Meaning of ‘The Fitnah of My Nation Is Wealth’

24-11-2019 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalamualikum, according to the hadith, the trail of this Ummah is wealth, this trail would be as a result from more wealth or less wealth?
Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that none is worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and messenger.

The statement of the Prophet sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ): “Verily, there is a Fitnah (trial) for every nation, and the Fitnah of my nation is wealth,” means – according to Hadeeth commentators – preoccupying oneself with spending wealth, which can only happen to rich people. The Fitnah in the Hadeeth does not refer to the poor's preoccupation with earning money, as indicated by Al-Munaawi may Allaah have mercy upon him in his book At-Tayseer. He justified this in his book Faydh Al-Qadeer saying: “Because it distracts one from performing acts of obedience and makes him forget about the Hereafter. Allah, The Exalted, Says (what means): {Your wealth and your children are but a trial} [Quran 64:15] The verse states that wealth is a trial, and this is the supportive argument of those who believed that poverty is better than richness. They said that if the only problem with richness is being a source of Fitnah, and only a few are saved from its negative impacts on their religiosity, then it would be a sufficient proof (of the merit of being poor).” [End of quote]

Allah knows best.

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