But in point of fact I perceived that concealed beneath the apparent stinginess lay an elevated dignity, increase and plenty, and great reward. If they had not stopped, it would have led to something  much  worse  than  stinginess  beneath  the  generosity  and  excess,  like beggarliness and watching another’s hand greedily and expectantly.

SIXTH POINT

There is a great difference between frugality and stinginess. Just as humility is a praiseworthy  quality  superficially  resembling  but  different  to  the  bad  quality  of servility, and dignity is a laudable virtue superficially similar to but different from the bad quality of haughtiness, so too frugality, which was one of the Prophet’s (UWBP) elevated qualities and indeed is one of the things on which the divine wisdom in the

order of the universe depends,8  bears no relation to stinginess, which is a mixture of baseness, avarice, miserliness, and greed. There is merely a superficial resemblance.

The following is an event corroborating this fact:

‘Abdullah ibn ‘Umar, who was one of the famous Companions of the Prophet known as the seven ‘Abdullahs,9  was the greatest and most important of the Caliph

‘Umar, Faruq al-A‘zam’s sons, and one of the most distinguished and learned of the Companions. One day while shopping in the market, in order to be economical and to preserve  the confidence and integrity on which trade depends,10  he disputed hotly over something worth a few kurush. One of the Companions saw him, and imagining the Illustrious Successor of the Prophet on Earth, the Caliph ‘Umar’s son’s wrangling over a few kurush to be an  extraordinary stinginess, he followed him in order to understand his conduct. Next he saw that ‘Abdullah was entering his blessed house and had spotted a poor man at the door. He chatted with him for a bit, and the man left. Then he came out of the second door of the house and saw another poor man. He chatted  with  him  for  a  while  too,  and  the  man  left.  The  Companion,  who  was watching  from  the  distance,  was  curious.  He  went  and  asked  the   poor  men:

“‘Abdullah paused a while with you. What did he do?” Each of them replied: “He gave me a gold piece.” “Glory be to God!,” exclaimed the Companion, and thought to himself: “How is it that he wrangled like that over a few kurush in the market, then was completely happy to give away two hundred kurush in his house without letting anyone know?”

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8   Abu Da’ud, Adab, 2; Musnad, i, 296.

9   The seven ‘Abdullah’s (al-’Abadila al-Sab’a): ‘Abdullah b. ‘Abbas, ‘Abdullah b. ‘Umar,

‘Abdullah b. Mas’ud, ‘Abdullah b. Rawaha, ‘Abdullah b. Salam, ‘Abdullah b. ‘Amr b. al-’As,

‘Abdullah b. Abi Awfa (R. A.). (Tr.)

10 See, Tirmidhi, Buyu’, 3; Ibn Maja, Tijarat, 1; Darimi, Buyu’, 98.