A muslim is passionately devoted not to his possessions but ---

Ibn Umar (Radi Allahu anhu) said:
The Allah's Messenger (SalAllahu alaihi wasallam) said, "In the presence of three people, two should not hold secret counsel, to the exclusion of the third."
Al-Bukhari and Muslim

In Abu Dawud, Abu Salih related:
I asked Ibn Umar: "What if there are four people," He said, "There is no harm in that."
(This also means, in case of four person, three should not hold secret counsel to the exclusion of fourth person. Allah knows the best).

Malik reported in Al-Muwatta that Abdullah bin Dinar related:
Ibn Umar and I were together in Khalid bin Uqbah's house which was situated in the market place. A man came to consult Ibn Umar. None besides me was present. Ibn Umar called another man in and we became four and said to me and the man he had called: Move away a bit because I have heard the Allah's Messenger (SalAllahu alaihi wasallam) saying, "The two people should not hold secret counsel together excluding the third."

A Muslim is Passionately Devoted, Not to Possessions and Wealth, But to Allah

 Why is the devotion to wealth and property of people who do not live by the moral values of the Qur’an in fact great heedlessness that believers scrupulously avoid?

How do believers use their wealth and possessions on Allah’s path?

What secret does our Lord reveal in the Qur’an for believers who spend all their wealth and assets on Allah’s path?

People who do not live by the moral values of the Qur’an suffer various pains; these people even make the desire to “possess wealth and property” their greatest aim in life. Allah describes such people as “trying to outdo one another in wealth” in the Qur’an (Surat al-Hadid, 20). But this desire is literally a delusion because it is Allah Who owns everything in the world. People deceive themselves when they imagine they “own possessions.” They did not personally create the things they imagine they possess, and they have no power  whatsoever to maintain them. Neither can they prevent them ceasing to exist. Moreover, there is no question of them “owning” anything; because they themselves are under the control of Allah, “the king of Mankind” (Surat an-Nas, 2). In the Qur’an it is revealed that all objects and entities belong to Allah, our Creator:

“Everything in the heavens and everything on the earth and everything in between them and everything under the ground belongs to Him.” (Surah Ta Ha, 6)

Believers, who have faith in Allah and attach no undue importance to the transitory baubles of this world, who know that all things come from Allah alone and who therefore spend what they have on His path, may hope for Almighty Allah’s mercy and paradise. Since they prefer the life of the hereafter, which Allah says will last for all eternity, over the life of this world, it is actually they who are the wealthy ones.

Believers Fervently Spend Their Assets on Allah’s Path

As revealed in the verse “[There are men who are] not distracted by trade or commerce from the remembrance of Allah and the establishment of prayer and the payment of alms; fearing a day when all hearts and eyes will be in turmoil –“ (Surat an-Nur, 37), one of the things that people today most give themselves over to is making money and possessing goods and property. Yet in that verse, Allah reveals that believers must be filled with passion for Him alone, and that their hearts can only be contented by repeating His name, and that they fear losing His approval by behaving in any other way. Believers have a strong desire to give their possessions to others in need, for the purpose of gaining the approval of Allah, to whom they are so passionately devoted. Another verse reveals how all wealth belongs to Allah alone:

“Spend in the Way of Allah. Do not cast yourselves into destruction. And do good: Allah loves good-doers.” (Surat al-Baqara, 195)

Someone who thinks by the light of his own criteria thinks that he will become wealthier by not sharing his possessions with anyone and hiding and hoarding them, and that this is the only way he can guarantee his own future. He believes that anything he gives away – even if he has no need of it – will make him poorer, and that anything he loses now will endanger his future comfort. But things are not at all as he imagines.  Allah reveals in the Qur’an, as a miracle, that a person who spends on His path and who gives alms will acquire greater possessions and abundance.

But someone who analyzes events only by  external criteria may easily be deceived by this deception of satan’s. For example, he may be about to give his shirt to someone in need when satan whispers that if he does so, he will have to go without it, that he may need it one day, and that it would be better to hold onto it. And indeed, it would appear on the surface that he would be deprived of a shirt, but if he forgets that Allah bestows many times over on whom He wishes, on who has much purity, then he has fallen into heedlessness. Indeed, Allah tells us in one verse that:

“The metaphor of those who spend their wealth in the Way of Allah is that of a grain which produces seven ears; in every ear there are a hundred grains.” (Surat al-Baqara, 261)

The example in the verse is a secret revealed by Almighty Allah to believers in the Qur’an. For that reason, believers spend solely in order to win Allah’s good pleasure, mercy, paradise and abundance. So long as they expend their goods and possessions on Allah’s path and are careful about what is lawful and unlawful, Almighty Allah will increase their wealth, smooth their way and create many more opportunities for them to spend on His path. Every believer experiences this secret in his own life, by having no fears for the future, fearing Allah and keeping to His bounds. In this way, he receives the reward for spending on Allah’s path, and also further abundance.

Cont -- AT  PART 2. Insha Allah