It is easy to be fooled in to thinking that happiness lies in wealth and successful education, employment and careers. Although none of these things should be overlooked and belittled altogether, we should question ourselves as to what lies in the heart and mind as opposed to the hand. There were sahabah رضى الله عنهم (companions) who were rich and wealthy – wealth was in their hands and at times it may have showed on their bodies (in their clothing) but their hearts and minds were totally free from that wealth. Their hearts and minds lingered not in the dunya (worldly life) but rested in the hereafter even though they were walking the earth. One example is Sayyiduna Khabbab ibn al-Arat رضى الله عنه who was a blacksmith and was brutally persecuted by the pagans in Makkah. He survived to see the wealth of the Persian and Roman civilisations opened up to the Muslims and had plenty of wealth but had no love for his wealth in his heart. In fact, Khabbab ibn al-Arat رضى الله عنه lamented his wealth and said ‘What are we doing with this wealth? We are depositing it in the dust of the earth (i.e. constructing walls and buildings)’. When Khabbab Ibn Al-Arat رضى الله عنه died at the age of 73 in Kufa, Ameer-ul-Mumineen Sayyiduna Ali رضى الله عنه prayed janazah over him and said ‘May Allah have mercy on Khabbab for he embraced Islam willingly as a devotee, he did Hijrah with Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم as an obedient servant of Allah, and he lived his life as a Mujahid’.
Today we find even those who are poor, who have no wealth in their hands, but their hearts still lie in wealth and their minds are still devoted and attached to wealth and the glitter of the world. Thus, what is in the heart and mind is what really matters. Unfortunately, most Muslims are in that state where the dunya has caught them; its glitter has deceived them – the worldly life has attracted them in such a manner and in such a way that they have fallen for the promise of shaitaan, which is that success lies in the wealth of the dunya and related things and hence one should work only for the dunya and not the hereafter.
[This short excerpt is based on two separate talks delivered by Shaykh Abu Yusuf Riyadh ul Haq: ‘Lure of Shaitaan and the Promise of Allah’ and also Lesson 169, Book of Funerals (from the Abridged Saheeh al-Bukhari discourses) which was delivered on Friday 19th October 2007. For a more comprehensive understanding of this topic please refer to those lectures].
