بسم الله الرحمٰن الرحيم
🚦 THE TRIAL OF WEALTH AND CHILDREN 🚦
Allah the Exalted said:
> {O you who have believed! Let not your wealth and your children divert you from the remembrance of Allah. And whoever does that – then those are the losers. And spend from what We have provided you before death comes to one of you, and he says: “My Lord, if only You would delay me for a short term so I would give charity and be among the righteous.” But Allah will never delay a soul when its appointed time has come. And Allah is Acquainted with what you do.}
(QS. Al-Munāfiqūn 9–11)
Syaikh Ibn Nāṣir as-Sa‘dī (d. 1376H), may Allah have mercy on him, said:
Allah commands His believing servants to abundantly remember Him, for indeed in that there is profit, success, and much goodness. And He forbids them from being busied by their wealth and children away from His remembrance. For love of wealth and children is something that most souls are naturally inclined toward, so they give it precedence over the love of Allah. And in that lies great loss.
That is why Allah said: “And whoever does that” — meaning, his wealth and child distract him from the remembrance of Allah — “then those are the losers” of eternal happiness and everlasting bliss, because they preferred what perishes over what remains. Allah said: “Indeed, your wealth and your children are but a trial, and with Allah is a great reward.”
And His saying: “And spend from what We have provided you” includes the obligatory expenditures, such as zakat, expiations, maintenance of wives, slaves, and the like, and also the recommended expenditures, such as spending wealth in all beneficial causes.
And He said: “From what We have provided you” to show that Allah did not burden His servants with expenditures that would overwhelm them or cause them hardship. Rather, He commanded them to give a portion of what Allah has provided them, that which He has facilitated for them and made its means easy.
So they should give thanks to the One Who granted them by supporting their needy brothers, and they should hasten in doing so before death comes — for once it arrives, a servant is no longer able to bring forth even the weight of a speck of good.
That is why Allah said: “Before death comes to one of you, and he says” — regretful over what he neglected when he had the chance, asking for return though it is impossible — “My Lord, if only You would delay me for a short term” — that I may make up for what I neglected — “so I would give charity” from my wealth, with something by which I may be saved from punishment and deserve abundant reward — “and I would be among the righteous” by fulfilling all commands and avoiding prohibitions, and this includes Hajj and other acts.
But this request and wish has already passed its time and cannot be recovered. That is why Allah said: “But Allah will never delay a soul when its appointed time has come” which has been decreed for it. “And Allah is Acquainted with what you do” — of good and evil — so He will recompense you for what He knows from you of intentions and deeds.
📚 (‘Abdurraḥmān as-Sa‘dī, Tafsīr as-Sa‘dī = Taysīr al-Karīm ar-Raḥmān, pp. 865–866)
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