The Islamic nation has been afflicted in recent times with some deviant ideas and destructive calls, such as the call to poverty. Some individuals have worked to spread poverty and justify its existence among Muslims by misinterpreting religious texts and convincing those who followed them that this is the correct Islamic approach. Among those who have led the call to poverty in Islamic lands are those who wish to occupy Islamic countries, preachers who excessively condemn worldly life, and those who seek to appease people by making them accept their current situation (1). This can be seen in the following points:
First: Those who wish to occupy Islamic countries:
The occupiers have worked to achieve poverty in the lives of Muslims through various means, including:
1. Deliberate promotion of the idea of renunciation of the world as if it means giving it up among Muslims, claiming that this is the correct Islamic approach. This was done through some Orientalists who served the interests of the occupiers, including the Jewish Orientalist Goldziher, who claimed that Islam is dominated by the idea of renouncing the world and abstaining from it, and at the same time, the idea of absolute reliance on Allah and submission prevails (2). He then went on to link piety with asceticism, asserting that a person is not considered pious unless he withdraws from the world and takes nothing from it!
In truth, Islam's view of wealth is not like this. Islam does not see the possession of wealth as a crime, nor the accumulation of riches as disobedience. Wealth is a tool, and like any tool, it can be used to support truth or falsehood. It is the way this tool is used that brings either praise or blame. To simply declare that armament is a vice is absurd. Wealth, in Islam's view, is a great good if it is earned lawfully and spent rightly.
Wealth in Islam is a means that the Muslim should use to achieve his goal, which is to please Allah, but some Orientalists deliberately create lies and spread falsehoods to achieve their purposes and reach their goals.
2. The occupiers also worked to create poverty among Muslims by making worldly desires easily accessible to them, distracting them from great endeavors, enticing them to seek comfort, and making them disinterested in high aspirations. They kept them busy with trivial matters, accustomed them to laziness and passivity, and made them dependent on others to achieve their goals. This ensured that colonial control remained intact, and people continued to depend on the occupier who claimed to bring good and prosperity to the Islamic lands. These ideas remained deeply rooted in the hearts of some Muslims, leading them to abandon work, focus on seeking pleasures, and satisfying desires until the enemy took over the land and Muslims resigned themselves to poverty and humiliation.
Second: Preachers who excessively condemn worldly life:
People's excessive attachment to worldly life and making it their ultimate goal led many preachers to confront this deviation by calling for focus on the Hereafter and using worldly life as a means to achieve happiness rather than an end in itself. This approach is commendable, but some preachers went too far in their treatment, excessively condemning worldly life, urging people to withdraw from it and avoid it out of fear of its dangers. They warned people against loving the world and becoming infatuated with it, continuously highlighting its flaws until people became afraid of it and possessed nothing, suffering from hunger after previously suffering from the excesses of satiety.
These preachers overdid their treatment and exaggerated the remedy, considering the world as an enemy that brings nothing but evil. They justified their actions by pointing to the corrupt use of wealth and the dominance of materialism at the expense of spirituality. However, despite their good intentions, they made a mistake in their approach by over-medicating, leading to the emergence of more severe diseases than the original ailment.
The correct approach is for Muslims to understand the verses and hadiths that condemn worldly life as akin to an insulin injection for a diabetic, introducing an additional substance into the body to compensate for the deficiency in the inactive glands. The meaning here is that if some people have lost their minds and come to believe that this world is the entirety of existence, clinging to this misconception and magnifying life while denying anything beyond it, as stated in the verse, "And they swear by Allah their strongest oaths that Allah will never resurrect one who dies" (An-Nahl: 38), then a powerful and alarming message is needed to remind them that the world they exaggerate and limit themselves to is insignificant compared to the Hereafter, which they must inevitably face.
Islam does not condemn life in order to create generations who are blind to its lights and ignorant of its secrets, but rather condemns it to ensure moderation (3). Therefore, these preachers must identify the source of the disease and select the appropriate medicine and suitable dosages for each individual, so they do not harm where they intended to do good, or commit injustice where they intended justice.
Third: Those who seek to appease people by making them accept their current situation:
Some preachers focused on making poverty appealing to people, convincing them to accept their current situation so they wouldn't resent their lives or question their provisions. They often exaggerated this point, using the Prophet's (PBUH) saying: "Look at those who are lower than you (financially) but do not look at those who are higher than you, lest you belittle the favors Allah conferred upon you." (4) In truth, this hadith was not meant to encourage withdrawal from worldly life in all cases but rather to provide a remedy for a specific illness. If a person looks at someone who is above them, it may lead to envy, and the remedy is to look at someone who is below them so that it becomes a reason for gratitude (5). If there is no illness—namely, attachment to the world and viewing it as a goal and end—then why insist on taking the medicine?
In addition, trying to appease people by making them accept their current situation and making poverty appealing to them is nothing more than a manifestation of inferiority, a desire to live life in its lowest form. The truth is that this issue is merely about clinging to the remnants of life, even if it is in the lowest depths of misery, filled with thorns and filth! You see all this deeply rooted in the decisions of sick souls, fueled by misguided teachings and erroneous ideas, so that it appears on the tongues as if it were praise and gratitude, but in reality, it is contentment with a life of servitude!
The Qur'an has criticized people for being content with life in any form, saying: "And you will surely find them the most greedy of people for life, even more than those who associate others with Allah. One of them wishes that he could be given a life of a thousand years, but it would not remove him from the punishment that he is given a life that long. And Allah is seeing of what they do" (Al-Baqarah: 96). This verse emphasizes that running away from a wretched life, even to death, is a psychological humiliation that has enveloped much of the Islamic East. The strange thing is that this is done in the name of faith in Allah and submission to destiny. However, experience has taught us that courage in the face of death is a virtue that only appears in living peoples and strong nations. The early Arabs were more eager for death than their enemies were for life, and they were the furthest from being satisfied with a weak life or remaining at peace in its embrace. How far this is from people who now fill their stomachs with whatever they can find on the earth and then not only accept this but also say, "O Allah, make it a lasting blessing, and preserve it from vanishing." (6)
It is not wrong for a person to pray to Allah to preserve and sustain blessings, but it is wrong to surrender to weakness and laziness. The Qur'an condemned those who were content with a lowly life and lived as weaklings on the earth without seeking a way out of it. Allah says: "Indeed, those whom the angels take in death while wronging themselves, they will say, 'In what [condition] were you?' They will say, 'We were oppressed in the land.' They [the angels] will say, 'Was not the earth of Allah spacious [enough] for you to emigrate therein?' For those, their refuge is Hell - and evil it is as a destination" (An-Nisa: 97). This verse emphasizes that humiliation is a crime, and living life in weakness and submission is a precursor to downfall in the Hereafter. The verse prohibits accepting inferiority and being accustomed to weakness and mandates resistance until the last breath. A Muslim does not accept life in any form and at any price. It must be as he desires, or he will reject it and find something better with his Lord (7).
Therefore, it is not appropriate for some preachers to make poverty appealing to people and convince them to accept it based on destiny or reliance on laziness, as this contradicts the Islamic approach and causes weakness and humiliation.
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(1) "The Call to Poverty: A Critical Study" by Dr. Ramadan Hamida Mohamed, p. 10.
(2) "Alaqida w Alsharia fi El-Islam" by Goldziher, p. 119.
(3) "Kaif Nafham Al-Islam" by Sheikh Muhammad Ghazali, p. 42.
(4) Agreed upon, narrated by Al-Bukhari (6125) and Muslim (2963).
(5) "Fath al-Bari" by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, (11/323).
(6) "Islam wa-al-Awda` al-Iqtisadiyah" by Sheikh Muhammad Ghazali, p. 59.
(7) "Qadha'if al-Haqq" by Sheikh Muhammad Ghazali, p. 218.
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