**THE FITNAH OF WEALTH** (PART 2) "The poor will enter Paradise before the rich by half a day, and that is five hundred years." A day in the sight of Allah is like a thousand years, thus half a day is equivalent to five hundred years. So the rich will have to wait this long period of time — a time that is equivalent to more than ten generations — while the poor are enjoying the blessings of Paradise. It is for all of these reasons that the Prophet (SAW) used to pray: "O Allah! I seek your refuge from the evils of the fitnah of wealth, and the evils of the fitnah of poverty." Both poverty and wealth are fitnahs — ways by which Allah tries and tests us. A person cannot remain upon two divergent paths, or retain a tight grip on two items moving in opposite directions. Given that the path to fulfilment of illicit worldly desires and the path to the pleasure of Allah travel in different directions, excessive love of wealth risks compromising obedience to Allah, and the blessings to be gained from seeking His pleasure. This section can be summarised in the hadith of the Prophet (SAW) in which he said, "The plentiful (i.e., the rich) will be the lowest on the Day of Judgement, except he who distributed his money left and right (i.e., at all times), while he earned from pure (means)."
Posted on: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 23:59:27 +0000
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