Getting rid of stinginess - Purification of the heart!

“He who is being miserly (bukhl) is being miserly only to himself” (Surah Muhammad: 38)

“and in his love for wealth, he is very intense.” (surah ‘Aadiyat, verse 8)

The next disease of the heart we are going to discuss is Bukhl. Bakheel, in Urdu you call him kanjus, and in English it is translated as miser, stingy. A bakheel is not really a greedy person but a person who doesn’t like to spend.

It comes in Quran:

‘He who is Bakheel is only being bakheel to himself’ (Surah Muhammad, verse 38)

Meaning, his bukhl, it is only hurting himself.

Definition of Bukhl

Feeling a pinch in one’s heart, tightness of the heart, when a person is about to spend. So bukhl is basically a feeling of the heart.

Now this spending can be of 2 types. Spending on:

i)                    Those one is commanded by Allah to do so. This covers both HaquqUllah(rights of Allah) and Haququl Ibaad(rights of people) upon us. Example:

Ø   Giving Zakat.

Ø   Spending on one’s dependents. Like a husband, a father is commanded to spend on his family, it is mandatory upon him to spend on them.

ii)                  Those one is encouraged in Islam to spend upon. Example:

Ø  Spending on other needy people.

Ø  Spending for religious causes like on Madaris( Religious institutions) and Masajid etc.

Stinginess VS Generosity

The opposite of Bukhl is Generosity. The word for generous in Arabic is Kareem. One of Allah Ta’Ala’s names is also Al-Kareem. Kareem comes from the same root words as karam. Kaaf, Raa, Meem. Kareem means noble. So actually a person who is Kareem, generous, it’s a noble trait. Actually it is one of the noble and best traits. Also if you see Prophet (saw)’s life, his sunnah, he was very noble, very kareem, very generous! Also if you read about those ahadith that how much Sahaba Karam(ra) used to spend in Sadqah, you would realize that there was no concept of bukhl in them. They were exact opposite, they were extremely generous.

Different Levels of Generosity

There are different levels of being generous.

Ø   Spending some money and keeping some money. By spending some, it means spending some on other people. This is the normal level generosity.

Ø  Spending more and keeping little. Giving away more of your earnings and keeping little. This is the higher level of generosity.

 Types of Bukhl

Bukhl has types as well. Being Bakheel:

Ø  In terms of wealth, and money. Being stingy with wealth.

Ø  In terms of obedience to Allah (swt). Being stingy in terms of Salah, in terms of following Allah’s Commands. Like a ‘minimal muslim’ who just wants to the bare minimum requirements of Islam.

However, our focus will just be on bukhl in terms of wealth.

Wealth_not bad in itself

If you look at the concept of money and wealth, fi nafsihi, within itself, there is nothing wrong with money, there is nothing wrong with wealth. In Quran, 2 words are used for maal/wealth.

·         Wa innahu li hubbil khayri lashadeed.

‘and in his love for wealth, he is very intense.’ (surah ‘Aadiyat, verse 8)

The word used here for wealth is khayr. If you look at the word khayr, it has a positive connotation. So wealth/maal has some goodness in it, it has many positive attributes in it too, it’s only wrong when the love of it is shaded (intense).

And some scholars say that everyone is supposed to have a normal healthy degree of love for wealth. A normal healthy degree of attachment to money is necessary, otherwise we wouldn’t care if our things are getting stolen and the money is getting wasted! That’s not healthy, that’s not normal either. You have to have a little attachment to wealth so that there isn’t too much extravagance and we aren’t neglectful of our belongings. So there is some khayr in wealth and that is why Allah Ta’Ala has used the word khayr for maal.

·         And do not give the weak-minded your property, which Allah has made a means of sustenance (qiyam) for you….(Surah Al Nisa, verse 5)

So the other word that has been mentioned in the Quran for maal is qiyam. Interestingly in surah baqarah, the word qiyam has also been used for baitUllah/Khana Kaabah.

 So Allah Ta’Ala Commnds us not to give our wealth to weak-minded people, that wealth and property which Allah Has mad qiyam for us. Meaning the wealth can be also used to lead a good life.

Both the words that are used for maal in Quran are actually the words that can be used in a good context. One is Khayr and other Qiyaam, something you need to survive, something you need to be estabilished! So if look at these verses, maal is something that we need to survive, so there is some khayr(goodness)in it, it is also a blessing and rehmah from Allah Ta’Ala.

 It also comes in Hadith.

·         ‘ that time is near when faqr/poverty would lead a person to kufr/disbelief’

So this shows that poverty can lead a person to kufr (disbelief), hence some healthy degree of wealth is necessary in order for a person to stay away from disbelief.

There is another famous hadith in which the Prophet (saw) said that value 5 things before 5 things. And in them one is to value wealth before poverty.

So if you look at these verses and ahadith, wealth is something that helps a person! If used wisely, healthily and within the dictates of Islam and realm of Shariah , wealth becomes a blessing, mercy and actually helps a person against kufr and helps them do good deeds. So in Islamic philosophy money isn’t bad fi nafsihi, its actually the shadeed/intense muhabbat/love for money that makes it bad!

Islam teaches Moderation

There can be 2 extremes in terms of one’s relation with wealth.

i)                     People who have extreme, intense love for wealth, excessive attachment to wealth which also makes one miserly/bakheel.

ii)                  People who are anti wealth, this maybe a small minority in this day and age. People who neither want to earn wealth, nor want to save or spend it, basically they don’t want to do anything with wealth. They want to become faqeer to the extent that they are cut off from the world, a monk or raahib/ascetic type of person. 

In Islam, there is moderation. Neither should there be intense love for world nor this intense hatred for wealth.

Ahadith e Mubarak regarding Bukhl

Ø  “A miser is far from Jannat, far from people, and close to the fire” (Tirmidhi)

This is a very strong hadith, it’s not that it’s just a small problem people have, it is actually a spiritual disease! Interestingly even if you look in other cultures, universally miserliness is regarded as wrong. It is considered a very bad trait cross culturally. Nobody likes a miser. Even misers themselves don’t like one another! Miserliness is not considered a good trait at any socio economic level or any background. And it has spiritual repercussions as well.

Sometimes a person who is a miser thinks miserliness is good, they disguise their miserliness in the garb of ‘it’s good, I am not being extravagant/fuzul kharch’. So it does happen then that people don’t like such a miser person because of this trait of his and this miserliness is the habit of people who will go to Jahannum!

Ø   “A miser will not enter Jannat” (Tirmidhi)

Ø  “Be careful of miserliness.  Indeed, it has ruined those before you.  It caused them to shed blood and make haram things halal”

When a person is extremely stingy, extremely miserly which happens because of hubbe duniya/ love for the world, then they will do things that are haram, that are impermissible because they are so much in love with the wealth. They don’t love to spend it, they just want to keep it, hoard it.

Ø  “Miserliness and Iman are not gathered together in any heart” (Nisaa’i)

So bukhl and Imaan are 2 things which cannot be there at the same time. Either there is miserliness in the heart or Imaan!

So if we see all these ahadith, bukhl has a lot of spiritual problems. A person who has this problem is going to have a lot of spiritual issues, far from Allah, far from people and far from Jannah!

Ø  Prophet (saw) said, ‘Do you know of any disease worse than bukhl?’!

We see that takabbur/pride is really bad and etc but in here the Prohet (saw) is saying ‘ Do you know of any disease worse than bukhl?’!

 Hadrat Ali (ra) said,

 ‘the worst person is the Bakheel , he is wretched in this world and is punished in the next world’

CHECK YOURSELF……

So how can a person check if they have bukhl? Because this is something which has levels and degrees.  So how to check to which degree we have bukhl in our hearts?

Ask yourselves. Do you…..

·         Find it difficult to spend on others? Or to spend even on your own self?

You know those who are stingy, they neither want to spend on others and sometimes not even on themselves. Some they do spend on themselves but don’t want to spend on others. Some don’t want to spend on anybody whether it be their wives, their families or they themselves! So there are different levels! So do you find it difficult to spend?

·         Feel tightness in your heart when giving zakat or sadqa?

Because actually bukhjl is the feeling of the heart!

There are some people who do spend but later they will remind you of their favor again and again or they will spend and rest of the day they will do sorrow. So actually this is the feeling of heart. So ask ‘Do I feel tightness of heart when I give Zakaat, when I give sadqah, when I spend on someone? Do I feel that pinch?’

·          Do you suddenly remember your own expenses when you have to spend on others?

Ask ‘Is it that when I am going somewhere, thinking i need to give this much sadqah, zakaat, or when somebody asks me for something, all of a sudden do I remember my own expenses, that I need to buy that, I myself need money for this and that? There is children’s tution to pay and what not?’

For example:

‘ first I did niyyah to give X amount let us say 1000 ruppees, and as I walk to get my purse, I think why not give 500 ruppees only?’

And in that process we start thinking about other needs and expenditureswe have!

·         Get upset when someone needy asks you for something? Or someone asks for money for a righteous cause?

This can be for anybody, you know even for parent, when child comes and asks for money for something and parents don’t like it, so that can also be a sign of bukhl for a person. Or your younger brother or sister or friend or somebody asks you for money and you don’t like it and you get upset.

 CAUSES OF BUKHL

These are some general causes.

1)      Love of the world/Hubb e Duniya.

This is a general problem for lot of spiritual diseases! It comes in Hadith

Hubbe Duniya ra’su kulli khateea

 ‘Love of the World is the root cause of all sins’

It’s the root of pride, it’s the root of ostentation, and it’s the root problem for envy. So for bukhl as well, hubbe duniya is the cause! Because when a person loves the things of this world, the temptations, the sweetness of the world, then they are attached, they are clinging to their wealth!

Actually, interestingly, by studying this hadith, scholars have written that if the love of the world is the root of all sins, so if you twist the hadith otherway round, actually leaving the love of the world is the key to all fadheelat (goodness, virtue). Then in Arabic, it would have continued as

Wa tarkuha miftaahu kulli fadheelah

And leaving the love of the world, love of the world, not the world (itself), is the key to all good.

One who doesn’t has this love for the world then he doesn’t have any obstacles either. And the person who has love of the world, it doesn’t matter how much knowledge he has, it doesn’t matter how much suhbat he has, it doesn’t matter how good a company he has, how many talks/bayans he listens to, so when they have love of this world, none of the good things they do in this world will help them because the love of the world will wipe it all off.

2)      Love of wealth.

 Love of the world and love of wealth go together. So this also causes bukhl.

In old times, people used to make dua that ‘O Allah Ta’Ala save us from the love of this world, save us from the love of wealth’

Hadrat Ibrahim (a.s) made a dua that ‘Save me and my children from the worship of the idols’

This is strange, that a Prophet (a.s) is making this dua that ‘O Allah save me and my children away from the worship of idols!’  So actually, Scholars say he didn’t mean the idols in the normal sense of the word, he meant idols of gold and silver, idol of love of money! So in reality his dua to Allah Ta’Ala was to save him and his children from the love of this world and wealth!

Hazrat Ali (ra)’s dua

It is also famous about Hadrat Ali(r.a), that he used to make this dua at the time of Tahajjud, he would actually address gold and silver, he used to say, ‘ O gold, o silver, go and deceive someone else besides me!’

That’s what this world is!  The world is the place of deception! What we call ‘Daar-ul-ghurur’ in Arabic. So people fall into deception in loving this world and when they love this world, it leads to all these other problems!

Excellence of Sahaba Karam (ra)

In Sahaba Karam(r.a), this attribute of abstaining from the pleasure and love of this world was at a very high level!

Prophet (s.a.w) said in a hadith , meaning of which is that I don’t fear for you that you are going to do shirk, but I fear love of wealth.

 He (s.a.w) feared hubbe duniya for his Ummah!

Sahaba Karam(r.a) in the time of victories, when they were going through Persia etc, one of the generals of the Muslim Army, he wrote back to Hadrat Umar(r.a), Khalifah of the time, that if I were to tell you all the things that I have seen, because they went to the palaces  of the Persian emperors and all these royal places, and if I were to write to you what I found and have seen, you would not believe me! You would not believe the richness, the beauty, the houses, and the wealth that we have come across!

They saw all the wealth they had, they saw all the gold they had, they saw these luxuries they had but still they remained unaffected by it. Some Scholars, like Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi(r.a) actually wrote that people find different karamaat to be the most amazing ones in the Sahaba Karam (r.a) but in the eyes of ahle ilm/ people of knowledge, the biggest karamat that the Sahab Karam(r.a) had was that they saw all this wealth and they were not affected by it! They were not drowned by it! This is something that is very rare, it’s very hard!

 How our Relationship with the World and Wealth should be_ Explained with analogies and examples

Ø  Maulana Rumi (ra): This world is like an ocean and our heart is like a boat.

As long as the love of the world doesn’t come into your heart like the water doesn’t get into the boat, your boat, our heart will be fine and the minute the water comes into the boat, the boat will drown! So the minute, love of the world enters our heart, our spiritual heart will also drown!

Ø  We can have wealth in our hands and in our pockets as long as it is not in our hearts!

Ø   Our relationship with world should be like the combination of oil and water. If you add oil in water, it doesn’t get mixed with it, but stays separated, on the surface so just like that person can have wealth without being drowned by it, without being permeated by it.

There are different birds like ducks etc, they have the ability to go in water, they can sit over the surface of water and yet their feathers don’t get wet, the feathers stay dry! So people who can live in the world without getting wet by its love, like ducks they are going in and out of water all the time but still they can stay dry! So in a same way, a person can have millions and millions of money, but as it comes and it goes, it comes and goes, their hearts don’t get affected by it.

So this is something that Sahaba Karam(r.a) had to the highest degree that despite lots and lots of wealth coming their way through the victories , they were not affected by it!

Effect of Company

It also comes that in Hadrat Umar(r.a)’ period, when people started conquering these very rich places and these cities, Hadrat Umar(r.a) then commanded that soldiers are not allowed to live in cities, separate army towns should be made for them, lest hubbe duniya comes into their hearts by interacting with the civilians, by meeting with these people and seeing all their riches!

So this is something that we can also learn, that this love of the world, this gets transferred through company. That’s something we see in ourselves. When we interact or hang out with someone who is into clothes, then all of a sudden we also start getting interested in clothes. We hang out with someone who is into make up or fashion, that also rubs on us (not to say that these things are not jaiz(permissible) but extreme love for them is certainly not good!)

So if you are with somebody who has love of wealth in their heart, with somebody who has love of Duniya in their heart, that’s also going to get transferred into you. So suhbat/ company has a lot of effect even in these things, things like bukhl, and things like love of the World.

3)      Heedlessness of death.

When a person is headless about their death, then they just think about hoarding money, hoarding money, they forget that this is all going to be left behind; it’s not going to go with them to their grave! So who are they keeping it for?

Lot of times you hear these stories(especially in America), like that there was an old man ,he was living in a small house and when he dies people find out that he had millions and millions of dollars in his bank account, and they didn’t know it before! So then they will donate it to some educational institute or something!

They were so stingy with it themselves, what use was it for them then, later it was used for someone else anyhow.

It comes in a hadith, Prophet (s.a.w) said,(meaning)

When a person dies, 3 things follow the dead person to his grave, his family, his wealth and his actions. And 2 things return and 1 stays with him. His family and wealth returns and his actions stay with him.

So that’s something that when a person dies, none of it goes with you. So a person who is stingy, what is it that he is saving for? The whole purpose of having wealth in life is to spend it. If we spend it rightly, we will get reward too.

Imam Ghazali (ra) wrote some text on the potential harms and problems of wealth. 6 from amongst those problems will be mentioned here.

i)                    Acts of disobedience and sins become easier.

Why? Because when a person has money, the door to sin becomes open, wide open! Money is something that attracts the attention of shaytaan more, plus it attracts the attention of wrong types of friends. One way to test your friendship is that when you have money, is it only then that that person is with you or is he with you even when you don’t have money?

This happens. Many of us might know about some friend, that when the treat is due on us, he/she is our friend and when the treat is due on them then he is no one’s friend!

So when you have money, everyone wants to be your friend, especially people who are insincere, people who are into bad type of activities.

This is often seen that children who grow up in wealthier homes, they tend to be involved in more sin. Why? Because they actually have this open door to commit sin. They have the access to the cars, they have access to the money, and they have access to friends with money. They can go to another town, they can buy tickets, stay in a hotel, all these things, they become much much easier and then obviously it’s easier to commit sin.

ii)                  One gets use to ease and comfort, and mujahada becomes difficult.

When we have money, we get used to nice life, luxurious items, we have AC, climate control, soft beds, good food, and everything becomes easier. And mujahida (struggling against your nafs) becomes difficult. Struggling for the sake of Islam, any type of spiritual struggle becomes difficult!

So a person, let us say they wanted to go on a trip to Europe , a trip to Malaysia or Singapore, they are ready to do that very easily but when it comes to Hajj and Umrah, that becomes difficult on them because that requires some effort and physical struggle.

These problems we are mentioning, it doesn’t mean every wealthy person has these problem, but these are the problems that money can bring along.

And that’s the whole point of Hajj and Umrah, it doesn’t matter how rich you are, some or other mujahida you will have to face in these. Hajj especially, is a very equalizing factor. Same clothes, same time, the whole idea being to bring us to some level of mujahida in one way or other!

Strange stories we hear, that even those who do 5 star Hajj and Umrah and they want an easy Umrah, easy Hajj, but even for them it’s not completely easy, at some point or another, they also go through some mujahida.

An interesting episode

Some man, he said that I want to go to Hajj (or Umrah) but I want everything to be easy, no difficulty at all. So they stayed in a 5 star place, got 5 start ticket and package, group etc. One day there, his wife said to his mother that ‘ Ammi I am going to make tawaf, I will come back shortly’, so she went and she didn’t come back. And they kept waiting and waiting for her and she had none of her documents or stuff with her. So then he spent 3 days, looking for her, going to different hospitals, to this and that, and poor man couldn’t even eat or drink or do anything properly for 3 days. They went for a 5 star Hajj but Allah Ta’Ala has His plans, we have to overtake some mujahida, some difficulty or another. Eventually he found his wife. She had become unconscious and had been taken to a Hospital, but she had no documents. So finally when she gained consciousness, she contacted her family.

So this is something that person tries to avoid mujahida but it will be there in Hajj and Umrah. Sometimes it gets easier when you accept whatever mujahida you have to do, and those who try to escape it then they get involved in it in unexpected ways.

Hence, when a person is used to living easy and comfortable life, then doing this mujahida becomes very tough on them.

In old times, people who were wealthy, especially self made, they didn’t want to let their kids develop into the habit of getting pampered. They wanted to make them try and taste different lifestyles, they would take them to villages etc.

You hear these stories even in your own families that the father would sit in the 1^st class and he would make his son sit in 3^rd class, so that the son knows how the common people travel.

This was more common in Muslim Ummah in old times, but now what happens is that usually those who are rich, they want their kids to just enjoy luxurious lives. The children then, when they get into just 30s or so, they are getting weak, having back pains, finding it difficult to sit on floor. So many problems at an age of 25! Because they had become so used to living easy and comfortable lives.

Surprisingly, you will find in Western Culture that some of these very rich people, the ones you find in magazines as top 10 richest families etc, you see their lives, some of them have very austere lives! They don’t pamper their children so much.

 Like it comes about Bill Gates, he is not giving anything to his children. He is like that I have earned myself so you too earn yourselves! He’s giving it to charitable organizations.

People who are not even Muslims, even they put this jazba/passion to do mujahida in their children. And Muslims today, they earn so that they can give it to their children! These people are then Bakheel! This is also Bukhl. It comes in a hadith, the Prophet (s.a.w) once picked up one of his grandchildren, kissed him and then said, ‘ The children are the flowers of Jannah, but they make a person Bakheel(stingy), coward and make him fear death’

A person becomes bakheel because of his children that I have to save money for my kids, I have to pay for their studies and colleges and then I have to undertake their marriage expenditures etc. So that makes a person Bakheel.

iii)                Fear of death.

When a person becomes very wealthy, and they have made for themselves a comfortable life, then they don’t want to die, they are scared of death. Why? Because they had made for themselves a small Jannah on Earth, then why would they want to leave it?

iv)                Love of status and fame.

Often one of the problems of wealth is that a person wants some type of position. That’s why, often, the wealthy people are going out and seeking Politics. So when a person is wealthy, they want to be in some lime light, they want to be in some position or power.

v)                  Heart and mind always thinking about it.

Even if one saves them self from all the other problems, like if someone has lot of wealth yet they are able to stay safe from the other 4 problems mentioned, still it will be very hard to stay away from this problem.

When a person has wealth, then you have to think, ‘ok what should I do with this?’, ‘where should I spend it?’, ‘where should I keep it?’, ‘how should I protect it?’ So you are always worried about it.

Those who don’t have wealth to begin with, they are like Allah Allah, khayr se Allah. They depend on Allah.

They are not worried about protecting it, because they have nothing to protect!

So when a person has wealth, this is probably the worst thing, that you are always worried, all your mind and thoughts are focused on it that where should I invest, who to take it from, who to give it to. And people who do investments then this is an addiction, sometimes for a man, this is an addiction! Always checking the stock market, always checking their stocks, always checking their money whether it’s going in profit or loss. Their investments and their businesses become what they dream about, what they think, what they eat and what they talk about with their friends!

vi)                More hisaab in the Akhirah.

It is a saying of Scholars, ‘Haraamuha ‘azaabun wa halaluha hisaban’

That what is haram of your wealth, on that will come the Punishment of Allah Ta’Ala, and even for that which is halal, you will be taken to account to in the Next world.

That is why it comes in a Hadith that poor people will enter Jannah 500 years before the rich ones.

It doesn’t mean that rich would not enter Jannah, but that they will have more to give account for so that will take more time then!

These are some problems that Imam Ghazali(r.a) mentions of wealth. Wealth in itself is not wrong, a person shouldn’t think that I don’t want wealth because I don’t want all these problems but if we have wealth, we have to be careful to get rid of these problems that come with wealth.

REMEDIES

How to fight Bukhl?

There is a verse in Quran

‘Those who safeguard themselves from the hirs of the nafs, they are the ones who are successful’

1)      Fighting this hirs(greed) of the nafs, by forcing ourselves to:

i)                     Spend for the sake of Allah Ta’Ala.

This has both spiritual and psychological effects. Because wherever you invest money, you have more attachment to that place.

A simple thing, this is something we have all experienced. When we get something for free, we don’t value it so much, like kids, when parents give them something, it gets malfunctioned, or gets wasted, it doesn’t affect them much. But when they buy something themselves, with their own hard earned money, then they would take so much care of it!

The father gets his child a pair of shoes, the kid tears them out by playing and running and can’t care less, and when he buys his own shoes, he would polish it daily.

When we earn something with our effort, we value it more. So wherever we spend money, we have more attachment to it. If you spend your money for the sake of Allah Ta’Ala, and if you spend your money for giving it to poor people, then you get more interested in poor people.

Say you give your money to educate a child, now you are interested in how is that child doing in education to make sure that your money is not getting wasted. You become interested in his progress, that now he has done primary, now he should do secondary school as well.

Interesting Episode

Once there was a buzurg(old spiritual personality), one day a young man came to him and complained that I fear death a lot, that buzurg advised him to spend more in sadaqah(charity) fi sabilIlla(in the path of Allah), then that young man came back to him after some time and the buzurg inquired that how is your state now? And the young man replied that now I am not scared of death at all but I don’t understand the wisdom behind your advice, how did that ‘amal cure my fear for death. So the buzurg explained to him that actually when you spend money for your Aakhira, then your heart will start getting attached to Aakhira. Where you make your house, that is where your heart is. Now that you are making for yourself a home in Aakhira, now your heart is more interested in Afterlife, more interested in what comes after death and so you would not be so scared of death anymore.

 Now, there is this natural, qudrati fear of death, but that excessive fear of death, that would not be there. So this is something that the more you spend wealth for the sake of Allah Ta’Ala, it actually has a spiritual effect that your heart would get detached from the world and psychological effect that it will get attached to what you are spending it on i.e Aakhira. So automatically, a person’s heart will change in direction when you spend more for the sake of Allah (swt).

ii)                  Spend on Family.

Lot of times, people have this problem, their husbands, or their fathers don’t spend on them. Wife will complain that my husband doesn’t spend on me or the people of the house will complain. The more the husband spends on his wife and children, the love between them also then increases.

It comes in a hadith

‘Tahaadu tahaabu’, ‘Give gifts(to one another), and (this will increase) love’

If a husband spends on his wife and children or any one in charge spends on his dependants, this is like sadaqah, and also the mutual love would increase.

2)      Remember Death.

The more you remember death, the more you realize that this wealth is a temporary thing; it comes and goes, so I should spend it before I die.

(very loose translation)There is a hadith where the Prophet (s.a.w) took a stick and made a square on the ground(sand) and then he made lines in that square. Some lines were within the square whereas some stretched out of the square. So he gave this analogy that this square is your life and these lines are you desires i.e your desires even exceed your lifespan and then there was a line that cut through other lines, the line of death which will put an end to it all.

 So when a person thinks about their death, then these desires of his will end and this bukhl will also end.

There is another hadith

Meaning/mafhoom: Nothing can satiate Bani Adam(his greed for wealth) , only the mitti(dirt) of his grave will fill his stomach!’

So the more a person remembers death, the more will this greed for wealth, love for the world, this bukhl be controlled.

3)      Reflect on the Verses and Ahadith-e-Mubarakah regarding bukhl.

There are many verses that the rizq/ sustenance, this is something that has been decreed and distributed amongst His slaves by Allah (swt). The person who is being miserly, they think they control their rizq, they think they can hoard their rizq.

Also to think that in all these Ahadith, there is so much hatred shown for the Bakheel. Even in Urdu, they say ‘kanjus makhi chus’ so people look at him with disregard.

There is hatred for miserliness cross culturally; even the bakheel people themselves don’t like bukhl.

4)      Reflect on the purpose of wealth.

 Wealth has been distributed amongst men by Allah Ta’Ala, to some He gave more, to some He gave less but the point is that we spend.

 And sometimes view yourself just as a messenger that whatever Allah (swt) has given me, I have to distribute it further. Don’t view your money as your own! To view that yes some is for me and my family, but the rest, maybe Allah Ta’Ala gave it for this very purpose that I spend it on others.

The more you spend on other people, this shows your shukr/gratitude and then Allah Ta’Ala also gives you more in return!

It’s interesting that if you look at the Arabic word for spending, it is ‘ Infaaq’, and the root words of that is nun, fa, qaaf, nafaqa. Nafaqa, if you look at it, it also forms the root form of Munaafiq/hypocrite. So nafaq means tunnel and is it used for hypocrites that they are hypocritical and they come up with an exit strategy thinking that when things get rough, I will wave out, basically a back door, back way, exit.  So nafaq means tunnel and infaaq also comes with same root words. Scholars have derived from this, that spending is like a tunnel, and when a person is bakheel it’s like the traffic jam in the tunnel. So whatever comes in tunnel, the more you spend it, more comes from the other side but if you don’t spend it then it will get jammed up and then more would not come from the other side!

Even in English, they say ‘Spend and God will send!’

So the more you actually spend, the more will come your way.

The say in Arabic, ‘Anfiq, unfiqa ‘alaika’, ‘Spend(on other people) and more will be spent on you!’

And ‘Infiq ma fil jaybi, ya’teeka fil ghaybi’ ‘Spend from what is in your pocket, and He will give you (more) from Ghayb (hidden means)’

Narrative of Hazrat Aisha (ra)

It comes about Hadrat Aisha (r.a) , that after the Prophet (s.a.w) passed away, she had a small bag of barley flour in the house, she says that I would take some out every day and make a chapati(bread/roti) out of it and eat, and a long time passed away like this and the bag of barley flour didn’t finish, and then I decided to measure it but when I measured it, afterwards the flour finished soon.

So this is an interesting narration of hers. When we spend after looking how much we have and how much we don’t, and when we think a lot then we are not able to spend. This is also related to the next remedy.

5)      When a thought of spending on a good cause comes to you, act immediately

Act immediately because the nafs and shaytaan will definitely attack you and try to convince you to not spend.

 Like we discussed before, when you make an intention that I will give this much amount (1000 ruppees), the minute you walk to go get your wallet, you may get this thought, that o maybe 500 is also enough. So then you have to force yourself to stick to the first, in fact go one step further and punish yourself for this bukhl that why did this thought even come ,now I will give even more than what I initially thought, I will give 1500 or maybe even 2000 now! So instead of going down, push it up a bit.

When you do this ‘amal, then by the barakah of this ‘amal and pure intention, Allah Ta’Ala will cure you of this bad trait and disease of bukhl.

It comes in Quran Sharif;

Meaning> don’t think that by giving Sadaqah, your wealth decreases, instead it increases in fact! And by riba/ taking interest, don’t think that wealth increases, no but it instead decreases!

 These things we need to understand, because we don’t have this concept that how things happen in the court of Allah Ta’Ala.

This is what is called barakah, that the more you spend, the more barakah comes in what wealth you have behind.

Try it yourself!

Put some money without counting it in some envelope and then spend out of it whenever you need to without doing bukhl and you will see that that small envelope of money of yours will last you so long! But don’t count it, because the day you count it, the barakah will be uplifted and it will finish soon.

So have confidence in Allah Ta’Ala’s attribute of being Al-Razzaq, that Allah (swt) is the One who gives and provides and my job is to spend it.

And you get to hear these strange incidents of buzurg people/ righteous people. They will be giving 1000 ruppees from this side and within hours 1000 ruppees or even more will come from the other side, someone gifts them or by some other means.

So this nizam/ arrangement and planning of Allah Ta’Ala is ajeeb/strange, sometimes it can manifold by 700 times! It comes in hadith that one who gives for the sake of Allah Ta’Ala, Allah Ta’Ala can give him ten to 700 times or even more in reward and even give it back to him in this world!

 Magnanimity of Our Rabb

A person who might not himself be giving sadaqah, but is involved in that process of giving sadaqah, like it comes in hadith, that for example someone is a treasurer and his master tells him that take this amount from my treasure and give it to X,Y,Z , so even the treasurer will get reward of that deed(though it wasn’t  his own money) by giving that amount to X,Y,Z honestly!

So when a person is involved in giving sadaqah themselves, or involved in some institution etc and involved in helping out in collecting sadaqah and distributing sadaqah, then Allah Ta’Ala never leaves them empty handed themselves! They also end up having something in their hand!

6)      Do not make long, complicated plans!

We often start making plans that o I will get this much in future, then I will do this and this and save this much and so and so, long plans and often with the passing of time, something or other happens and we get back to Round Zero!

Some plans, rough plans, rough estimates are fine, lot of it is planning, planning something proper but making elaborate, complicated plans, that may sometimes be because you lack tawakkul/putting your trust in Allah(swt) and then things would not go as planned.

So in terms of bukhl in money, one remedy is to not make long, complicated plans. Because otherwise, you will plan that o I am saving to build ourselves a house and this and that etc and then you will not spend.

7)      Spend more time in worship and acts of obedience

This is a general remedy for everything. Do more ibadah and make dua that this spiritual disease gets out of our hearts.

An ending note…..

There is a verse in Quran that we will end with. Allah Ta’Ala says

‘Wa la yahsabann-allazeena yabkhaluna li-ma a’atahumUllahu min Fazlihi, huwa khayrun lahum, bal huwa sharrun lahum, sa yutawwakuna ma bakhilu bihi yaum-al-Qiyamah’

‘“And let not those who hoard up that which Allah has bestowed upon them of His bounty think that it is better for them.  It is worse for them. That which they hoard will be on their collar on the Day of Resurrection.  Allah’s is the inheritance of the heavens and the earth, and Allah is Aware of what you do”

                  (Aal Imran, 180)

                                     So we should think that this wealth is from Allah, it’s not even something of our  own, this is Allah Ta’Ala’s bounty, so we shouldn’t think that hoarding it up is good for us, instead this is worse for us. So hoarding something is much worse than spending it!        

So a person who does bukhl in this world, they would not get any benefit from the stuff they hoard in this world and instead it will be a wabal/musibat/problem in the Aakhirah. They will be carrying this on their necks and on their backs on the Day of Judgment.

So bukhl is something that is a manifestation of lot of other spiritual diseases namely love for the world, and love for the money.

May Allah Ta’Ala Grant us all the ability to fight this spiritual disease and may He (swt) Take out all type of bukhl from our heart.