Q. There is a hadith in which Nabi (SAS) had talked about the person who has made the world his objective, for such a person Allah Talah will put in his heart the fear of poverty. I wanted to know the meaning of this part of the hadith i.e fear of poverty. Is it the fear of poverty in terms of wealth, or does it also include poverty of rizq, fame, other worldly possessions e.g. scoring good marks in exams etc.
A. The fear of poverty refers to the fear of one’s wealth being decreased or destroyed. It means that when this fear is placed in the heart of a person, he becomes greedy and goes on working very hard to achieve more and more wealth. He is never satisfied with the amount he has already achieved since he constantly fears that he will be struck with poverty. On account of this, he spends no time in worshipping Allah or doing any acts of worship. All his time is spent in running after the ‘worldly riches and comforts’.
And Allah knows best.
Mufti Waseem Khan