Theme: The Virtue of Merchant & Business

Allah’s messenger (ﷺ) said:

“Two wolves free among sheep are no more destructive to them than a man’s desire for wealth and honor is to his religion”.

Narrated by Ibn Ka’b bin Malik Al-Ansari’s father

(Source: Jami` at-Tirmidhi, hadith No. 2376)

This hadith warns us about the destruction desiring wealth and fame can cause to a Muslim’s religion. In another hadith, the Prophet mentioned that: “the love for money and prestige makes hypocrisy grow in the heart as does water to plant”.

This is because wealth and fame (i.e., prestige, honour etc.) are the two pillars of this world, as mentioned in Ihya’ Ulumuddin. With wealth, you are able to obtain all the fortunes that the soul desires, and with fame, you are able to own the people’s heart and sway them to your self objectives. With this impetus of money and fame, it may persuade a Muslim to go beyond the lawful means to earn astronomical figures or to gain instant popularity for worldly benefits.

Let’s pray that Allah guides us when we are tested with money and fame, and be protected from becoming the people that are stated in Surah Hud, verse 15-16: “Those who seek merely the present world and its adornment. We fully recompense them for their work in this world, and they are made to suffer no diminution in it concerning what is their due. They are the ones who shall have nothing in the Hereafter except Fire. (There they shall come to know) that their deeds in the world have come to nothingness; and that whatever they have done is absolutely useless”.