Living the Right Way

The Believers’ Portion of this World

Allah the Most High said: “And do not neglect your portion of this world.”

The Holy Prophet Muhammad (S) said: “What a good help for piety are riches!”

He (S) also said to one of his companions: “O Abu Dharr, cursed is the world and cursed are the things in it, except that by which the Face of Allah is sought. Nothing is more undesirable to Allah the Most High than the world... and nothing is more beloved to Allah the Most High than faith in Him and abandoning what He has ordered us to abandon. O Abu Dharr, surely Allah the Most High revealed to my brother ‘Isa (Jesus) (a.s) saying: ‘O ‘Isa, do not love the world, because I don’t love it, and love the hereafter, because it is the House of Return.’”

He (S) also said: “Do not favour this world over the hereafter through passion and lust. Allah the Most High says in His Book: ‘Then as for him who is inordinate and prefers the life of this world, then surely hell, that is the abode.’[^1] By ‘this world’ He means the cursed world, and in fact every thing in this world is cursed, except that which is for the pleasure of Allah.”

Imam ‘Ali (a.s.) the Commander of the Faithful said: “The world is the House of Riches for those who gather from it (for the other world), and it is the House of Admonition for those who learn from it; it is the Mosque of the Lovers of Allah; it is the Temple of the Angels of Allah; it is the Descending Place of Revelation; and it is the Market of the Friends of Allah in which they earn mercy and attain paradise.”

Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq (a.s.) said: “What a good help for the hereafter is this world!”

He (a.s.) also said: “There is no good in anyone who does not like amassing wealth in the lawful ways by which he safeguards his prestige, pays his debts, and maintains family ties.”

And a man said to him (a.s.): “By Allah, we do seek this world and love to receive from it.” He (a.s.) asked him: “What do you want to do with it?” The man replied: “I want to manage my and my family’s affairs, maintain family ties by it, and pay alms to the poor, and go on pilgrimage.” The Imam (a.s.) said: “This is not seeking this world; this is seeking of the hereafter.”

[^1]: The Qur’an 79:37-39.