How is the realization of the fear of Allah achieved in seeking sustenance and relying upon Allah?

Abu Malik: In a time when the good and the bad are mixed together, and the path of the forbidden and the lawful is confused—not a confusion based on the Shari'ah, but a confusion based on custom—it has become very difficult. We say to this person, "By Allah..." especially now when you mentioned that jobs have decreased and become scarce, and earnings have become few. For example, someone comes and asks you about the ruling on working in a bank, and you tell him, "I searched and searched and did not find a job." Or someone asks about the ruling on working in a company whose accounts are in banks. Or someone asks about insurance. And there are many such cases. Of course, especially in all companies and councils, most of them involve men working with women, meaning a man works alongside a woman. This is especially true in companies and some economic and financial institutions, and even in government departments. Government departments have been like this for a long time. But in reality, we answer them regarding this and tell them, "We do not know the ruling on this matter." But the point they bring up is that they say, "By Allah, there is no job," or perhaps there is a job and he earns from it; but he wants to increase his income and add to his money because he says that the requirements of life are many. So what do you see in that? May Allah reward you.

The Shaykh : And I see that this does not justify committing what Allah has forbidden; but the issue in reality revolves around those who believe that these matters or these jobs are forbidden by the Wise Lawgiver, and those who find someone who issues a fatwa permitting them; and therefore, it is not easy for us to issue a fatwa to all people that these matters are not permissible, because many of them have been issued fatwas and it has been made permissible for them, and this is a matter not hidden from you; but our personal opinion is undoubtedly that all these matters, as long as they are based on cooperation in evil, and it is evil by the explicit text of the Noble Qur'an: , this is from one aspect, and from another aspect, society today, as you know and as you mention in many of your sermons, is not committed to the rulings of the Shari'ah, and among the most important of these is the mindfulness of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), this mindfulness which necessitates doing what Allah has commanded and ceasing from what Allah has forbidden, so seeking a livelihood has become such that the masses of Muslims do not think at all about what is lawful and what is forbidden, but rather we are in need, as I said, of the fact that the requirements of the age are many and many; and therefore we want to suffice ourselves and our families and our offspring and the like; but the reality is that the Qur'anic principle which should have been inscribed and ingrained in the hearts; so Satan whispered to them to inscribe it on the walls and make it beautiful calligraphy signs , as for the heart, it does not feel that there is a verse stating this divine matter or this divine issue , you find this phenomenon, as is not hidden from everyone, widespread among the hearts of the masses of Muslims, even among those who pray, and especially the wealthy among them, when you ask them, we know that riba is forbidden and placing money in the bank is forbidden, but where do we put our money? If we put it in our houses, we are exposed in our money and our persons to thieves and killers and shedders of blood, and so on and so forth, this is undoubtedly, as is not hidden from you, of Satan's beautification of the human action that contradicts the commands of the Most Merciful; and therefore I want us to always and forever remind these Muslims to connect them with the mindfulness of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and the fear of Him in all their actions, and that they remember this verse and the events related to it from hadiths that are considered an explanation of the content of this verse, so when one of them says where do I put these moneys, he never remembers , and I say it is a funny matter, as if one of you imagines that he will raise the flag over the masses that I am a millionaire and these millions I have, and I put them in my house and in such and such a place; and therefore he will be raided and targeted, oh brother, take the lawful means and hide your money in a place that no one sees except Allah (Mighty and Majestic), then you and whom you trust from your family, this is a lawful cause; but no, if he does that, his commercial works are disrupted and the means of earning are narrowed for him, while the bank facilitates that for him, and this is undoubtedly that the bank transactions, but it is not permissible for the Muslim to get entangled and to adopt every means, even if it is facilitated for some of his works, if it is forbidden by the Shari'ah; so in this regard, we must narrate the story of that man who was walking in the desert and heard a voice from the clouds: rain on so-and-so's land, so he reached so-and-so's land and found a man working with the plows and the rains were falling only on his land, so he was amazed by that, and when he greeted him and the man knew that he was not from the people of that land, he said: what do you know? He said: I heard a voice from the clouds: rain on so-and-so's land, so I knew that you are the one for whom the clouds were made to serve, the sky was made to serve you; when he said, as is the case of the pious who fear the Lord of the Worlds, by Allah I do not know, but I have this land, I plant it, then I harvest it and I make it three parts, a third I return to the land, a third I spend on myself and my family, and the other third I give in charity to the poor and the needy, he said to him: with this; so here we find that the mindfulness of Allah made the sky serve him, and that other one, Allah made the sea serve him when the time for repaying the debt came and he could not repay it, so he took a piece of wood and packed it with one hundred dinars and came to the shore of the sea and said, with simplicity and with boldness, and without a doubt, we are today truly Muslims, but materialism has overcome us from one aspect and the weakness of faith in the unseen from another aspect, we hardly believe in such a story, and it is in Sahih al-Bukhari, and we consider that this person is not normal, his mind is not right, and I also testify to that, rather he himself testifies that when he contacted his creditor, he ignored what he did, as you know, he ignored why? Because he is a rational person, his mind is with him, he comes and has packed one hundred dinars in a wooden plank, and we do not know the method of packing it, perhaps a strong wave will come and break it and all the dinars will go to the bottom of the sea, so he threw this plank and said: O Lord, You were the guarantor and You were the witness, and he threw it; and our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) is capable of everything, He commanded the waves to take this plank to the town where the creditor was, and he had gone out to receive the debtor on the appointed day, the man did not come, but the plank was tossed by the waves before him, so he reached out to it and found that it was not a plank like other planks, he took it to the house and when he broke it, it collapsed before him into one hundred dinars, pure gold; the man was amazed and soon the debtor returned to him; here it remains apparent that the debtor knew his situation, that he did a bold thing, did an illogical act, so he reached out and paid him one hundred dinars; because suppose that the one hundred dinars you sent did not arrive, it is an unnatural act as they say today, beyond nature, the reality is that the stories give us very great lessons, birds fall according to their kind; both of them had pure hearts, whether the creditor or the debtor, the creditor could have taken the one hundred dinars and there was no watcher and no reckoning, if he said to him: I sent it to you by express mail, this is empty talk, does this come from a Bedouin who testifies? But he is also aware that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) knows, he said: by Allah, I went out on the appointed day to receive you, when you were delayed, I found this plank playing in my hands, so I took it and broke it, and found it to be one hundred dinars, he said: by Allah, I sent this; because when the appointed day came and I knew that I could not fulfill the promise, I took the plank and tapped it and packed in it the one hundred dinars and came to the shore of the sea, I said: O Lord, You were the guarantor and You were the witness, he said to him: Allah has paid for you, may Allah bless you in your wealth, and he returned the one hundred dinars to him; with this mindfulness, we do not find it today in the hearts of Muslims; and therefore complaints are many: where does he want to live, and how does he want to manage his situation in this age? And they all know that many of them, as you pointed out in your question, may Allah reward you, have some money, but what? They want to increase it, they want to improve its situation, that is it; so the group, these people do not reach the level of necessity, this level which permits for the Muslim what is originally forbidden, meaning for example, theft is permissible if one is in necessity, it is permissible for him to steal, but it is not permissible for him to engage in riba at all, yes; but it is permissible for him to ask people if he reaches the level of asking, if he does not have what to feed him or sustain him; where are these people? These people, and praise be to Allah, however poor and needy they are, have not reached this level, because there is still good in people and there is still some of those with honor and chivalry who strive to collect money from people and buy the necessary needs for the poor and the needy, so there is absolutely nothing that justifies for any person to transgress the limits of Allah and commit His sins on the pretext of what? That he wants to work.
Abu Malik: He wants to buy a refrigerator and buy a car.

The Shaykh : According to your saying, he wants to expand.