The Way of Islam (Peaceful Submission)
Voluntary charity
in Arabic is
sadaqah [صدقة],
whose root is sidq [صدق],
meaning truth.
كُونُوا مَعَ الصَّادِقِينَ
Be with the truthful
Follow those who ask of you no fee,
and who are rightly guided.
And no fee do you ask of them for This:
It is no less than a Message for all creatures.
And do not strain your eyes
longing for the things
We have given for enjoyment...,
the splendor of the life of this world;...
the provision of thy Lord
is better and more enduring.
Enjoin continual prayer on your people.
We ask you not to provide sustenance:
We provide it for you.
But the fruit of the Hereafter
is for righteousness.
How many are the creatures
that carry not their own sustenance?
It is Allah who feeds both them and you;
for He hears and knows all things.
And He provides for him [the Faithful]
from sources he never could imagine.
And if anyone puts his trust in God,
sufficient is God for him.
For God will surely accomplish His purpose.
Verily, for all things has God appointed
in due proportion.
Never have We sent
an apostle to any nation
without the wealthy saying,
"We do not believe
the message you bring."
He who gives away his wealth...
and he who gives no favor to any one
for the sake of reward,
but only craving the face
of his Lord most High;
in the end he shall be well pleased!
Give not with the thought to gain,
And be patient unto thy Lord.
If you give in charity openly
it is fine,
but if you hide it
and give it to the poor
it is better for you.
There is a man who gives a charity
and he conceals it so much
so that his left hand does not know
what his right hand spends.
--Muhammad (Hadith, Bukhari 24:13)
Anyone who is stingy,
is stingy only with his own soul.
God is wealthy
While you are poor.
You shall not barter God's Covenant
for a trifling price.
God's reward is better for you,
if you but knew it.
Your worldly riches are transitory,
but God's reward is everlasting.
When they see merchandise or diversion
they scatter off to it,
and they leave you standing.
Say, "What is with God
is better than diversion and merchandise.
God is the best of providers."
As for him who freely gives
and guards against evil
and freely accepts what is best,
We will facilitate for him the easy end.
And as for him who is stingy
and considers himself free from need
and rejects the best
We will facilitate for him the difficult end.
And his wealth will not avail him when he perishes.
Woe to the praying ones
who are unmindful in their prayers,
who do good to be seen,
and withhold small gifts.
Freely give to one another,
for gifts take away malice.
--Muhammad (Hadith, Tirmidhi Mishkaat 12:17)
Every misfortune... is ordained
before We bring it to being.
That is easy enough for God;
so that you may not grieve
for the good things you miss,
or be overjoyed at what you gain.
God does not love
the haughty, the vainglorious,
nor those who, being stingy themselves,
encourage others to be stingy.
He who pays no heed should know
that God alone is self-sufficient
and worthy of Credit
Allah will reward the Grateful [Gratis-Full].
And a soul will not die
but with the permission of Allah.
The term is fixed.
And whosoever desires
the reward of this world,
I shall give it to him;
And whoever desires
the Reward beyond time,
I shall give him of it,
And I will reward the Grateful [Gratis-Full].
Never let those who hoard the wealth
which God has bestowed
on them out of his bounty
think it good for them:
indeed it is an evil thing for them.
The riches they have hoarded
shall become their fetters
on the Day of Resurrection.
It is God who will inherit
the heavens and the earth.
God is cognizant of all your actions.
You shall never be truly righteous
until you give in charity
what you dearly cherish.
The charity you give is known to God.
And one of His signs is
that He sends forth the winds
bearing Good News,
and that He may cause you
to taste of His Mercy [Unmerited Gift].
and that ships may run by His command,
and that you may seek of His Grace [Gratis],
and that you may be Grateful [Gratis-full].
Let the People of the Book recognize
that they have no control
over the Grace of God;
That Grace [Gratis] is
in His hands alone,
and that He vouchsafes it
to whom He will.
God's Grace [Gratis] is infinite.
And this is the Grace [Gratis] of my Lord,
That He may try me
whether I am Grateful [Gratis-Full]
or ungrateful.
And whoever is Grateful,
he is Grateful only to his own Soul;
And whoever is ungrateful,
then surely my Lord
is Self-Sufficient, Credit-Worthy.
And surely your Lord
is the Lord of Grace to men,
But most of them are not Grateful.
And a sign to them
is the dead earth:
We give life to it
and bring forth from it grain,
so they eat of it.
And We make therein
gardens of palms and grapevines
and We make springs
to flow forth in it,
That they may eat the Fruit thereof,
and their hands did not make it;
Will they not then be Grateful [Gratis-Full]?
Faqr Fakhri
[“Poverty is my pride”]
--Muhammad
O Lord! Keep me alive a poor man,
and let me die poor;
And raise me amongst the poor.
--Muhammad
A man came to Muhammad and said,
“Verily I love you.”
He replied, “Look to what you say.”
And the man said,
“By God! I love you,”
and repeated the same twice.
Lord Muhammad said,
"If you are sincere,
then prepare yourself for poverty:
for poverty reacheth him who loves me
quicker than a torrent reaches the sea.
(Hadith)
"The sun never says to the earth,
'You owe me.'
Look what happens with a love like that.
It lights up the whole sky."
-- Hafiz
The affairs of Faqr [poverty]
are beyond your comprehension.
Do not look upon Faqr [poverty]
with contempt.
Because dervishes
are beyond property and wealth,
They possess abundant
sustenance from the Almighty.
Is “poverty is my pride” vain and false?
No, there a hundred glories are hidden in it.
--Rumi
I will not serve God like a laborer,
in expectation of my wages.
--Rabia al-Adawiya
True devotion is for itself:
not to desire heaven nor to fear hell.
--Rabia al-Adawiya
Allah’s apostle ascended the pulpit and said, “Nothing worries me as to what will happen to you after me, except the temptation of worldly blessings which will be conferred on you." (Hadith, 4:52:95)
Every day two angels come down from Heaven and one of them says, ‘O God! Compensate every person who spends in Your cause,’ and the other says, ‘O God! Destroy every miser.’
--Muhammed (Hadith 2:24:522)
When God made a covenant with those to whom the scripture was given, he said: "Proclaim this to mankind and do not suppress it." But they cast it behind their backs and sold it for a paltry price. So evil is that which they buy.
My Lord has advised me
to acquire nine traits
which I, in turn, advise you to take on:
He has commanded me to be sincere,
openly and in secret,
to be fair when calm or angry,
to be thrifty in poverty or good fortune,
to forgive someone who has taken from me,
to build relations with whoever
has severed them with me,
to let silence be my meditation,
to let speech be my prayer,
and to let what I observe
bring a lesson to me.
--Muhammad (Hadith)
