The Economic System of Islam — Page 24
24 everyone that his spending was not for human welfare, but for self- glorification. Then He adds: ‘Have We not given him two eyes?’—he should have used them to look at conditions prevailing around him. The poor are dying of hunger with no one to care for them, but he is spending heaps for his glory. Had he not been granted eyes, with which he could see the conditions surrounding him. And then He says: ‘And he had been given a tongue and two lips’, with which he could have discussed the situation and the proper uses of money. The verse continues: ‘And We have pointed out to him the two highways’ of material and spiritual progress i. e. placed within his nature the impulse to seek the ways of attaining nearness to Allah as well as practising human sympathy and concern. But he did not employ any of the three means, and spent his wealth with- out a valid purpose. Therefore, he only wasted the money. Then Allah the Almighty says: ‘But he attempted not the ascent courageously’—despite having eyes to see the condi- tion of the poor, and having the tongue and the lips to enquire about it, and having an ingrain feeling for the love of God and hu- manity—‘he attempted not the ascent courageously. ’ Like an over- weight man, he got tired and failed to scale the heights—i. e. kept spending his wealth for show rather than the real purpose of achiev- ing human welfare through it. There are many other examples of wasteful spending. For exam- ple, some pleasure - seekers spend a fortune on dancing women, oth- ers, for lack of alternatives, spend it on gatherings of poetry recitals. There may be a poor widow in their backyard holding in her lap her