Page 48 - Loyalty Described in the Qur'an

LOYALTY DESCRIBED IN THE QUR'AN
whoever is tight-fisted is only tight-fisted to himself. Allah is
Rich and you are poor. If you turn away, He will replace you
with a people other than yourselves and they will not be like

you. (Surah Muhammad, 38)
Another despicable form of behavior typical of these individuals,
whose faith is corrupted, is that they try to prevent others from assist-
ing the Muslims; they do this to harm the religion and to destroy the
bond that exists between believers. In this regard, Allah says, "They
are the people who say, 'Do not spend on those who are with the
Messenger of Allah, so that they may go away.' The treasuries of the

heavens and earth belong to Allah. But the hypocrites do not under-
stand this" (Surat al-Munafiqun, 7). Because the sense of loyalty they
feel towards one another is based only on money and property, they
expect the bond between believers to be the same. Therefore, they be-
lieve that the community of believers will eventually falter and disap-
pear in times of financial difficulty. However, the unity among the
believers is not based on material things. What keeps them united is
their loyalty, their faith and their fear of Allah. For this reason, these
hypocrites will never succeed in their designs.
This morality of people with hypocritical character shows that it

is important for believers to use their possessions to gain the favor of
Allah. Spending in the way of Allah is an important act of worship that
separates devout believers from hypocrites and those who reject Allah,
and the fact that the latter use their wealth to obstruct the way of Allah
shows again the mindlessness of their behavior. In the Qur'an, Allah
says that these people will regret that they have spent their resources
for such evil end:

Those who disbelieve spend their wealth barring access to

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