# Ep. 17: Poverty Leads to Disbelief | The Faith Revival

**Author:** Dr. Omar Suleiman
**Series:** The Faith Revival
**Published:** 2017-06-12
**YouTube:** https://youtu.be/inuBAEAcZns
**URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/faith-revival/the-faith-revival-ep-17-poverty-leads-to-disbelief
**Topics:** Allah, Faith

## Description
Poverty is a difficult test to a person’s faith. Seek refuge from poverty with this supplication.

## Transcript
**[0:00]** Salamualikoum wa rahmatollahi wa barakato. Welcome back to the Faith Revival. So last time we talked about the two most dangerous threats to your iman, the love of wealth and the love of fame. Like two hungry wolves being let loose on a flock of sheep. But this is

**[0:18]** a really interesting hadith that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam gives us. He says salallahu alayhi wa sallam, and some of the scholars say this is actually a saying of Umar radiyaAllahu anhu, but there are certainly many narrations, that poverty may lead to disbelief. That poverty almost leads to disbelief. Al-fakr, which is poverty, can lead a person

**[0:36]** down to disbelief. And Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, not only did he say it, Umar radiyaAllahu anhu said, if poverty was a man, then I would have choked him with my own two hands. So poverty is a difficult test to a person's iman, and the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa

**[0:52]** sallam, he recognizes that. And this narration comes in various formats. One of them we learn from the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam that he used to seek refuge in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala after every salah according to some narrations, Allahumma inni a'udhu bika minal

**[1:07]** kufri wal-fakr. Oh Allah, I seek refuge in you from disbelief and poverty. And in one of the narrations in Ibn Hibban, he was asked salallahu alayhi wa sallam, about why he always uses those together, disbelief and poverty together, and he said they're the same, subhanAllah,

**[1:24]** like they are equal. Not that poverty is equal to kufr, because poverty is not something that a person chooses most of the time, but it's something that's inflicted on a person, whereas kufr is deliberate, disbelief is deliberate. But that a person could be led down to that path where they start to have questions about faith, or they start to do things that would

**[1:44]** harm their faith. He mentions salallahu alayhi wa sallam in one narration, there was a man that heard the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam always seeking refuge in Allah from debt. And in this narration by Aisha radiyaAllahu anha, as he's always seeking refuge in Allah from debt, the man said, how often you seek refuge in Allah from debt? And the Prophet

**[2:04]** salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, when a man gets into debt, he speaks and he tells lies, he makes promises and he breaks them. Meaning sometimes a person might have to resort to unethical behavior. And we see there's a direct correlation in many parts of the world, and of course, even here in the United States, between poverty and crime. So poverty can

**[2:23]** lead someone who never would have thought of doing criminal behavior to criminal behavior, right? Because it's a condition where people start to resort to certain things. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam recognizes that, and eventually, that criminal behavior could lead to a sense of disbelief. So he's teaching us salallahu alayhi wa sallam about

**[2:42]** the harms of poverty. So what do we learn from this? Number one, is the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam blaming the person who's in poverty? No. Self-inflicted poverty is not something that we seek in Islam. And I know that that should sound like common sense.

**[2:58]** But in Islam, a person does not inflict poverty as a means of asceticism on themselves, which is actually a trait in many different philosophies and religions, that a person should force themselves into difficult situations so that they can spiritually elevate themselves. And

**[3:15]** this is a concept that does not exist in our faith. However, if a person is forced into poverty, then the majority of the people of Jannah are fukara and masakeen, are people who are poor and people who are in poverty. Why? Because wealth takes more people away from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala than poverty. So we don't have a philosophy of self-inflicted

**[3:34]** poverty in our religion. Number two, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam taught us to seek refuge in Allah. So a person should frequently seek refuge in Allah. اللهم إني أعوذ بك من الكفر والفقر Oh Allah, I seek refuge in you from disbelief and poverty. And in one narration the Prophet

**[3:51]** salallahu alayhi wa sallam says, وأعوذ بك من عذاب القبر لا إله إلا أنت And I seek refuge in you from the torment of the grave. So seek refuge in Allah from it. Number three, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam put the burden on society, not those that are in poverty. Society has a job, a responsibility

**[4:10]** to eradicate poverty. Now this is a very powerful connection if you can make that connection. The same passion that we have in eradicating kufr, if you will, eradicating disbelief, in teaching people about Allah, in doing da'wah, if you equate poverty and disbelief, we should

**[4:26]** have that passion to also eradicating poverty from a society. And that's why the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, The believer, no one of you believes and sleeps at night while his neighbor is hungry. Right? That that is a weakness in iman in the person that if he allows people to suffer in poverty

**[4:45]** while he himself eats to his fill, that's a weakness in his iman. So the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam puts a burden on society. If you want to guard iman and faith in a society, you need to fight poverty so that people do not find themselves in that situation. So we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala first and foremost to protect us from disbelief and

**[5:04]** poverty. Secondly, to use us to eradicate poverty inshaAllah ta'ala, to use us to alleviate people that are in that situation and to make us in that sense agents of iman, people that preserve faith in a society. Allahumma ameen. Jazakum Allah khayran. See you all next time

**[5:20]** inshaAllah. Salam alaikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh.

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