-Salam Alikum, Abdullah, Hey man, I got one of those epic questions =Walaikum Assalam
So good! So good!
Sometimes people send me like a four-liner
And it's just like, Wow!
Lady says: I have a really guilty conscience, because we have a maid in the house
And when Fatima came to the prophet -pbuh-
And she said: we need help around the house, and he said: just go do Tasbeeh
So how can we have a maid?
And the prophet's own daughter didn't have a maid
Somebody dropped that on her, and she's like, Yeah, that's true
=Let me guess, it was her in-laws
I don't know who
But you know what makes that epic?
It's how incredibly misunderstood something can be
That hadeeth is about them literally starving
And her hands completely chafed, there are scales on them, and he knows what she's been working hard on, and she comes to him and he sees
his daughter in this position, and he has nothing to give her, and he says just say Subhan Allah instead
It's not like had an option, hey, take this servant or that. He had nothing
He was starving himself at the time, pbuh
So he just says: say SubhanAllah 33 times, AlHamdillah 33 times, Allahu Akbar 34 times
=He gave her from what he had
Yeah, isn't that beautiful! And then you turn it into "You shouldn't have, by the way, You should live a miserable life, every time you're enjoying something of this life,
you should scale back and not enjoy it, because enjoyment is for the Akhirah, and a tough life is for Dunya
-Why is our prophet interested in nice horses or beautiful clothes or cologne? =He was?
-He was, yeah, he liked different perfumes, he actually enjoyed foreign clothing, that was sent to him as a gift
Something close to a "shawl" was given to him one time, and he put it on
So why does he enjoy these things? By the way, the turban that he wore every once in a while, he called it "the crown of the Arabs"
A crown is a sign or royalty, dressing up, it's fancy
So why does he like doing these things?
And then the question arises: Why does the Qur'an talk about the beauty of flowers, mountains and trees? Why does it talk about the things you can enjoy in this world?
Why does He say: He put things for you in this world that you can use to live well
Why would He say all of this if the world was a curse?
Christian theology says that this life is a curse
Condemnation of what Adam did, that human beings are in this original sin, and they're going to pay the price of that sin, etc, until they meet God and everything would be great
Qur'an, Islam, they're not telling you that you can't live well
There were companions of the prophet that lived really, really well
Not to mention that there are people who documented the laws of Islam, Fuqahaa' of this religion, people like Abu-Hanifah
They lived exquisite lives, they lived well, they were wealthy people
Islam wonderfully didn't prohibit people from living a good life
it prohibited extravagance, going overboard
But then the question is: Going overboard for a guy who make 50 thousand dollars a year, is different from a guy who earns 30 thousand a year
And that's different from going overboard for a guy who makes a million a year
There are different standards, aren't they?
When the guy who makes 30K is looking at a car, he's looking at a different search, than the guy with 50K or the guy with the million
So how do you define extravagance?
Extravagance is actually something that is a personal judgment call
It's not a standard in society "This is extravagance, and this is not"
There is one little caveat, though, that we have to understand about extravagance
If people around you, in your immediate circle
Cause, you know, everybody is in a social setting, and people similar in there financial situation tend to live closer to each other
That's just naturally the case in the world
You don't have people living in mansion among huts
That doesn't work, that's not how the world works
So people end up in similar economic circumstances
People living in a nice apartment complex, you can imagine that the average income is close to everybody, cause they can afford that kind of housing
And some other neighborhood is different, And some other more expensive neighborhood is different
Extravagance can also be about what you do in, especially when it comes to lower-income communities, where people live tough lives, and you go out of your way to display your wealth to those people to make them feel they have nothing
You see what I'm saying?
Allah talked about Qaroon, he came decked out, with his ride and his posse
And he's going through the ghettos of the Israelites, who live as slaves, and people look and say "I wish we had what he had"
That's extravagance
But there were scholars who lived in mansions, literally, they had servants
But you know what? That doesn't mean that they had material in their heart, it's in their hands and they use it, and they use to do a lot of good, too
Then the other beautiful thing in the Qur'an about this, I love it, It's so well-said, Allah says and nobody can say it better
"Don't wish for the kinds of preferences Allah gave some over others"
Allah gave me certain talents, He also gave me certain weaknesses, those are mine, I have to make the most of them
Allah gave somebody else a different equation, a different balance, a different set of recipes
And they're made of that, that's their package, somebody else has a different package
And everyone of you has to make the most of the package that they were given
The circumstances are part of your package, what family were you born into, what country, what economic situation, political situation
Some people are born in a war zone, that's the package Allah gave them and they have to make the most of what that is
Some people were born in complete luxury, that's the package they were given, and they have to make the most of that
That' what has to be done, that's the nature of this life, Allah didn't make a monotonous, like, everybody should have a perfect life
And by the way, if we don't talk about religion for a second and leave it out, when you say "Everybody should have the exact same opportunities,
They should have the exact same access to clothes and food, They should have the same access to education"
Well, that sounds a lot like communism
Some people sometimes frame these kinds of things without realizing the logical conclusion to what they're asking about
It's been tried already, people!
=And if someone has a lot and is just hoarding their wealth, and living a simple life style, that's being miserly... -That's also a problem
"He gathers money and counts it" that's all he does
He's got bags and bags of money and never spends a penny of it
So the Qur'an isn't saying you can't make money, it's not saying everybody has to be equal
But the Qur'an is talking about an even distribution
The wealthy should be more generous in their spending, Allah will ask them more about how they spent, and how generous they were
But at the same time, they're not cursed for eating nice food or dressing in nice clothes, etc... That's not something that they're answerable for, unless they earned from impermissible means
Unless they took somebody else's right and earned that money
Let's talk about the reality of the world, people like to talk in ideals, we have to ground everything back to reality
In reality, there are people who become very wealthy by doing corrupt business practices, that's the reality
There have been government officials who have bled people dry, to get to the wealth they have
There are people who own large amounts of land in some countries, and they've actually taken the land from poor people
They've done that, it's a reality, and if these people are now looking for some religious justification, "Oh, Allah says you can live a good life"
Oh, you can live a good life, but you're gonna pay for what you did to people
Even the smallest amount of cheating in the Qur'an "The worst terrible destruction is for people who skim off the top"
Just a little, they're not robbing people blind, they're robbing them enough so they won't notice
What do they call those in phone bills? miscellaneous fees
That! Allah says I'm gonna come after those people
So it protects the consumer
But at the individual level, everyone is gonna have different sets of challenges, and that's part of the beauty of this life
Something came in my head, so awesome!
In the Qur'an, Allah talks about how He created the same Earth, the Earth has dirt, dirt is dirt wherever you go, it's the same water wherever you go
but flowers of different color come out, plants of different nature come out
Human beings are all made of dirt, but what comes out of us, and what we're capable of, is entirely different
Imagine if all the plants of the Earth were the same, what a boring, unlivable planet this will be!
And if that's true of the world of plants, of life on this Earth, that has the same water and the same earth
Allah gave the same guidance, and we're made of the same dirt, just like rain comes from the sky, guidance comes from the sky
Just like the plants are resuscitated cause they're made of dirt, we're made of dirt, we're resuscitated by revelation
But if we were all the same, there would be no beauty left on this Earth
Our diversity gives this Earth and our lives beauty
=And Allah equalizes it on all accounts, right? In Sadaqah you get rewarded base on what you've got
-That's exactly right
=So one can't say that he has more, so he can do more
-No, That's the other thing, relativity, I'll tell you the theory of Islamic Relativity
I've got 10$, that's all I've got, You've got 10 million bucks
We wanted to donate
So I donated a dollare
And you donated a hundred dollars
Technically, you donated a hundred times more than I did
But to Allah it counts a lot less, because I give 10% of my wealth, you gave a minutiae percentage of your wealth
So the sacrifice you made is actually much smaller than the sacrifice I made
The "Thank You" note that the Non-Profit will send you is gonna be bigger than mine, they might not even send me anything, cause I just gave a dollar
But to Allah, that dollar, or that quarter, that penny, is worth far more than even sometimes 50, or a 100 thousand dollars, or a million dollars, for a billionaire, and that's worth less
Because Allah is interested in quality, so when we compare people, we're comparing quantity,
And Allah wants to see who will rise at the level of quality, regardless of the quantity they have in this life
That's not what we're being tested on, we're being tested on our quality, that's where the test lies
=So everyone has the opportunity -Exactly
The thing that's being tested, this guy inside, the billionaire has it, and the bankrupt guy has it, the homeless guy has it, too
Beautiful religion, man
I'll see you next time