یَا أَیُّهَا الَّذِینَ آمَنُوا لا تُلْهِکُمْ أَمْوَالُکُمْ وَلا أَوْلادُکُمْ عَنْ ذِکْرِ اللَّهِ وَمَنْ یَفْعَلْ ذَلِکَ فَأُولَئِکَ هُمُ الْخَاسِرُونَ ﴿٩﴾
وَأَنْفِقُوا مِنْ مَا رَزَقْنَاکُمْ مِنْ قَبْلِ أَنْ یَأْتِیَ أَحَدَکُمُ الْمَوْتُ فَیَقُولَ رَبِّ لَوْلا أَخَّرْتَنِی إِلَى أَجَلٍ قَرِیبٍ فَأَصَّدَّقَ وَأَکُنْ مِنَ الصَّالِحِینَ ﴿١٠﴾
وَلَنْ یُؤَخِّرَ اللَّهُ نَفْسًا إِذَا جَاءَ أَجَلُهَا وَاللَّهُ خَبِیرٌ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ ﴿١١﴾
- O ye who believe! Let not your riches or your children divert you from the
remembrance of Allah. If any act thus, the loss is their own.
- and spend something [in charity] out of the substance which We have bestowed
on you, before Death should come to any of you and he should say, “O my Lord!
why didst Thou not give me respite for a little while? I should then have given
[largely] in charity, and I should have been one of the doers of good”.
- But to no soul will Allah grant respite when the time appointed [for it] has
come; and Allah is well acquainted with [all] that ye do
A number of brothers who are heading to the front have come here on their way and are in our meeting, which is a positive point in itself; we hope that God Almighty will make us both among the people of the Quran and among the people of Jihad in the way of Allah
The importance of not neglecting the remembrance of God for the sake of wealth and children
The verses that we will review today, although they have been mentioned before, are these three verses that say
یا ایها الذین امنوا لا تلهکم اموالکم و لا اولادکم عن ذکر الله و من یفعل ذلک فاولیک هم الخاسرون
“O you who have believed, let not your wealth or your children distract you from the remembrance of Allah. And whoever does that, those are the losers.” [Verses] This is the end of this Surah. It says: “O you who have believed, let not your wealth or your children distract you from the remembrance of Allah. These two things are very distracting. Of course, for some, wealth is more distracting; for some, children are more distracting. There are indeed those for whom the wealth of this world is more distracting than their children. They don't even pay enough attention to their children to give them an elementary education, to ask about their studies, their discussions, their friends, and their occupations; they don't even spend this much time on their children, but why spend time on their money? They are busy from morning until night, and they are still busy when they return; that is, on the surface they are among their family and friends, but on the inside they are thinking about money and the methods they have used today, the methods they should use tomorrow, and so on. Perhaps there are those who, in addition to being concerned about money, They are more busy than their children, and money is dearer to them than their children. At first, you might wonder if such things can happen? Is it even conceivable that such people exist? Yes, there are those for whom their children do not create the same excitement that money does, nor the same joy that money does; there are such people. In any case, do not let your wealth and children occupy you so that your occupation causes you to abandon the remembrance of God and no longer remember God, and you do not remember God. What is wrong with this, what is a loss for you is that your wealth and children distract you from the remembrance of God; if it is not about the remembrance of God, if wealth and children do not interfere with the remembrance of God, there is no problem with these; a person should have the remembrance of God, and he should have wealth and children, which I will now give a brief explanation of - [but] what is the criterion and what you should pay attention to is that the remembrance of God should not be sacrificed and should not be lost in the meantime, because if the remembrance of God is lost and a person forgets God, God also forgets man. He forgets means that God casts man out of sight, does not look at man
Losses of God-forgetfulness and self-forgetfulness
نسوا الله فنسیهم
God forgot them when they forgot God. They also forget themselves: “They forgot Allah, and He forgot them themselves.” They forgot God, and God forgot them. When a person forgot himself, he forgot his character, he forgot his purpose, he forgot what he was supposed to do
It is forgotten, like the misguided and bewildered people who are in the world today. There are many worldly-seekers, bewildered, self-forgetful people. These people who have fallen under the burden of powers and accepted the powers of Satan, have made Satan the ruler of their souls, property, and lives, and have forgotten their own human character. These are all those who have forgotten about themselves.When a nation forgets about itself, it becomes like the era of the previous regime and the Iranian nation, when the Iranian nation forgot about itself; it also had a self-forgetful movement that did not care about its own personality, its own dignity, or its own duty, and a group of tyrants, evil tyrants, infidels, and sinners who did not believe in God, would drag it wherever they wanted, and it would go; and this is the characteristic of all nations that forget about themselves. The nations in which the prophets appeared are all of this type, and this is also present in the sermon of Nahjul Balagha. This self-forgetfulness is the characteristic of nations that live under the burden of a tyrant; they forget about their own personality; they drown in those things that the tyrant powers want to drown them in; they do not think about their own human interests and interests; they think about their hearts, minds, and souls are not even their own world, their own long-term world; they are thinking about their daily and petty needs, they are thinking about their own desires; this is self-forgetfulness; that is, a person forgets that human self, so that “they forgot themselves.”, that human personality; this is the example of that human
Iran's international standing is blessed by self-awareness and God-consciousness
And the society that finds itself is like those societies that the emergence of guidance takes place in them; one is our own society, the other is the society of the Prophet's time. You see, that man who was nothing but his own food, like animals, according to the interpretation in the narrations - all he had was his own food and his own stomach. He was wandering around Mecca or the tribes around Mecca, killing man for a loaf of bread and a bowl of milk, and there was no thought of his own guidance, no thought of human transcendence, no thought of the knowledge that man can attain. Islam came and made an Abazar out of this man, an Ammar those fighters in the path of Allah, those history-making people; in our own time, it was the same; Islam came, the revolution came out of these people, who were us, who did not think about our interests, our future, our honor, or even our long-term world - he created a society that today determines the political geography of the world.Now the Iranian nation is actually determining the political composition and plan of the world; it is upsetting the political balance that is in favor of the superpowers; it is upsetting the political balances that they create. If it were not for this revolution, if it were not for this awakening, on the one hand, Israel would have done whatever it wanted today with ease, and on the other hand, Russia would have done whatever it wanted. If it were not for this revolution, neither the Lebanese nation, nor the Palestinian nation, nor the Afghan nation, nor the rising nations on this side and that side of the Islamic world would have had this understanding and this feeling of global and political issues. They did not think of themselves in this way. These moves were not made. It wouldn't have happened; the superpowers didn't have this imaginary discomfort that they have today. It's the same now as it was in the early days of Islam; now, by creating an Islamic region, a region far from the attraction of the powers of the East and the West, the Iranian nation has been able to create this connecting link that makes this entire region like one network had taken over and was in turmoil. America was dominant here, it had enormous dominance; this dominance was destroyed by the revolution. There was a dynasty between the East and the West of the world, a chain, and Iran during the imperial era was one of the links in this chain, and this chain was broken by the Iranian nation and the Iranian revolution; that is, they became decisive and tore this chain apart.Today we are participating in a decisive war, we are fighting; the other side of the war is the great powers; Iraq is the surface of the matter, The main issue is France and America.. These are the allies of the US in the region, Egypt, Sudan, Jordan and so on - there are some others who are behind the scenes for now and will come forward when necessary. The allies of the US have circumvented this issue. This is from this side; there is also the East; Russian weapons, weapons of the Eastern Bloc are [also] being used and consumed. Well, when there is a war between two countries, usually the big countries that manufacture weapons are not willing to sell weapons and they say that if we sell weapons, this is actually our interference in the war. When they sell weapons to a country on both sides of the conflict, they provide facilities, put them on ships and use other people's ports, they unload them.They brought this weapon to fruition with difficulty, with planning and design. What does it mean? It means support; it cannot be more than that. Today, the great powers of the world are supporting Iraq in this way; and we are standing in front of them. They are not giving us that twelve-meter missile, nor are they giving us that modern, advanced aircraft, while at the same time we are the ones who are inflicting the blow, we are the ones who have exhausted our own
enemies; what is the result of this? This is the result of a nation coming to its senses, finding itself, and remembering Allah; remembrance has such an effect that is why If we are told not to worry about your wealth and children, it is because of this
لا تلهکم اموالکم و لا اولادکم عن ذکرالله
“Let not your wealth and children distract you from the remembrance of Allah.” Wealth and children should not distract us from the remembrance of Allah; it is the remembrance of Allah that is valuable and decisive for us, and it awakens a nation, moves a nation, and makes it successful
The great harm of preferring wealth and children over the commands of God
Now, I will briefly talk about wealth and children. “And whoever does that”, that is, he who makes himself heedless of the remembrance of God through wealth and children
فاولِئک هم الخاسرون
, these are the losers; why? Because both wealth and children are lost; [This] is how wealth and children are not permanent. Well, wealth is lost from a person; either the wealth is burned or the person is burned; children - children - are lost from a person or the child dies or the father dies and finally death separates them. So then he has lost both wealth and children and God; Whereas if a person sacrifices wealth and children for God and does not sacrifice God for wealth and children, and if it becomes necessary where there is a conflict between wealth, children, and God, then a person should choose God and ignore the wealth and children do not cause harm; either wealth and children remain for man, which is both this world and the Hereafter; or if wealth and children do not remain for man, that heavier and more fundamental support, which is God, remains for man; He is valuable to man and remains for man; and God has promised to give and continues to give to the believers and His righteous servants as much of the adornment of this world as they need; if a man works for God, God Almighty will give man what he needs for this world. So see that harm is that a man between wealth and children on the one hand and God on the other hand, choosing wealth and children and forgetting God , that is truly a great loss
Legislating financial obligations based on God's true ownership
"And spend from what We have given you." It does not say "Spend from what you have." It says the origin of this ownership. It says "Spend from what We have given you." You are the representatives of God, you are the treasurer of God. The divine decree has come that you must give this. So why are you delaying? Isn't it yours? God has given it to you; when God said, "Give," you must give it. Why are you delaying? This is the correct understanding of ownership. The correct understanding of ownership is this; not just ownership, property, having children, this is also the same - having dignity, having various powers. The correct understanding of these is that we say - now about property - we are the treasurer of God here; God gave us this property and I consider property to be from God. When I know from God that now a transfer has come that you should give five percent of your wealth, for example as khums, then fine, I will take out five percent and give it; you should give such and such an amount as zakat, I will take out and give it; you should give such and such an amount as exceptional and occasional charity that may arise - for example, the guardian says that there is a need in the Islamic society, there is something that you should give - I will take out and give it; I have no hesitation at all. The one who hesitates is fiddling around, when it is necessary to give, he hesitates whether to give it or not, like the cashier in the office and the cashier in the factory who gives the transfer to the manager of the office to go and get the money, the manager gives it to him. He who is the treasurer is not satisfied. So, sir, what are you not satisfied with? The reason why the guardian of the affairs is dominant and, at some point, if he deems it necessary for the interests of the believers, can take the property of individuals from them is because of this; because the guardian of the affairs is the representative and successor of God, but the just ruler, the just jurist, who is truly the place of the Prophet and the Imam, not those who were and are still in some parts of the world today and who claim without substance; [rather] like that just guardian of the affairs whom a person considers in his heart to be the successor of the Imam, the successor of God, the successor of the Prophet. If he, who is truly the successor of the Prophet and the expounder of God's religion, told a person this, then the person would give it to him because it belongs to God, without hesitation; this should be the feeling
The ineffectiveness of wealth after death
That is why in this verse He says
من قبل ان یاتی احدکم الموت و انفقوا مما رزقناکم
And spend from what We have provided for you, before death comes to any of you.” This sentence also makes man aware of another truth, which is that this wealth that a man may not give in the way of God will be taken from him with death; therefore He says to spend this wealth before death comes to you and takes you. When death comes to you, in those last moments when a man is certain that he is dying, wealth and everything else become meaningless to man; so what should we do with wealth? Wealth is for enjoyment, use, boasting, and the like; for example, he sees that this ship is sinking, not even one carat of this wealth is of any use to a man. Some people are like this
It happens to them that before death comes to you, “Then he says, ‘My Lord,’ then the one who has been seized by death says, ‘O my Lord, if only You had not delayed me until a near time.” “If only” is a protesting “why?” For example, in such a situation, why don’t You delay my death until a near time? That is, don’t put my death off now, now that I am going, I am not saying a short respite, now I will live another ten years, give me a respite, for example, two months, three months, so that I will not die now. For what? “So I will give in charity,” so that I may go and give my wealth in the way of God –
“فاصدق”
[originally it was
اصدق
meaning to give in charity – and be among the righteous”; and become a good person.What a regrettable state this is. It is truly a state of being for a wealthy person who has not given away his wealth in this world, and who in those final moments feels that he must give away his wealth, but he has no means and it is going away; his life and his means are going away from him. He asks God to delay [death] for two months
He should postpone it for another three months, six months, so that he can go and give his money only. He says, "Give this money until you reach that state, except in that state when a person makes this wish, does God not listen to what a person says?" No, "And Allah will never delay a soul"; God will never convey this "none" of eternal negation - He will not delay "a soul"; anyone, "When its term comes", when its term comes, its time has come; "And Allah is Aware of what you do." Perhaps this extended sentence means that if they send you back and give you another six months, until you get better and want to give this money, you will see that it is a pity. It will come; the same feeling and the same state will grip you again
Two Wrong Attitudes About Worldly Goods
Well, when it comes to money, there have always been two opposing tendencies. that is not for now, it was in the past too. One tendency is a biased tendency combined with desire, greed, and interest that thinks that a person should acquire money in any way he wants, and spend it in any way he wants, and keep it for himself. He says, "It's mine, I have the power over it." This is a tendency and a feeling about money. Now, I said the most intense one. There may not be anyone who is this intense, even a little bit milder. Anyway, his general tendency about money is that he considers money his own, and when he acquires it in any way that he found it himself, that he has worked hard, that he has sweated, or, for example, that he has been clever. Those who have not sweated say, "I have been clever." This is a tendency. The opposite of this tendency is that some people believe that no, sir, money is a very bad thing. For example, it is like a scorpion. For example, it is like a snake. As soon as it comes close, you should immediately run away from money, lest it harm you. Let's say, you should run away before it comes to you, lest it come to you, lest a single bit of wealth be found for you; if this wealth is found, it corrupts, ruins, and destroys a person, and there is no cure; this is also a tendency, both tendencies are wrong. It has been there throughout time; it has been there since before Islam, the time of Islam has been
Imam Ali blamed the servant of God who had gone, who was left alone, with no marriage, no home, no life, be busy with your work and life. He said, O Commander of the Faithful! You, for example, with this dress, with this condition; He said, I am the Caliph of the Muslims; what do you say? You go and do your work and life. I, who am responsible for the affairs of my Muslims, have a duty that you do not have; if I do not have wealth, if I do not have the luxury of life, it is my right; it is because I can alleviate the poverty that some people have, which is now a detailed discussion, this issue of the guardians of affairs and the guardians of affairs in Islam, in terms of how they should be in terms of their living conditions. In any case, the Imam replied to him that this does not apply to you, go and do your work and life, go and earn your money. The Imams (peace be upon them) themselves also worked and did business
The property of the world from the perspective of Islam
Well, money is not inherently something that a person says is good, desirable, and beloved, and that he has the right to acquire as something good and desirable from wherever possible, spend it however he wants, and consider it his own; nor is it something bad, ugly, and hateful that a person should not approach at all and should not allow even a tiny bit of it to contaminate his possessions
In Quranic terms, wealth is something that, firstly, adorns life: “Al-Mal and children are the adornment of worldly life.” It adorns life, it adorns it, it is the adornment of life; of course, adornment of life does not mean something bad, in this sense, wealth is also something good and useful; secondly,This is the adornment of life, it is God's property; God has given it to us. It is not the effort, initiative, planning, mind, strength and power of man alone that makes wealth available to man, but it is God who makes wealth available to man, but only through these means and for the same reason that wealth is God's property, when God asks man for this wealth, man should not delay it and should give it immediately. Thirdly, attaching oneself to this wealth is bad; although it is the decoration of life, and is not bad, but attaching oneself to it is very bad, so you should not attach oneself to it. Fourthly, this wealth does not bring man closer to God; that is, that approaching God, which is the highest value in Islam and in the culture of religions, cannot be achieved through wealth, so wealth is a means of goodness, but the primary means of goodness itself does not bring man closer to God in any way. Yes, why charity? Why spending? But spending is different from wealth; spending brings man closer to God; charity brings man closer to God; wealth itself never does; If someone has a lot of wealth, they will not get close to God. This means that this object that people in the world attach so much value to has no role in providing the highest human values in religious culture, which is closeness to God. Consider the sum of these; the sum of these determines the state of wealth for a person
Similarities between wealth and children from the perspective of Islam
If we want to clearly understand what wealth is like in Islam, we must see what children are like; wealth and children are the same in Islam; that is why you see that in the Quran more than ten places - maybe fifteen, twenty places - wealth and children are mentioned together; of course This may be due to the fact that at that time, the value of wealth and the value of children were two harmonious and identical values in the minds of the ignorant society, but it is also because both are of the same kind from the same source. Is a child your property? Is it your property? Can you do whatever you want with a child? Absolutely, a child is a trust from God with you, this is clear. Is it human effort that is effective in obtaining a child? No, it does not occur to some people that it is impossible for God not to give them a child; this is the power of God, this is a divine gift that makes a childless person have children. Is the one who does not have children deprived of all the divine blessings? No, it is possible that he has many blessings that are much more valuable than a child; he may have knowledge, piety, jihad, religion, sincerity, all of these are more valuable than a child for a person, but a child is also an ornament and decoration. It is for life, just as a child should not be a source of pride for a person because he has no credibility. Now he is, in another moment he may not be in the world; he may be in the world, not in the possession of his parents; he may become bad with his parents, become an enemy, work to their detriment; how many children have angered their fathers and mothers, disobeyed them, abandoned them, killed them, cursed them. Similarly, wealth may end up to the detriment of a person, and a person's wealth may cause his death, cause his misery, and humiliate him; see, this is also the case; that is, if a person's view of wealth is something like his view of his child, it is right. You should spend your wealth where God has said, and you should raise your child in the way God has said; if your child wants to strive for the cause of God, you have no right to stop him; he is in the cause of God, he must move. You yourself should be the means and cause for your child to work for the cause of God, just as you spend money for the cause of God and use it for the cause of God. Well, look; we want to say that while having children and wanting children is not bad in Islam, and not having them is not a defect, flaw, or shame, having them can be a means for a person to rise. If a person can use it properly, having them in itself is not considered a value or a privilege; a person sees all these characteristics in wealth; that is, your view of wealth should be like this. Some people think that if someone has wealth, they are a bad person; if someone acquires wealth, they are a bad person; no, if someone has wealth and considers the wealth to be their own and does not spend it in the way of God, and does not fill the gaps in society with it, this is bad. Some people think that because they have wealth, they have an advantage over others; because they have wealth, this is a value for them; in Islamic society, having wealth is not considered a value at all. It does not come. If someone thinks that having wealth is considered a value in Islamic society, he should know that he is mistaken; wealth is a means for a person to ascend, to walk the steps of evolution; if someone expends such art and such effort and spends money on this path, donates it to the poor, gives it to the Islamic state, fills the gaps in Islamic society, but of course, in this case, there will be no wealth left for the person; note that if a person wants to fill the gaps, there will be no wealth left. If someone does these things, he is a wise person and his wealth is to his advantage; if someone does not do these things, wealth is to his disadvantage and is absolutely not considered a value for him. Pursuing wealth is good to acquire wealth, but not to keep it, not to be proud of it, not to use it as a means of boasting to others, but to spend it in the way of God. This Islamic society has many possibilities for acquiring wealth, the servants of God in this society should acquire this wealth; for whom? For themselves? Not for society, for the servants of God, for humans; of course, he himself will have a normal life in this way and will not remain lame, and the sorrow of what happened to my child will no longer be there; his life will pass. So see; the view of wealth is not that of abandoning and completely ignoring, nor that of being greedy and grasping; the correct Islamic view is to acquire wealth through lawful means and spend it in the way that God has said. That is why there are many narrations, there are many narrations that on the Day of Judgment, they will not let the servant of God take a step unless they ask him a few things; one of these things is wealth, where did you acquire it and where did you spend it? So see, this is a means that both acquiring and spending it are important. So if the person who acquires and spends this wealth does not acquire it properly, does not spend it properly, hoards it for himself and uses wealth as a means of boasting, as a means of humiliating others, as a means of considering himself superior, and such words that have been and still are among the hoarders and owners of wealth in the world, this wealth will become a means of his degeneration. It is stated in this noble verse that it will make man heedless of the remembrance of God, and this is what this verse forbids us from.
