Combining Asceticism with Abundance of Possessions
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, is it possible for a believing servant in these days to combine asceticism with an abundance of possessions?
Answer:
No. Asceticism is leaving behind the superfluous. The one who gathers superfluous things, things he does not need, and takes what he needs, this is not in conflict with asceticism. But if you take something in excess of your need, that is in conflict with asceticism. Asceticism is leaving what you do not need. That is asceticism. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, is it possible for a believing servant in these days to combine asceticism with an abundance of possessions?
Answer:
No. Asceticism is leaving behind the superfluous. The one who gathers superfluous things, things he does not need, and takes what he needs, this is not in conflict with asceticism. But if you take something in excess of your need, that is in conflict with asceticism. Asceticism is leaving what you do not need. That is asceticism. Yes.
Source
شرح إغاثة اللهفان من مصائد الشيطان لابن القيم، بداية من قول المُصَنِّف : الوجه الثاني : أن الله - سبحانه وتعالى - خلق الخلق لعبادته — islamhouse.com (54:22)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.