Rizk from Allah
Mu' meneen
Brothers and Sisters,
As Salaam Aleikum wa
Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be
upon all of you)
One of our
brothers/sisters has asked this question:
What should we understand by rizq? Is rizq fixed? Is the income that we get is fixed or the atisfaction that we derive from our earnings fixed. For example: I may earn 1000 now is this my rizq or if I may spend 500 for my own personal use my rizq. If a person who is staying in a country where he is earning a lot of money shifts to another which is a poor country and his amount of salary decreases drastically. If rizq is fixed isn`t he allowed to earn the same amount of money. In the present society it is very important that we should all carry the dawah of Islam to resume the Islamic way of life. Now if I do dawah for most of time and devote a very small portion of my time to my business or service then would I still get the same amount of salary which I would have got if I would have carried on with 9am-8pm job. Can you please explain the following ayah`s: Baqarah 254, Al Munafiqun 10 and Saba 36.
(There
may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum
does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from
our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)
Answer:
Rizk from
Allah
In the name of Allah, We praise
Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness.
Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none
can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no person,
no grave, no prophet, no imam, no dai, nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone,
and we bear witness that Muhammad(saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of
His Messengers.
Your question: Can you please
explain the following ayah`s: Baqarah
254, Al Munafiqun 10 and Saba 36.
Allah says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 2 Surah Baqarah verse 254: O ye who believe! Spend out of (the bounties) We
have provided for you before the Day comes when no bargaining (will avail), nor
friendship, nor intercession. Those who reject faith, they are the wrong-doers.
Allah Subhanah
has decreed in the nature of man, that man, by his nature, loves to
collect wealth! If one just takes a
moment to think, of
all the things bestowed on man by Allah,
what does he love the most? And
the answer would have to be his life, and his wealth! To test man, Allah Subhanah
then commands man to, out of his love
for Allah, spend what he loves most in the Cause of Allah; and declares in another aayah
that man cannot attain piety unless he spends out of what he loves, in the Cause of Allah.
Allah says in the Holy Quran
Chapter 3 Surah Ale Imraan
verse 92: By no means shall ye attain righteousness unless ye spend (freely) of
that which ye love; and whatever ye give of a Truth, Allah knoweth
it well.
Thus only if one truly loves Allah Subhanah
and sincerely believes in the promises of Allah Subhanah
that he will have his Day of Reward in the Presence of his Lord, will he be able to
spend of what he loves (his wealth and his life) in the Cause of Allah Subhanah. Allah Subhanah, in the 2:254 Aayah
is addressing the believers and exhorting them to spend in the Cause of Allah
before the arrival of the Day of Judgement, or in other words, in their life time, so that Allah Subhanah
may give a huge reward to them in the Hereafter. For, after one’s death, the wealth he leaves behind does not really
belong to him, but it belongs to his
inheritors.
Sahih Al-Bukhari Hadith 4.11 Narrated by Abu Huraira
A man asked the Prophet (saws), "O
Allah's Apostle! What kind of charity is the best?" He (saws) replied. "To give in charity
when you are healthy and greedy, hoping to be wealthy and afraid of
becoming poor. Don't delay giving in charity till the time when you are on the
death bed, when
you say, 'Give so much to so-and-so and so much to so-and so,' and at that time the property is not (really)
yours, but it belongs to so-and-so (i.e.
your inheritors)."
Thus, Allah Subhanah in Aayah 2:254 is
exhorting the believers to spend in the Cause of Allah Subhanah
before the Day of Judgment comes,
wherein if he has not spent of his excess wealth in the Cause of Allah Subhanah, no amount
of bargaining, no amount of
friendships, and no amount of
intercession will do him any good!
In the life of this world, when man is faced with a seemingly
insurmountable problem, he may opt to
bargain or give something and get out of trouble; or he may seek the help of friends to save
him; or he may rely on some powerful
person’s intercession to get out of his trouble! But on the Day of Judgment, other than one’s own good deeds, nothing and no one will come to one’s help…
there will be no bargaining, whereby he
gives something extra and excuses himself from the punishment; or seek the help of a friend; or seek the intercession of someone! Nothing, absolutely nothing, will come to his aid and help, except his own good deeds. And the one who had excess wealth, but blew it on
buying exotic cars, and building
palaces, and enjoying the transitory
pleasures of this worldly life for a little while; will have nothing but regrets on that
Inevitable Day of Judgment.
Ref: Surah Munafiqun verse 10:
Allah says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 63 Surah Munafiqun verse 10: And spend something (in charity) out of the
substance which We have bestowed on you before death
should come to any of you and he should say "O my Lord! why
didst thou not give me respite for a little while? I should then have given (largely) in charity
and I should have been one of the doers of good."
The same theme of Aayah 2:254 is repeated in the above Aayah, and the regret to
man, who had excess wealth, but did not spend in the Cause of Allah, is shown.
When man experiences and realizes the Reality of the Day of Judgment, he will plead with
His Lord and ask him to give him life only
for a little while, so that he
may go back to earth and spend freely in the Cause of Allah Subhanah
and do righteous good deeds which may please the Merciful.
But Alas! The time Allah Subhanah
had Decreed for the test of man will be over; and no amount of pleading will allow
the person to have a re-test after he has,
with his own eyes, seen the
Reality of the Hereafter!
Ref: Surah
Allah says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 34 Surah Saba
verse 36: Say:
"Verily my Lord enlarges and restricts the provision to whom He pleases
but most men understand not."
Not everyone who works hard to
earn wealth, is
successful in earning it! That is
because the amount one earns in the life of this world is not based on his hard
or smart work; but
on the Will of Allah Subhanah Alone. Whoever Allah Subhanah
Wills, He tests
by giving him abundant wealth beyond his needs;
to test whether the person is grateful to his Lord, or does he become self-conceited and
arrogant. And for whomever He Wills, He gives sustenance
is due measure, whereby he will have to
sacrifice one need to fulfill another!
Such people are tested to see whether they are patient and steadfast, or do they take the
‘haraam’ route to try and make some illegal or ‘haraam’ money! Both
are put in a test by Allah Subhanah; one is tested for gratefulness, and the other for patience.
But most ignorant people, who have been
tested with abundant wealth, start
thinking that the wealth he has earned is the result of his intelligence, hard work,
and creativity; and thus becomes
arrogant, self-conceited, and haughty…. And fails the test miserably!
Allah relates the example of
such a person, Qaroon, who
lived in the time of Prophet Moses (a.s.). Allah tested Qaroon
by giving him abundant riches, but the ignorant Qaroon
belied that his wealth was from Allah Subhanah and
rather declared that his wealth was a result of his own intelligence, and had nothing to do with the Mercy of Allah
Subhanah!
Allah says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 28 Surah Qasas verse 76-79:
76 Qarun
was doubtless of the people of Moses; but he acted insolently towards them:
such were the treasures We had bestowed on him that their very keys would have
been a burden to a body of strong men: Behold his people said to him:
"Exult not for Allah loveth not those who exult
(in riches).
77 But seek with the
(wealth) which Allah has bestowed on thee the Home of the Hereafter nor forget
thy portion in this world: but do thou
good as Allah has been good to thee, and
seek not (occasions for) mischief in the land:
for Allah loves not those who do mischief."
78 He said: "This has
been given to me because of a certain knowledge which I have." Did he not know that Allah had destroyed
before him (whole) generations which were superior to him in strength, and greater in
amount (of riches) they had collected?
But the wicked are not called (immediately) to account for their sins.
79 So he went forth among
his people in the (pride of his worldly) glitter. Said those whose aim is the
Life of this World: "Oh that we had the like of what Qarun
has got! For he
is truly a lord of mighty good fortune."
80 But those who had been
granted (true) knowledge said: "Alas for you! The reward of Allah (in the Hereafter) is
best for those who believe and work righteousness: but this none shall attain save those who
steadfastly persevere (in good)."
81 Then We caused the earth
to swallow him (Qarun) up and his house; and he had
not (the least little) party to help him against Allah, nor could he defend himself.
82 And those who had envied
his position the day before,
began to say on the morrow: "Ah! It is indeed Allah Who
enlarges the provision or restricts it to any of His servants He pleases! Had it not been that Allah was gracious to us, He could have
caused the earth to swallow us up! Ah! those who reject Allah will assuredly never prosper."
Your question: What should we understand by rizq? Is rizq fixed? Is the
income that we get is fixed or the atisfaction that
we derive from our earnings fixed.
Allah Subhanah
Decrees the amount of rizk or sustenance of each
person as He Wills and Pleases! No
person has the power to make even a cent more than what Allah has Decreed for him! The
satisfaction that one derives from his wealth is not fixed by Allah Subhanah;
for that is the condition each person creates for himself. It is possible that an ungrateful person has
millions of dollars,
and he is not satisfied;
and it is possible that a pauper has only the clothes on his back, but he is satisfied with his share of rizk and recognizes that this share is only as a test in
the life of this world and a Decree of his Merciful Lord.
Your question: For example: I may earn 1000 now is this my rizq or if I may spend 500 for my own personal use my rizq.
The 1000 that you earn is your
share of the rizk the Bounteous Lord has Decreed for you. The
500 that you spend on your personal use is a decision you make of your own free
will!
One more thing of note here is
that if Allah has Decreed say a $1,000 for someone, no one can increase or decrease that
amount! The only thing one may do and
he himself is responsible for it, is that he can earn this $1,000 in a halaal or haraam manner. Whether he does the haraam
or halaal work to earn his $1,000, the value that he will receive will be
exactly the same! Man will never be
questioned on the Day of Judgment on how much money did he earn in the life of
this world; but rather the questioning
will be whether he earned his wealth in a haraam or halaal manner!
Your question: If a person who is staying in a country where
he is earning a lot of money shifts to another which is a poor country and his
amount of salary decreases drastically. If rizq is
fixed isn`t he allowed to earn the same amount of
money.
Whether one lives in a place
where he earns a lot of money, or whether one moves to a poor country
and his salary decreases….the amount of his rizk is
fixed and Decreed by Allah Subhanah!
Your question: In the present society it is very important
that we should all carry the dawah of Islam to resume
the Islamic way of life. Now if I do dawah for most
of time and devote a very small portion of my time to my business or service
then would I still get the same amount of salary which I would have got if I
would have carried on with 9am-8pm job.
The guidance that Allah Subhanah has given in the Holy Quran, is that man must
strive to earn his livlihood. It is misguidance and absolutely wrong to
believe that one would sit and relax at home, and Allah would send his rizk to him from the skies.
Al-Tirmidhi Hadith 79 Narrated by Umar ibn al-Khattab
Umar heard the Prophet (saws) say: 'If you put your faith completely in Allah,
He will arrange for your sustenance in the same way as He provides for the
birds. They go out in the morning with
their stomachs empty and return filled in the evening.'
The above parable related by the
Messenger of Allah (saws) clearly shows that just as the bird leaves his nest
in the morning with empty stomachs, and all day they strive in searching
for their food and sustenance; man too
must strive to make an honest living,
and work hard and search for his ‘rizk’ to the
best of his ability, and put his full
trust in the Bounteous Lord; Allah Subhanah will, if He
Wills and Pleases, provide for him.
The basic principle of rizk or sustenance is that the amount of rizk one receives does not depend on the intelligence, work, or effort of man; but rather rizk is
a result of the distribution and Decree of Allah Subhanah! Whatever rizk
Allah Subhanah has Decreed for man, he will receive exactly that
much; not a cent more, not a cent less! But the guidance of Allah and His Messenger
(saws) is that man must strive and search for the Bounty and Sustenance Decreed
for him; trust
his Lord completely; and Allah will
bestow his rizk on him.
Whatever written of Truth and
benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error
is of me. Allah Alone Knows Best and He
is the Only Source of Strength.
Your Brother in Islam,
Burhan
