Page 15 - Paradise: The Believers' Real Home

Blessing and Dissipation 13

richest opulence imaginable without ever becoming dissolute.
On the contrary, because they view everything they en-
counter according to the Qur'anic criteria and moral teaching,
they see all of the beauty surrounding them as a blessing. In
other words, they realize that all of these things are gifts from
Allah. So, if Muslims know that Allah has given all of the sur-
rounding riches, beauty, opulence, and magnificence, naturally
they thank our Lord for what He has provided. This is, after
all, why all blessings have been created.
If we applied this general way of thinking to our present
society, we would have to say that those who live a dissolute
life and turn away from Allah's commands have gone astray,
because they do not see that all of their possibilities are bless-
ings from Him. If they saw these things as blessings, this un-
derstanding would lead them to give thanks to Allah. And
then, they would use these blessings as Allah intended them to
be used: avoiding waste and using them in a way pleasing to
Him.
So, wealth can be defined in two ways. Some rich people
are believers who consider all of their possessions to be bless-
ings from Allah, while other rich people go astray by consider-
ing all of their possessions as their own, forget Allah, and fall
into dissolution. However, the model that Allah has proposed
for all of His servants is wealth, as mentioned in the first
model above. Wealth and poverty are tests for believers.
Although some believers may be tested by poverty, Allah
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