Excess and wastefulness lead to greed…
Mustafa SOYLU
Senior Engineer & Environmental Auditor at Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change
The Nineteenth Flash
On Frugality
SEVENTH POINT
Excess and wastefulness lead to greed, and greed has three consequences:The First is dissatisfaction, and as for dissatisfaction, it destroys endeavour and enthusiasm for work, and causes the dissatisfied person to complain instead of giving thanks, and makes him lazy. Such a person abandons possessions which though few in number are licit,1 and seeks possessions which are illicit and trouble-free. He sacrifices his self-respect on the way, and even his honour.The Second Consequence of Greed is disappointment and loss. The greedy person drives away what he wishes for, is found disagreeable, and is deprived of assistance and help. He even confirms the saying: “The greedy person is unsuccessful and suffers loss.”2Greed and contentment have their effects in the animal kingdom in accordance with an extensivenbsp;law. For instance, the natural contentment of trees needy for sustenance makes their sustenance hasten to them; this shows the huge benefits of contentment. While animals’ runningnbsp;afternbsp;theirnbsp;sustenancenbsp;greedilynbsp;andnbsp;with difficulty and deficiency demonstrates the great loss of greed.Also, the contentment apparent through their tongues of disposition of the helpless young and a pleasant food like milk flowing out to them from an unexpected place, while wild animals greedily attack their deficient and dirty sustenance, prove our claim in clear fashion.Also, the contented attitude of fat fish being the means of their perfect sustenance, and intelligent animals like foxes and monkeys remaining puny and weak becausenbsp;they cannot find sufficient sustenance although they pursue it with greed, again show the degree to which greed is the cause of hardship and contentment the cause of ease.Also, certain people finding through greed, usury, and trickery their degrading, miserable, illicit sustanance only at subsistence level, and the contented attitude of nomadsnbsp;andnbsp;theirnbsp;livingnbsp;withnbsp;dignitynbsp;andnbsp;findingnbsp;sufficientnbsp;sustenance,nbsp;proves decisively what we say once more.Also, many scholars3nbsp;and literary figures4nbsp;being reduced to poverty because of thenbsp;greednbsp;arisingnbsp;fromnbsp;theirnbsp;intelligence,nbsp;andnbsp;manynbsp;stupidnbsp;andnbsp;incapablenbsp;people becomingnbsp;nbsp;richnbsp;duenbsp;tonbsp;theirnbsp;innatenbsp;contentedness5nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;provesnbsp;decisivelynbsp;thatnbsp;licit sustenance comes because of impotence and want, not by virtue of ability and will. Indeed, licit sustenance isnbsp;innbsp;inverse proportion to ability and will.nbsp;For the more children increase in ability and will, the more their sustenance decreases, the further it is from them and the more difficult to digest. According to the Hadith, “Contentment is an unfailing treasure,”6nbsp;contentment is a treasury of good living and ease of life, while greed is a mine of loss and abasement.The Third Consequence: nbsp;Greed destroys sincerity and damages actions in regard to the hereafter. For if a God-fearing person suffers from greed, he will desire the regard of others, and someone who considers the attention of others cannot have complete sincerity. This consequence is extremely important and worth noticing.I nnbsp;S h o r t : Excess and wastefulness lead to lack of contentment. And lack of contentmentnbsp;destroys enthusiasmnbsp;fornbsp;work;nbsp;itnbsp;causesnbsp;laziness,nbsp;opensnbsp;thenbsp;doornbsp;to complaining about life, and makes the dissatisfied person grumble continuously.7Also, it destroys sincerity, and opens the door to hypocrisy. And it destroys self- respect, and points the way to begging.As for frugality and economy, these result in contentment. According to the Hadith, “Thenbsp;contented personnbsp;is respected,nbsp;andnbsp;thenbsp;greedynbsp;personnbsp;despised,”8 contentment gives rise to self-esteem. It also encourages effort and work. It increases enthusiasm, and induces striving. For example, a person worked for one day. Because he was content with the petty wage he received in the evening, he worked again the second day. But because the wasteful and immoderate person was not content, he did not work the following day, or if he did, he did so without enthusiasm.Also, the contentment arising from frugality opens the door of thanks and closes the door of complaint. Throughout his life, the contented person is thankful. And in so far as he is independent of others due to his contentment, he does not seek their regard. The door of sincerity is opened and the door of hypocrisy closed.I observed the fearsome harm of wastefulness and excess on a broad scale. It was as follows: nine years ago I visited a fortunate town. It was winter and I could not see its sources of wealth. Several times the town’s Mufti, may God have mercy on him, said to me, “Our people are poor.” His words touched me. The next five or six years I felt continual pity for the people of the town. Eight years later I again visited it, in the summer. I looked at the gardens and recalled the words of the late Mufti. “Glory be to God!”, I exclaimed, “These gardens’ crops are far greater than the needs of the town. Its people should be very rich.” I was amazed. Then remembering a truth that has never deceived me and is my guide in understanding other truths, I understood that the abundance and plenty had disappeared due to wastefulness and excess, so that although the town possessed such sources of wealth, the late Mufti used to say: “Our people are poor.”Indeed, just as giving zakat and being frugal and economical is proven by experience to be the cause of increase and plenty in goods and possessions,9nbsp;so too innumerable events show that wastefulness and the failure to give zakat cause increase and plenty to be taken away.The Plato of Islamic sages, the shaykh of physicians, and master of philosophers, the famous genius Abu ‘Ali Ibn Sina explained the verse,Eat and drink, but waste not in excess (Qur’an, 7:31.)just from the point of view of medicine, as follows: “I concentrate the science of medicine in two lines, the best word is the shortest; when you eat, eat little, and do not eat again for four or five hours. Health lies in digestion. That is to say, eat so much as younbsp;can digestnbsp;easily.nbsp;Thenbsp;heaviestnbsp;andnbsp;mostnbsp;tiring thingnbsp;fornbsp;yournbsp;stomach andyourself is to eat many things one on top of the other.”10An Extraordinary and Instructive ‘Coincidence’:11nbsp;In all the copies of the Treatise on Frugality written by five or six scribes – three of whom were inexperienced, who were in different places far from one another, were writing it out from different copies, whose handwriting was all different, and who did not take the Alifs into consideration at all, the Alifs which ‘coincided’ numbered fifty-one, or with a prayer, fifty-three. These numbers coinciding with the date the Treatise on Frugality was written and copied, which was [13]51 according to the Rumi calendar andnbsp;[13]53 according to the Hijri calendar, undoubtedly cannot be chance. It is an indication that the blessing of plenty resulting from frugality has risen to the degree of wondrousness, and that this year is fit to be named Frugality Year.Indeed, this wonder of frugality was proved two years later, during the Second World War,nbsp;nbsp;by the widespread hunger, destruction, and waste, and mankind and everyone being compelled to be frugal.Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed, You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.(Qur’an, 2:32.)
1 Consumers increase and producers decrease as a result of wastefulness and lack of economy. Everyone fixes his eye on the government’s door, and industry, trade, and agriculture, on which social life depend, decrease. And the nation declines and is impoverished.
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2 See, Ibn Qays, Qura al-Dayf, iv, 301; al-Maydani, Majma‘ al-Amthal, i, 214.
3 It was asked of Bozorgmehr, the Wazir of the Persian Shah Nushirvan the Just and scholar famous for his intelligence, “Why are the learned to be seen at the doors of rulers and rulers not to be seen at the doors of the learned, whereas learning is superior to rulership?” He replied: “Because of the knowledge of the learned and the ignorance of the rulers.” That is to say, due to their ignorance, rulers do not know the value of learning so that they approach the doors of the learned to seek it. But because of their knowledge, the learned know the value of their rulers’ goods and possessions and seek them at the rulers’ doors. Explaining thus wittily the greed resulting from the cleverness of the learned, which causes some of them to be impecunious and in want, Bozorgmehr replied in a refined manner.Signed:Hüsrev
4 An event corroborating this: in France, a beggar’s licence was given to literary figures because they were so proficient at begging.
5 See, al-Daylami, al-Musnad, iv, 385.Signed:nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Süleyman Rüştü
6 See, Tabarani, al-Mu‘jam al-Awsat, vii, 84; Bayhaqi, al-Zuhd, ii, 88; al-‘Ajluni, Kashf al- Khafa’, ii, 133.
7 Whenever you meet a wasteful, immoderate person, you hear complaints. No matter how rich he is, his tongue still complains. But when you meet even the poorest, but contented, person, you hear only thanks.
8 See, Ibn al-Athir, al-Nihaya fi Ghara’ib al-Hadith, iv, 114; al-Zabidi, Taj al-‘Arus, xxii, 90.
9 See, al-Tabarani, al-Mu‘jam al-Kabir, x, 128: Idem., al-Mu‘jam al-Awsat, ii, 161, 274; al- Bayhaqi, al-Sunan al-Kubra, iii, 382; iv, 84.
10 That is to say, the most harmful thing for the body is to eat without having had a break of four to five hours, or to fill the stomach with a variety of foods one on top of the other just for the pleasure of it.
11 ‘Coincidence’ (T. tevâfuk; Ar. tawafuq): the correspondence of letters or words in lines or patterns on one or several pages. (Tr.)