Contentment

The hadith gives us to understand that the trend to deny oneself the joys of this life, as if the lawful were the unlawful, and of recklessly throwing away one’s wealth, all in the name of renunciation, had either begun to appear during the life-time of the Prophet (saws) or he foresaw it.

The Prophet’s definition tells us that zuhd is not the extremities of forbidding oneself the joys of this life or distributing one’s wealth without regard of one’s personal needs or those of the dependants. One can partake of the good things that Allah (swt) has created and be rich and still be an ascetic. Asceticism is the name of a condition of the heart, a matter of faith, trust and confidence in Allah (swt), and the love of the Hereafter and hence the readiness to bear hardships with patience and forbearance in the hope of being rewarded in the Hereafter. It should be such extent that such hopes become stronger than the fear and abhorrence of the misfortunes.

Yes, zuhd has its outward forms: those practised by the Prophet (saws) himself and his close Companions, viz., eating, drinking and sleeping as little as possible (without treating these things unlawful), spending a lot in the way of Allah (swt), (without recklessly throwing away one’s wealth), and indulging in this world only to the extent of need. Some examples of these practises will follow in this chapter. But these are only outward forms. But, when practiced today, they may or may not be accompanied by zuhd. Further, not to everyone can these outward forms and practises be prescribed, although everyone should make attempts at them, both for one’s own self as well for others. At the personal level these practices help in the realisation of tazkiyya and on the collective level they counter the greed prevalent in society.

The first point to be noted in this hadith is that, against the generally prevalent belief, Allah (swt) has not abandoned or forgotten this world after its creation. He pays attention to every individual and to every minor event. He who is devoted to Him, and is striving hard to seek His company in the Hereafter, has his life made easy for him by Allah (swt). His affairs are organised, so that although he is involved in many of those activities that sound time-taxing and hence adversely affecting the material growth of a person, he is able to do them without the neglect of those other things that everybody does. So that others wonder about him as to how he can combine both, this and the next-worldly activities, or do so many things at one time. As for the world and the person’s share of it, it comes to him, as if dragged down to him by circumstance, chasing him wherever he goes.

The situation of a person whose objective is this world, is entirely the opposite. The more he tries to organise his life, and save some time, the more he gets entangled in doing things that are non-constructive. Nor does his chasing of the world and lunging forward to get more and more earn him more than the share written for him. He is like a donkey with a carrot tied in front of him. No amount of running gets him closer to it. At the end of the day he gets just his share of the fodder.

The narrator does not say what part the Prophet (saws) held. It was not his hand obviously. It could have been his shoulders, or arms around him, or the chins between his two palms. Whatever, it seems to be one of those gestures that the Prophet (saws) employed to link the words he said with an unusual action, in order to help the person remember his words. Whenever Abdullah would have thought of the Prophet (saws) holding him that way, those words would have come to the surface of the mind refreshing the memory. Without that gesture accompanying the words, he could well have forgotten the words also.

So prosperity is not the other name of wealth. It is to be, first of all, assurance of a place with Allah (swt) in the Hereafter, and then just enough for physical survival: food, drink, and shelter, and when sick, some simple medicine. But man is not merely his physical body. He has a heart too. If it is restless neither wealth nor poverty matter. Hence the contentment of the heart. What better road there can be to prosperity?

`Ayesha (ra) used the word “dark” to describe dates and water because in those day water from the wells used to be brackish and appeared dark in the jug.