The Rights of Wealth
﴿ وَمِنْهُم مَّنْ عَـٰهَدَ اللهَ لَئِنْ ءَاتَىٰنَا مِن فَضْلِهِۦ لَنَصَّدَّقَنَّ وَلَنَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الصَّـٰلِحِينَ ﴾
And among them is he who made a covenant with Allah f (saying)
‘If He gives us of His bounty, surely we will give charity
and surely we will be among the righteous.’ [9:75]
This verse is connected with a particular event which has been reported by Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Ibn Marduwaih, Al-Ṭabarānīand Al-Baihaqī s on the authority of a narration from Abū Umūmah Al-Bāhilī h, a summary of which is presented below.
According to this report, a person by the name of Tha‘labah b. Ḥāṭib al-Anṣārī presented himself before the Prophet g and requested him to pray that he would become rich.
The Prophet g responded by saying, “Is it that you don’t like my way? By the Being that holds my life in His Hands, if I had wished, mountains of Madīnah would have turned into solid gold following behind me on my walkways, but I would not like being that wealthy.”
Although he walked away, he returned later and repeated his request for the same prayer with the pledge that, should he get the wealth prayed for, he would give every deserving person a share from it.
The Messenger of Allah g supplicated for him and as expected, in a short period of time Th‘alabah became immensely rich. As his cattle grew, he moved outside of Madīnah to the outskirts. As a result, it became difficult for him to travel to Madīnah for Ṣalāh in the Prophet’s g Mosque.
Initially, he would attend the Ẓuhr and ‘Aṣr prayers with the Prophet g. After some time, when his wealth increased even further, he would only attend the Jumu‘ah Ṣalāh. It wasn’t long before he stopped attending all the Ṣalāhs with the Prophet g in the Masjid Al-Nabawī.
The Prophet g hadn’t seen Tha‘labah for a while and therefore enquired about him. Upon hearing that he had become immensely rich and had to move out of the city, the Prophet g said, “Alas for Tha‘labah,” three times.
By chance, it was at this time that the revelation of the verse of charity came, where the Prophet g was commanded to collect charity from Muslims. As a result, the Prophet g sent two messengers to Tha‘labah and another person from the tribe of Banī Sulaimto collect Zakāt from them.
When the delegates asked for the Zakāt on behalf of the Prophet g, Tha‘labah stated: “This has become a sort of a Jizyahwhich is taken from non-Muslims!”
He then asked them to leave on that occasion, saying however, that they could call on him on their way back. The two of them left.
Something different happened in the case of the other person from the tribe of Banī Sulaim. He welcomed them and gave what was necessary. In fact, when he heard the order of the Prophet g, he himself called on the two emissaries of his master, carrying with him the best from out of his livestock of camels and goats, but they declined saying that they were commanded to only take the average ones and could not take these.
As per Tha‘labah’s request, he was approached a second time but his response was the same. When the Prophet g was informed about Tha‘labah’s response, he g thrice exclaimed, “Alas for Tha‘labah.”
Conversely, he was happy to hear about the Sulaimī man and prayed for him. Thereafter, the above verse was revealed.
Tha‘labah was notified about this incident by one of his family members who was present with the Prophet g and the former instantly knew that destruction would befall him.
He immediately went to the Prophet g and said, “Here is my wealth. Please accept it.”
The Prophet g replied “I cannot accept this anymore as you did not give it when the two men asked you for it.”
As a result of this, Tha‘labah became incredibly distressed and crazy and literally started throwing dust on his head.
After the demise of the Prophet g, Tha‘labah went to
Abū Bakr h with his wealth. Abū Bakr h did not accept his wealth and said, “When the Prophet g did not accept it, how can I?”
When ‘Umar’ h became Khalīfah, Tha‘la bah went to ‘Umar h with the same request, but got the same response.
Tha‘labah made the same request to ‘Uthmān h, and he too refused his wealth. Tha‘labah died during the caliphate of ‘Uthmān h. [1]
A lesson we should learn from this narration is that we are trustees of our wealth, it is our duty to ensure we fulfil the rights of our wealth correctly.
[1] Usmānī, Shafī‘, Ma‘ārif al-Qur’ān, 4:430-434.
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“The best among you (Muslims) are those who learn the Qur’an and teach it.”
The Prophet (peace be upon him)
