_Imām Ibn Qudāmah Al-Maqdisi -rahimahullāh-_
Said:
Know verily that, the main reason for miserliness is due to covetousness for wealth.
And there are two basic reasons that causes excessive love of wealth.
*1.* Extreme love of desires and ambitions which may not be attained except with wealth.
But if he is one with low aspirations and he has children, those children may stand in place of the high ambitions.
*2.*Loving the money in itself, for amongst people there is person that may have what will suffice him for the rest of his life if he will stick to what is known of custom in terms of spending, and happened to be an old man without a child and he doesn’t give out what is wājib upon him nor charity that will benefit him, and he knows that if he dies his enemy will take it in his place or the wealth shall be lost when buried, thus, this is a serious sickness which such person is not hoping to cure.
Wealth is not a goal in itself. Rather, it is a means to attain a goal. However, most people ended up wasting their time in the pursue of wealth and shunning away completely from their goal and this is the peak of misguidance.
And know that, the cure of a symptom is to apply the opposite of its cause.
Thus, one should cure the disease of covetousness for wealth with patience and contentment, and high aspirations with frequent remembrance of death.
And in the case of excessive love of children, one should know that, The one who Created them Has also provided them with their Rizq, and at times, those people who never inherited nothing are better than those who inherited.
Therefore, one should be careful in the gathering wealth for children for if the child is pious, Allāh will surely take good care of his affairs, and if the child is a fāsiq, then one should not leave that which will assist him in the disobedience, and one should remember always what we mentioned regarding the setbacks of miserliness and the praiseworthy of generosity.
And lastly, one should know that, whenever there is too much desires in this dunya, there will always be much calamities in its absence, thus, whosoever knows the calamity of wealth will never feel secured due to it, and whosoever doesn’t take except for his basic needs and he spent it basically on those necessities is not of the miser ones and Allāh knows best.
*7th Shawwal,1438H.*
Allāhu A’alam! Bārakallāhu fīkum!
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