Your Wealth is Not Yours

Stop. Just stop and look at yourself.

Look at what you’re doing, what you’re saying,

what an ungrateful boor you’ve become.

You do not own your home,

your wealth is not yours,

this body does not belong to you.

Your wife is not your property,

your children are not your property.

Your property does not even belong to you,

regardless of what those dusty papers say.

This is Allah’s world.

This is Allah’s land.

These are Allah’s people.

Your wife belongs to Allah, as do your children.

Your own body, loaned to you by Allah’s grace,

will be taken from you one day

and returned to the ground from whence it came.

And yet here you are, strutting like a peacock

and pretending that all you survey is yours.

You are not a wealthy man, but a fool.

Listen to Najat, who owns nothing but wisdom:

You are a wayfarer, a traveler.

You are passing through this world.

You cannot stay.

Any attempt to hold onto any of it will be met with failure,

as your fingers uncurl and turn to dust.

Give glory to Allah, who is a gracious host.

Give praise to Allah, who has lent you comfortable rooms

and provided merry companions for your journey.

Be grateful for His hospitality

and stop pretending that you have a right to any of it.

There is nothing worse than an ungrateful guest.