The Trial of Wealth and the Monopolization of Public Funds

The questioner:
Also, these questions regarding the monopolization of funds and all forms of bribery—where an employee, for instance, in the social security system or in zakah, asks about colluding with the authorities to take money and pursue projects and other matters that endanger public funds. If an official takes and takes, I am like him, I am another one of them. This is also one of the things about which the hadith speaks, and it has a direct connection to the trial of the nation’s reward.

The Shaykh:
There is no doubt that among the trials are the trials of the dead. Wealth is a trial; indeed, a person’s wealth is a trial. Allah tests the servant with wealth, and no one is safe from wealth except the one who restricts himself to the lawful portion of it and spends it in what Allah the Exalted has prescribed. Thus, his earnings are pure, and his spending is pure, for he will be questioned about it on the Day of Resurrection.

The questioner:
And he is asked about whom? For us. You testify.

The Shaykh:
And in what he spent.

The questioner:
What is the story?

The Shaykh:
A servant who speaks and it is excess. Leaving. He is not. Merely that he. Obtained. In this worldly life, and no responsibility, and he is not questioned about it, and he gives it. He must seek help, he deserves. And his position before Allah Mighty and Majestic is the Reckoning, and he does not take from public funds except what the one in authority has given him. As for colluding and lying to take public funds, this is betrayal and deception, and it does not help that so-and-so took it and you are like him; so-and-so is responsible for himself, and you are responsible for yourself. Do not see. And a word. If he destroys himself and betrays, do not follow his example. Purify, lazy, people of what. And the sweet, if it is little, has blessing, and the haram, if it is much, is stripped of blessing, and it is a punishment for its owner, so do not be deceived by this. Yes.