of Rs. 60,000 (which must not be less than lakhs of rupees today) for the construction of the Khanqah.

The Sheikh asked him to leave the money somewhere and take rest. When Raushan ud-Daula had gone back, the Sheikh issued a common invitation to all the poor, the needy, orphans and widows of the city and the neighbouring townships and had all the money distributed among them holding not a single paisa back. When he met Raushan ud-Daaula the next time he said to him, ‘There is not as much Thawab (reward in the Hereafter) in getting the Khanqah constructed as in being of service to the needy and the destitute.’

On   another   occasion,   Emperor   Farrukh Siyar, Nawab   Raushan ud-Daula  and  Nawab Abdullah  Khan  sent  the  Sheikh  Rs. 3, 00, 000 along with their letters.  The  Sheikh  had  all  the money  distributed  among  the  indigent  and  the members  of  well-born  families  of  neighbouring towns and villages.[6]

One might say that these incidents pertain to that clan of ascetics who had renounced the world and lived in isolation from the people and cut off from the main-stream of life. What is to be seen is whether such instances of asceticism and altruism, self-denial and contentment are found among the other strata of the Ummah also.

The history gives the answer to this query with full confidence in affirmative. For, we find in every Islamic generation, every Islamic society, every environment and every epoch, such people who were followers of the precepts laid down by the life-style of the Prophet (Peace be upon him) in these matters and applied same moral standards as set by him (Peace be upon him) to their life, their wealth, their family members, and even to their neighbours and compatriots.

The history has kept preserved for us their episodes, scattered here and there. They belong to   all   categories including kings and emperors, clerics and saints. We pick up here only two categories to be cited; one, that of Ulama (clerics) and the other of rulers and conquerors:

The name of Sheikhul-Islam Imam Ibn-e-Taimia is the most qualified to represent the category of Islamic clerics. Particularly because those do not know enough about him level against him the charge of drabness and apathy and have the notion that his knowledge and intellectuality had overwhelmed his heart and emotions. About him one of his contemporaries, Hafiz Ibn-e- Fazlullah al-Umari writes:

Heaps of gold, silver and other goods would come to him and he distributed them all with nothing left with him. If he ever retained anything, it was only with the intention to have it given later to someone in particular. In being generous and magnanimous he went to that extent that he would he would even take off his clothes that he had on and give them away to the needy. Hafiz Ibn-e-Fazllulah writes further: ‘He was very profuse in alms-giving and charity deeds.  When he had nothing left to be given away he would sometimes take off his clothes he had on him and give them away to the needy and the destitute.’

(Continued)