Chapter 6 - On Affluence and Poverty

“I do not care whether I am stuck with being rich or poor.”

God's Prophet (a.s) said: “O' God! Please grant Muhammad and his Household chastity and sufficiency (of daily bread), and grant the enemies of Muhammad and his Household extensive wealth and plenty of children.”

Imam Baqir (a.s) said: “A man came to Abazaer and gave him the glad tidings that his sheep had increased in number. Abazaer told him that it is true that his sheep had reproduced and had increased in number, but this is not good news for him. He said that he preferred that his sheep were fewer in number just enough to suffice him, but not be so many that they make him forget God.”

Ali ibn Hussein (a.s) said: “Express your lack of need from other people, as this is the true state of being needless, and ask others less for what you need, since this asking is exactly being poor by itself.”

Imam Sadiq (a.s) said: “The nobility of a believer depends on his night-time worship, and his honor depends on his being needless of others.”

“You must both feel a need for the people and be needless of them at the same time. That is you should be polite and pleasant with them, and also protect your respect and honor.”

Ameer al-Momineen (a.s) said: “Poverty will disable your tongue from reasoning. One who is poor is like a stranger in his own town. Blessed be –Tooba- those who remember the Resurrection, and work in such a way that they are prepared for the Reckoning, and are content with the minimum necessities. Being needless where you are a stranger is like having a town to which you belong. Being poor in your own town is like being a stranger where you live. Contentment is like wealth that never ends. Poverty is like the greatest death. Indeed the Almighty God has established a portion of the food for the poor in the wealth of the rich. Therefore no poor person will stay hungry unless a rich person deprives him of his portion. How nice is it if a rich man is humble to a poor man when he requests a reward that is near the Almighty God. It is even nicer when the poor maintain their pride near the rich and rely on God.”

The Noble Prophet (a.s) said: “Consider those who are lower than you, not those who are better off than you are. This is better than denying God's blessings.”

God's Prophet (a.s) said: “Richness does not depend on having a lot of wealth, rather it depends on spiritual affluence.”

God's Prophet (a.s) said: “On the Resurrection Day, all rich and poor people will wish that they were only given enough to fulfill their needs in this world.”