FOURTH POINT

According to  the Hadith the meaning of which is: “The thrifty will suffer no family difficulties as regards livelihood,”3  the frugal and economical person will not suffer undue trouble and hardship in supporting his family.

There  are  countless  proofs  that  frugalit y  yields  plenty  and  good  living.  For instance,  I have seen myself and I can say according to the testimony of those who have befriended and assisted me that by being frugal I have sometimes seen a tenfold increase, and so have  my  friends. Even, nine  years ago  – and  now it is thirty, a number of the tribal leaders who were exiled to Burdur together with me did their best to make me accept their zakat so that I would not suffer privation and humiliation due to lack of money. I said to those rich leaders:  “I have very little money, but I am frugal and economical and I am accustomed to being content with little. I am richer than you.” I refused their repeated and insistent offers. It is  worth noting that two years later some of those who had offered me their zakat were in debt because they had not been frugal. Praise be to God, seven years on from that, thanks to the plenty resulting from frugalit y that small amount of money was still sufficient for me; it did not  degrade me, nor compel me to present my needs to the people, nor make me deviate from  my way of self-sufficiency and being independent of people, which is one of the principles of my life.

The person who is not frugal is certain to be abased and reduced to poverty and in effect  to  begging.  At  the  present  time,  money,  the  means  of  wastefulness  and extravagance, is extremely expensive. Sometimes a person sells his honour and self- respect and bribes are taken to obtain it. Sometimes the sacred things of religion are sold, then some inauspicious money received in return. That is to say, material goods worth ten kurush are procured in return for an immaterial loss of a hundred lira.

However, according to the implied meaning of the verse,

Indeed,  it  is  God  Who  gives  all  sustenance,  Lord  of  all  power  and strength,(51:58)

and the explicit meaning of the verse,

And there is no moving creature on the earth but its sustenance is provided by God,(11:6)

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3   Musnad, i, 447; al-Munawi, Fayd al-Qadir, v, 454, no: 7939; al-Hindi, Kanz al-‘Ummal, iii, 36;

vi, 49, 56, 57.