The Shaykh’s remarks on what a Muslim should be in terms of steadfastness in the worship of Allah in times of ease and hardship, wealth and poverty.

The Shaykh : The other aspect is that if they do not find in this country the apparent signs of generosity, which is one of their characteristics due to the abundance of wealth they had, they should not say such a phrase, that they did not find that pleasure in their fasting, which is obligatory. Why, for example, did they not compensate for the observation they were making there by occupying themselves and occupying those they can from the people of this country with worship, and especially with the recitation of the Qur'an, this recitation which is one of the characteristics of fasting in Ramadan? In that, they would realize some of the feeling of the pleasure of worship, which would compensate for what they missed due to the material and financial difference between the two countries. So, this impulse that drives these brothers to such speech, the least that can be said about it is that it is unmeasured speech in any case. If a Muslim is struck by a calamity, he should remember, for example, the saying of Allah the Exalted: . In my belief, all the Islamic countries in which Allah the Mighty and Majestic has bestowed many blessings and abundant wealth, in my belief, they have not used them well, because extravagance, luxury, and waste are clear signs in all these countries, and even in some countries that do not have a touch of wealth and riches, but there are individuals among them who are rich, and you find them spending this money and the like either in what is forbidden or at least in what is disliked, such as building and elaborating on its construction, expanding the number of rooms, and elaborating on decorating its walls and the like. There are hadiths that warn the Muslim from raising the building of his house higher than what he needs, and it is also mentioned more specifically that one should not expand in the use and acquisition of furnishings beyond what is necessary, nor increase in curtains and decorate the walls with them. All of this is mentioned in the Sunnah. Perhaps you remember with me some of the hadiths I referred to, such as his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): . And among these hadiths is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him and his family): , or as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said. The hadith is in Sahih Muslim. The covering of walls today is a widespread phenomenon in every house of the Muslims who have been provided with some wealth. You hardly enter a house where curtains have been installed without finding the curtain twice as long as the window, because the fashion now is for the curtain to touch the ground, while the window is up to here or up to here. Instead of the curtain covering the window and preventing eyes from seeing what is in the room, the curtain is lowered until it almost touches the ground. All of this falls under extravagance and waste, instead of directing these funds to the poor countries that do not have surplus money. And therefore, and the discussion on this is long, we must always and forever remember the saying of Allah Blessed and Exalted is He: . So we ask Allah the Mighty and Majestic that He not treat us as we deserve for the magnitude of our sins, but rather that He treat us with His mercy and His favor.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : And beware of that.

The questioner : Some of the brothers say that we were wrong previously when we said that the people of the country are stingy, but when we lived among them, we found poverty among them, so we excused them.

The Shaykh : This is the obligatory thing.

The questioner : ... Brother Ghazi, may Allah reward him with good, he was not precise in what he reported. Perhaps this speech was said while we were on the way?

The Shaykh : It is not important, meaning the speech was wrong.

The questioner : No, no, meaning if you would be kind.

The Shaykh : The answer was taken.

The questioner : I say that the pleasure we feel there in Kuwait in Ramadan, and I, as the imam of a mosque for a quarter of a century there, we used to enliven the nights of Ramadan with reading the Qur'an, standing in prayer, staying up, and i'tikaf (spiritual retreat in the mosque), and so on. This difference was not the issue; the issue was incidental. This material thing was something incidental. The original point is that really, even before this catastrophe and the calamity of Kuwait, I used to count the days until I could return, because I did not know... when we came here, I felt some coolness in the worship and in the religion, because the country here has luxury and is open to entertainment and play and such. I used to feel more peace in worship and tranquility there than here. I was feeling this now, before we were struck in the recent period, to correct the information.

The Shaykh : Yes, but this also has an answer for me. The Muslim must be a slave to Allah the Mighty and Majestic in times of ease and hardship. Our Kuwaiti brothers, unfortunately, were struck by that fierce Iraqi aggression and were displaced, just as the Palestinians were displaced before. So it was incumbent upon all of these people to remain slaves to Allah the Mighty and Majestic, sincere, as they were before. It is not permissible for the worship of the Muslim to change; he worships Allah in ease and turns on his heels in hardship, because that means he worships Allah on a tip. The truth is that Muslims today, whatever their circumstances in their countries, are far, a little or a lot, from the Islamic life they should be living. We all read, we read in the early Islamic history what should be applied in every time and in every circumstance, with ease or with hardship. Among what we read is that when the first emigrants migrated from Makkah to al-Madinah, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) established brotherhood between the emigrants and the helpers, as is known, for a period of time, there occurred, as Allah the Exalted witnessed in the noble verse, stories expressed by this verse: . For example, and this is what interests me from those examples, it shows us that both the emigrants and the helpers were truly believers. The emigrants were poor; they left their lands, their wealth, and all their properties, and they escaped with their faith and their souls, and they descended as guests upon the helpers, who were the people of the land, the people of al-Madinah, the people of wealth. So it was part of the Shari'ah policy that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) established brotherhood between these and those. The story of 'Abd al-Rahman ibn 'Awf with one of the helpers, I do not know his name, al-Rabi', do you remember? The one whom the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) established brotherhood between 'Abd al-Rahman ibn 'Awf and a man from the helpers named al-Rabi'. The important thing is that this helper had two wives, so he said to 'Abd al-Rahman ibn 'Awf, "Choose whichever you wish, and I will divorce her for you," and he wanted to share his wealth with him, in addition to giving him a wife. He said, "This means that birds fall according to their shapes." He said, "May Allah bless you in your family and your wealth. Show me the market." So he showed him the market, and he bought a headband and sold it, making a small profit. Then he kept going back and forth to the market and was not pleased to live as a burden on the rich helper. And Allah the Mighty and Majestic blessed him in his trade, which started with a camel's headband, until he got married. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) saw him with the signs of marriage on him, so he said to him: . The point today is that if such a disparity occurs between a rich person and a poor person, it is because neither group has the good opinion that a believer should have. The rich person is stingy with the poor person and does not give him what suffices him, let alone prefer him, and he becomes needy. And the poor person himself, if Allah does not make a rich person easy for him, he becomes arrogant and covetous of his wealth. All of these rich people and these poor people are not as Allah the Mighty and Majestic wanted them to be, that they be brothers, as Allah Blessed and Exalted is He commanded them. Therefore, we advise whoever is rich not to forget the right of Allah the Mighty and Majestic in his wealth, and not to forget the poor and needy around him. And in return, we advise the poor to be as Allah the Exalted said: . Unfortunately, we do not feel this meaning today among the poor; most of them are a burden on people and dominate their wealth, and they do not hide their need and poverty as Allah the Mighty and Majestic wanted from them, as in this noble verse. And we ask Allah the Mighty and Majestic to rectify the conditions of all Muslims, their rich and their poor.