Greed kills wisdom of life
Sufaya Yousf
“Greed and faith can never coexist in the human heart.”(Hadith)
Greed means the intensive desire for something. The Merriam Webster dictionary defines “greed” as “a selfish and excessive desire for more of something that is needed”. Greed involves not just self satisfaction, but selfishness. Greed is the cause of our downfall. Our beloved Prophet Muhammad saw said: ‘Beware of greed, for it was only greed that destroyed those before you. It commanded them to be miserly and they did so. It commanded them to swerve their family ties and they did so. It commanded them to behave wickedly and they did so”.(Sunan Abu Dawood)
Greed is dangerous for us, for our lives, for our peace and prosperity and also for our faith. Because of greed, a brother can kill his own brother. This materialistic world and its materialism cannot bring us close to Allah. It is only our faith which can bring us near to Allah.
Greed is something we should avoid not only in terms of wealth but also in everything. We should make our hearts free from greed because Allah will reward us on the basis of our efforts and deeds.
We should always remember that everything in this life whether good or bad is a test and trial. This wealth and these treasures are also trials for us. Humans are greedy mostly in terms of wealth. If they have one valley of gold, they would want to have two valleys. As mentioned in below hadith:
“If the son of Adam had a valley full of gold, he would want to have two valleys. Nothing fills him out but the dust of the grave, yet Allah will relent to whoever repents to him. (Sahih Bukhari)
The Quran repeatedly warns us that this desire for more in this materialistic world leads us astray. Only antidote for a greedy person is to spend his wealth on poor ones. And whosoever is not greedy and donates, must donate not to be glorified. A greedy person is far from his God.
There are some ill effects of greed in human life. Imam Ali has said ”The result of greed kills wisdom”. Because of this greed humans are diverted from their real needs which is faith, good deeds etc. They prefer stressed and agitated life over calm and relaxed life.
Greed causes humans to suffer forever. A greedy person will never be satisfied even when he has a world of wealth. A greedy person lives like a poor, dies like a poor because he is busy collecting and calculating his material gains and assets.
It is true that the first sin committed by Adam and Eve was greed and it made them leave heaven. Greed wastes man’s life and time in collecting the treasures of the world rather than thinking about his afterlife. Greed causes man to save more than he needs and not to be satisfied which leads him into a big disaster.
May Almighty Allah save us from Greed and Selfishness.(Ameen)
(The author is a student and contributes to Kashmir Vision on regular basis)
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