In the Pursuit of Wealth
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
In the Name of Allah Most-Compassionate, Most-Merciful
Introduction
London, does it need an introduction, perhaps not, but to give some context to this story, let me begin by describing to you what I know. I remember spending a few years in London when I was younger and I remember how much I loved it. Having subsequently left to live in the other towns and cities of England I would always remember London fondly, for there was no other place in England that had the diversity, culture and vibrancy of London. From the perspective of people, London for me represented, much more closely, what places should be like in their ability to tolerate diversity, their ability to house a whole variety of different people without there being conflict, tension or resentment amongst them. So as a child, as someone who had already been used to diversity, London seemed the ideal place. I would regularly continue to come back to London and a few years later after graduating I again returned to London and again was reminded how it was completely different from the rest of England. Indeed if one was a foreigner to England one could not get an insight into England simply by living in London because its atmosphere, its people, and its pace of life were so much different. Then finally the chance came to move to London for work, thus seizing the opportunity I moved only to realise how different a proposition London was to live and work than it seemed when I was younger. Indeed, even then I still loved the vibrancy of the city, I loved the underground despite it being overcrowded, polluted and incredibly hot in the summer, I still loved seeing the diverse faces and hearing the diverse languages. For someone that loves to observe human behaviour and interaction it is the perfect place because one gets to see a myriad of different cultures and isms within a short space of time, with no two places in London being the same. However, architecturally one cannot say it is the most appealing or inspiring, it cannot be compared to Rome or Paris, it does not have the same vibrancy as Cairo or New York, or the spirituality of Damascus or Medina. But nevertheless it is still a major world city and it has its appeals, or so it may appear. You see, on the surface of things this may be true, and through making these observations of London one could not deny there is a certain charm to the place. But what I want to describe here is what London desperately lacks and hence by default, not only what many of its population lack, but what they become through their exposure to a place that strips them bare and drains their humanity.
The Beauty of Remembrance
This morning I woke up, not in London, but in another city, to be greeted by a din of noise, not cars and traffic, not planes overhead, not the noise of pneumatic drills carving chunks out of the road, or the sound of people arguing. But the most pleasant of sounds, an orchestra of birds singing all in unison, together calling-in the beginning of a new day. Theirs was the only sound in the early morning sky, and with that I thought about how I had never heard such a cacophony of sound in London. I’m sure I did hear birds sing, and I’m sure people will tell me they wake up to that very same sound every morning, but for me at least, it was not a sound I associate with London.
The Blinding of the Heart
Hearing this sound on this beautiful morning as the sun began to rise above the horizon I thought back to what London would do to people in their pursuit of wealth, happiness and security. Indeed, it was those very basic human desires that London, as an economic city, would exploit day after day. By infinitely small steps, by invisible gradations, it would take more and more of the humanness out of people. Thus people without their realisation would succumb to its charms and temptations of constantly seeking gain, of constantly seeking prosperity and through which one would learn to empty ones heart and mind of the ability to evaluate with both justice and compassion, for neither were required when ones primary goal was to accumulate. Thus, we stop seeing people, only what they have to offer, we stop seeing what they have to offer, only what they possess, we stop seeing what they possess, only the value of what they possess, we become blind to the value of what they possess, only the quantity of the material they possess. Finally, the transformation is complete, for whilst we think we’re pursuing one goal, perhaps God or religion, we are in reality only concerned about the pursuit of wealth. In doing so, we end up denying goodness and the goodness of people, and are thus blinded or perhaps barred from evaluating people through the prism of justice and compassion. We fail to see people for who they are because of the white light blinding effect wealth has upon ones inner-sight. The same phenomenon is exactly what all the Prophets and Messengers of God faced when calling people away from the world and towards the next life. In each case the people that opposed them did so for exactly the same reason, their hearts were blinded by wealth and greed, hence they were unable to see properly who these people really were and to what they were calling. Something perfectly illustrated by the words of Allah subhanhu wa ta’ala when He says in the Qur’an:
قَالُوا إِنْ هَذَانِ لَسَاحِرَانِ يُرِيدَانِ أَن يُخْرِجَاكُم مِّنْ أَرْضِكُم بِسِحْرِهِمَا وَيَذْهَبَا بِطَرِيقَتِكُمُ الْمُثْلَى
“They said: “These two are certainly (expert) magicians: their object is to drive you out from your land with their magic, and to do away with your best traditions”. (Qur’an, Ta Ha 20:63)
When, within a person, this internal transformation is complete, where the pursuit of wealth becomes their primary concern, then such people are unable to evaluate in any other terms other than either gaining wealth or the fear of losing wealth. Hence, contained in the answer of Pharaoh was his blindness to wealth, he could not see and indeed not want to see that Musa (as) had no concern for land or power, his concern was speaking the truth by which he could bring Pharaoh out of darkness and into the light of Divine Guidance. Pharaoh as an entity may no longer exist but the false idea he bore still exists, represented by the major cities of the world including London. In many respects the endgame of London is to strip people of their coverings of humanity, decency, compassion and justice, to reduce people to their most basic common form, of making ones primary concern something, which we are reminded time and again in the Qur’an, will have little benefit on the final day, which is the accumulation of wealth. Like Pharaoh, may of us today are so preoccupied with the pursuit of wealth that we fail to see the regressive and detrimental effect it has on us until, like Pharaoh, we are faced with the inevitable truth, by which time it becomes too late.
يَقُولُ أَهْلَكْتُ مَالًا لُّبَدًا
“He says (boastfully); I have squandered wealth in abundance!” (Qur’an, al-Balad, 90:6)
Primary Concern and the Test of Wealth
The Prophet (s) once said that the greatest thing he feared for his Ummah was the test of wealth, how right he was, for it is the greatest of tests being faced by the Ummah today, of the incessant pursuit of wealth, quite often clothed in other justificatory reasons. But at the heart of all concerns for those foolish enough to make it their primary concern, is wealth. By one definition a person’s soul may be described as being the representation of their primary concern. In other words how do we define who we really are, what do we really mean when we say ‘us’? Who or what are we talking about? Is it our personality, something which Imam al-Ghazali describes as a mask to the real-self, or is it our preferences, the things we like and dislike, which may be attributed to our nafs? In truth our soul is no more or less than our primary concern. The closest translation of our soul’s, is in essence, who we are, who we aspire to be, and how we choose to become that person. For example one could not say that their primary concern was God if their constant preoccupation was gaining wealth and success. In other words the pursuit of wealth, even if it were pursued in the belief that it would aid ones religion, is not the purpose of existence. The primary purpose is to be constantly preoccupied with God, and when one is constantly preoccupied with God one begins to see everything else in creation through that preoccupation, in the right context, evaluating everything correctly with a correct balance of compassion and justice. When God becomes our primary concern, and provided it is halal, we have little concern for where our wealth comes, because what begins to filter into the understanding of our hearts and minds is the truth that we do not have any power over our provisions. The greatest irrefutable proof of the truth of this statement is the life of the Prophet (s), the most beloved of Allah, who despite his station with Allah, could not effect his provisions. He was constantly at the mercy of his Lord, and no one’s life more closely testified to the reality of being at the constant mercy of Allah than the life of the Prophet (s).
Denying Justice and Compassion
We have described wealth here with several references to compassion and justice. One may describe them as being on opposite sides of a scale, if ones compassion and justice weigh heavy then ones concern for wealth becomes light and if ones concern for wealth becomes heavy then ones concern for compassion and justice become light. It is only those most exceptional of people who can possess wealth and yet for whom their concern for compassion and justice is neither tarnished nor diminished. This is not a position intelligent believers have ever assigned to themselves, or held themselves up to the lofty station of being such people. The wisdom of not doing so was based on the relatively common knowledge that the nafs can never be trusted no matter how noble the end to which it calls is. If responding to that call causes one to leave the posts and stations assigned to us by the Messenger of Allah (s), then one must immediately be concerned. Unfortunately many people have today assigned for themselves this lofty station with God, and accorded themselves the same position as six of the ten Sahaba that were promised Paradise by the Prophet (s), who notable, were wealthy and who gave the majority of their wealth as Waqf (charitable endowment).
Insha’Allah in the next post I will take further this idea of how we establish Allah in our lives as our primary concern through achieving and maintaining taqwa, how this relates to the test of poverty and how poverty and the pursuit of humility and asceticism provides the greatest source of purification of the heart and ones sincerity.
