One Hundred And Fifty Lessons For Life
Lesson Ninety: Be Self-Sufficient
Imam As-Sajjad (a.s.) said:
طَلَبُ الْحَوائِجِ إِلىَ النّاسِ مَذَلَّةٌ لِلْحَياةِ وَ مَذَهَبَةٌ لِلْحَياءِ وَ إِسْتِخْفافٌ بِالْوَقارِ وَ هُوَ الفَقْرُ الْحاضِرُ
Translation
Asking from people is abasement in life and destroys modesty and degrades man’s dignity, and is a poverty which man brings upon for himself.[^1]
Brief Description
Some people subject themselves to poverty although they think that they are escaping from it. They do this by making themselves dependent and needy through unnecessary demands from others. In the process they also ruin their human dignity.
Islam instructs its followers to be self-sufficient as far as possible and avoid a life of dependency for having to depend on others is itself a form of poverty.
[^1]: Tuhaful Uqul, page 201