Friday Sermon Dated:29/9/2006-Ramadan The Month of Spending-Dr. Mohammad .Rateb Al Nabulsi
Translated By: Nisreen Sakbani
City : Damascus
Country : Syria

Praise be to Allah, We thank and seek the help of him

Ask him to lead and seek refuge with Him from the viciousness of ourselves and our bad deeds. Who is lead by Allah will never go astray and who goes astray will not find a leader.

There is no God But Allah alone with no other partner. Admitting His Godhood and forcing the polytheisms.

Our master Mohammad Peace Be Upon Him is His messenger. The Master of mankind. as much an eye sees and an ear hears

Peace and Blessing Be Upon him and his companion and his offspring and followers till the Day of Judgment.

Oh Allah teach us what is availing to us and let us benefit from what you have taught us, and endow us with more knowledge. Show us the truth and help us follow it, and show us the untruth and help us avoid it. Inspire us to be among those who if ever listen to a saying, follow the best of it. Admit us by Your Mercy among Your righteous slaves. Oh Allah, take us away from the darkness of ignorance and illusion to the lights of knowledge and insight. And from the mires of hankers to the heavens of deeds.

Dear Noble Brothers, we are in the month of Ramadan, Ramadan the month of spending, the main feature of Muslim is that he spends, release in Quran as it is.

God The Almighty Said:

“Alif Lam Mim. This Book, there is no doubt in it, is a guide to those who guard (against evil).Those who believe in the unseen and keep up prayer and spend out of what We have given them”

[Cow:1,2,3]

Believe in the life after is from the Unseen, God The Almighty Said:

“Those who believe in the unseen and keep up prayer and spend out of what We have given them”

[Cow:3]

The Absolute Spending:

The absolute in Quran is just like it is as it was released. Spend his money, his time, his effort, spend from anything was granted by His Majesty Allah.

1.          Not Spending Is A Throw To Oneself Into Destruction:

Dear Noble Brothers, God His Majesty Says:

“And spend in the Cause of Allah, and do not throw yourselves into destruction”

[Cow:195]

Few interpreters said: If you didn’t spend. Spend for the sake of Allah. Spending must be pure for God. Don’t throw yourselves into destruction if you don’t spend.

2.  Spending The Whole Money is Throwing Oneself Into Destruction:

And Few Scholars’ Said: Don’t throw yourselves into destruction if you spend whole your money, because God His Majesty Says:

“And those, who, when they spend, are neither extravagant nor niggardly, but hold a medium between those”.

[ The Criterion 67 ]

3. Spending Has Specific Time

Dear Brothers, Spending has specific time, one penny that you spend in your lifetime is much more better that one hundred thousand penny spent after you die.

God Said:

“O you who believe! spend out of what We have given you before the day comes in which there is no bargaining, neither any friendship nor intercession, and the unbelievers-- they are the unjust”.

[Cow 254]

You must spend in order not to be destroyed; you should spend in your lifetime, not after you die. In most cases, if you make your will to spend something after you die, this might not be fulfilled or a trick be fabricated, so the money goes to the undeserved.

1)   Spending What The Self Loves:

Dear brothers, but what should you spend? God Said:

“By no means shall you attain to righteousness until you spend (benevolently) out of what you love.”

[The Family of Omra 92 ]

The thing you love, the thing that the self longs for, the thing that you choose, the thing that you admire is the thing that you should spend, God Said:

“By no means shall you attain to righteousness until you spend (benevolently) out of what you love.”

[The Family of Omra 92 ]

2)   Prohibition to spend the bad intentionally:

Dear brothers, God says prohibiting the believers:

“and do not aim at that which is bad to spend from it, you would not accept it save if you close your eyes and tolerate therein. And know that Allah is Rich, and Worthy of all praise”.

[ Cow 267 ]

Allah is rich because of the True Holy Hadith:

 “My servants, if your first and last ones, humans and jinns, ask me for anything, I will give each one of them his demand without decreasing my property. It is just like the needle when it goes inside the sea”.

[Muslim form Abi Zar]

That is because my giving is words and my taking is word.

Dear brothers, you spend for your own happiness and safety.

Dear brothers, God His Majesty gives lots of instructions, He Says:

“O you who believe! spend (benevolently) of the good things that you earn”

[Cow 267]

The First Instruction: Spending From The Good Lawful.

Spend from your lawful money, spend from your good money, spend from money earned lawfully and as per God way, without lying, cheating, trickery, monopolization, deception, prohibited goods, prohibited relation.

Dear noble brothers, God is good, and doesn’t accept but good:

“O you who believe! spend (benevolently) of the good things that you earn”

[Cow 267]

The Second Instruction: Spending in the Happiness and Misfortune:

Another thing: Spending is a fixed feature in the believer life, God Said:

“Those who spend (benevolently) in ease as well as in straitness.”

[The Family of Omran 134]

In the prosperity and in the misfortune:

“Those who spend (benevolently) in ease as well as in straitness.”

[The Family of Omran 134]

“Those who spend their wealth by night and day, in secret and in public”.

[ Cow 274 ]

The Third Instruction: Spending In Secret And In Public:

The believer spends in fortune and misfortune, in day and night, in secret and in public.

Dear brothers, to disclose the charity is a benefit, just if it were spent for an association and not for a particular person. Sometimes the rich compete in donations, so in such occasion:

“If you manifest charity, how excellent it is!”.

[ Cow 271 ]

If a charity were given to a person to respect his feelings, human dignity, faith brotherhood, you should hide it.

“If you manifest charity, how excellent it is! And if you hide it and give it to the poor, it is good for you. And it will do away with some of your evil deeds; and Allah is Aware of what you do”.

[ Cow 271 ]

The Fourth Instruction:

Do Not Follow Charity With Insult or Harm

The directions of God the Great and Almighty. Allah the Great and Almighty Says:

“Those who spend their wealth in the way of Allah, then follow not up what they have spent with reproach or injury”.

[ Cow 262 ]

If you spend, try to forget it completely. While whenever you meet him you say: I wish that amount was a relief?. He says: God bless you, you made me a favour. Then you meet him again and say: I wish you were happy with this amount?. Don’t follow your charity with harm and insult. As long as you spend for Allah’s sake, God will keep your deed for you without seeking the praise of them. If you do a favour, try to forget it completely, but if someone does a favour to you, don’t forget it till you pass away. 

The Fifth Instruction: How Much Do You Spend?.

Dear brothers, how much do you spend, God The Almighty Says:

“Let the man of means spend according to his means”

[ The Divorce 7]

If a man owns hundreds of millions and pay five thousand for charity project?. if he pays a millions or few millions, his fortune won’t decrease. God The Almighty Says:

“Let the man of means spend according to his means”

[ The Divorce 7]

Who knows the percentage of spending?. God The Great and The Almighty. That is why The Prophet Peace Be Upon Him Said:

“One penny preceded one thousand penny”

[Al Nisaee, Ahmad from Abi Huraira]

What is important is that this penny. The moral is what does this penny do among the other pennies. Therefore; Someone who wanted to build a mosque. He is charitable and rich. He saw a suitable land, with suitable price. Signed a bond with half of the amount. He asked the poor land owner who has eight children and earns four thousand Syrian Pounds, and work as servant in a school. He said: Where is the rest of the amount?. He said: At the cession. He Said: What is cession?. He Said: You go to the Department of Religious Endowments and renounce of this land to become a mosque. He said: Mosque!!!. He torn the bond!!!. and said: I swear, I am ashamed from God to sell a land to become a mosque, I am more entitled than you to grant it for Allah’s sake. The charitable who owns hundreds of million says: I have never been so small in my life as I was in front of this servant who doesn’t owns but this land that he inherited a month ago while his income rest for few days and he lives in a rented house.

“One penny preceded one thousand penny”

[Al Nisaee,Ahmad from Abi Huraira]

Dear noble brothers.

“Let the man of means spend according to his means: and the man whose resources are restricted, let him spend according to what Allah has given him. Allah puts no burden on any person beyond what He has given him”.

[ The Divorce 7]

What are the conditions of accepting the spending?. God the Almighty Said:

“And the parable of those who spend their wealth to seek Allah's pleasure”.

[ Cow 265 ]

For Allah’s Sake:

The good deed, spending is a good deed that is not accepted unless it is for God’s sake, so:

 “Actions are but by intentions, and everyone will get the consequence of his intention.”

With honesty a little and big action will serve you while without honesty neither the little no

“And the parable of those who spend their property to seek the pleasure of Allah and for the certainty 'of their souls”

[The Cow 265]

When you spend you assure to yourself that you love Allah. You assure to yourself that through this money, you solve many problems in your life but you preferred your bother. As if the amount that you pay is called in Quran Spending because it assures your sincere in Allah’s love.

“And whatever good thing you spend, it is to your good”.

[ Cow 272 ]

If all humans were believers , this would increase in my property.

“My servants, if your first and last ones, humans and jinns, were devout this will not increase my property.

My servants, if your first and last ones, humans and jinns, were unbelievers this will not decrease my property.

If your first and last ones ask me for anything, I will give each one of them his demand without decreasing my property. It is just like the needle when it goes inside the sea.

My servants, it is your deeds that I count and then reimburse you. Therefore, the one who finds good shall thank Allah and the one doesn’t, he must blame himself”.

 [Muslim form Abi Zar]

“And whatever good thing you spend, it is to your good. And you spend not but to seek Allah's pleasure”.

[ Cow 272 ]

God is in no need of his servants, yet he orders them to spend in order to remunerate them double in the Day of Judgment. God Said:

 “Who is it that will offer to Allah a goodly gift, so He multiplies it to him manifold?.”

[ Cow 245 ]

“The parable of those who spend their wealth in the way of Allah is as the parable of a grain growing seven ears, in every ear a hundred grains. And Allah multiplies for whom He pleases. And Allah is Ample-giving, Knowing.”

[ Cow 261 ]

This likening is to get close to the meaning. It was mentioned in few traditions that if a man put a bite in his wife mouth, he will see it in the Day of Judgment as Ahod Mountain. This is a bite. So what if you solve a believer problem?. Let a guy get married?. Arrange a home for a male and a female believer?. Treat a patient? .Feed a hunger?. Rescue a family from being homeless by spending your money. Charity falls in Allah’s hand before it falls in the poor hand. 

Be early in the charity so the misfortune doesn’t go beyond it. Treat your patients by charity. Dear Brothers, there are two verses in the Holy Quran so accurate, what does a spender hope?. When you go to visit a patient with a gift, you are afraid that you will not be known. Therefore, you put a business card in the gift wishing him recovery. But the truth you wish he knows that it is your gift. The spender is so keen to let others know that he spends for them. God rests you assured, he said to you:

 “Their guidance is not thy duty, but Allah guides whom He pleases. And whatever good thing you spend, it is to your good. And you spend not but to seek Allah's pleasure. And whatever good thing you spend, it will be paid back to you in full, and you will not be wronged.”

[ Cow 272 ]

“Is for the poor who are confined in the way of Allah, they cannot go about in the land; the ignorant man thinks them to be rich on account of abstaining . Thou canst recognize them by their maker -- they beg not of men importunately. And whatever good thing you spend, surely Allah is Knower of it.”

[ Cow 273 ]

1-God knows each spend, so no need to ask for praise:

Rest assured, each expense you spend God knows it. This is sufficient so you don’t ask for others’ praise.

As long as you spent this amount for God sake, God the Great and Almighty knew it and will award you.

2-God remunerates the lack of money by charity:

The second meaning: When you spend, your money decreases, so what do you long for?. To be remunerated?. God rest you assured, he said:

“And whatever thing you spend, He exceeds It m reward, and He is the best of Sustainers”

[Saba 39]

“And whatever good thing you spend, it is to your good. And you spend not but to seek Allah's pleasure. And whatever good thing you spend, it will be paid back to you in full, and you will not be wronged.”

[ Cow 272 ]

I swear there is an honored brother who promised to settle all his relative debts who died with an average state. He said to me:"I thought the debts are around ten or twenty thousand. It is four hundred thousand. He said:" I swear I paid them the whole amount with satisfaction because I promised his orphans to cover all their father’s debits. I swear after few days he made a deal of unsold goods, and earned the very amount.

God remunerates the believer, knows and remunerates. He said:

“And whatever good thing you spend, it is to your good. And you spend not but to seek Allah's pleasure. And whatever good thing you spend, it will be paid back to you in full, and you will not be wronged.”

[ Cow 272 ]

“And whatever thing you spend, He exceeds It m reward, and He is the best of Sustainers”

[Saba 39]

Spending prepares for the marital supervision. God Said:

 “Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they spend out of their property”.

                                                                                                                          [ Women 34]

When the husband is stingy on his wife and children, he loses being a maintainer of them, and loses his position. I always say: Every father is respectable in Islamic Culture and traditions but the championship of the father is to be respectable and adorable. He will not be adorable unless he spends. As for the consumable spending on your food, drink, garments, and home, you should pay attention to this verse:

 “And they who when they spend, are neither extravagant nor parsimonious, and (keep) between these the just mean.”

[ The Criterion 67]

In the consumable spending you should be moderate between wasting and stinting. As for the good there is no wasting in it.

What is more, once a charitable man granted a house to a charitable association. An honoring party was made to this man. All speakers praised him a lot except one of our honored brothers who said to him: Oh great charitable man. You would have been one of the association beneficial who stand in a long queue waiting your turn to take few hundred pounds with a signature, a fingerprint, and identity showing, but you were honored by God so he let you grant instead of take. 

It would have been possible to the one who grants to takes and begs. If God grants him a good income, a fortune, don’t ever think that through your spending you are doing a favour. You might be in his place, so thank Allah the Almighty who let you grant and not take.

Dear honored brothers, another thing. God said:

“How is it with you that you spend not in the cause of Allah?- For to Allah belongs the heritage of the heavens and the earth.”

[The Iron 10]

You don’t spend but you accumulate money, this wealth, and millions, movables and immovable property, all kinds of foreign currencies. You lose it all at once when your heart stops beating, or when life ends, or when cells grow randomly in a malignant tumour, or when the blood freezes in few vessels. So all his money is not for him at the end. So have the initiative and spend. Day and night work in you, work in them.

honored brothers that is why God Said:

“How is it with you that you spend not in the cause of Allah?- For to Allah belongs the heritage of the heavens and the earth.”

[The Iron 10]

When I console a rich man I observe the house. Who chose the marble?. The house owner. Who chose the furniture, the decoration? This furniture is very expensive?. Where is he now?. He is in grave. This house is temporary. The proof is that all announcements of death has the writing:"He will be seen off to his final resting place. So, life is a temporary place. God Say:

“How is it with you that you spend not in the cause of Allah?- For to Allah belongs the heritage of the heavens and the earth.”

[The Iron 10]

Learn from the prophet PBUH when the lady Aasha told him:

“Oh messenger of God. Nothing left but its shoulder.He said: All have left except the shoulder”.

[Al Tirmizi from Aasha]

But dear brothers, God The Almighty as a common expression The Omnipotent who gratifies. He Said:

 “It shall be no crime in the weak, nor in the sick, nor in those who do not find what they should spend (to stay behind), so long as they are sincere to Allah and His Apostle”.

[Repentance 91]

You will not satisfy people by your money So do it by your ethic. God ordered the poor to spend once each year though he doesn’t have his own daily food in order to let him feel the spending once each time.

He doesn’t have to spend but the poor can use hundreds of ways to God. If you advise, if you preach, if you were an example, if you visit a patient, if you accommodate a poor, if you preach a person. The ways to Allah is as much as the breath of humans. The poor doesn’t find anything to spend but he has thousands of ways to Allah the Almighty. The proof is:

 “It shall be no crime in the weak, nor in the sick, nor in those who do not find what they should spend (to stay behind), so long as they are sincere to Allah and His Apostle; there is no way (to blame) against the doers of good; and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful”.

[Repentance 91]

Dear brothers, just know that as you are a believer, all your hobbits are worships, while the worships of the hypocrite are sins. The proof:

 “Nor do they spend anything that may be spent, small or great, nor do they traverse a valley, but it is written down to their credit, that Allah may reward them with the best of what they have done.”

[Repentance 121]

When you spend on your family and children. When you sit with your family and children. When you take them a picnic. When you have mercy upon people around you. When you gain good money (Halal) you are worshiping .You believe in God. All your actions are worships. This verse is a proof to whom you should spend.

“They ask thee as to what they should spend. Say: Whatever wealth you spend, it is for the parents and the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer. And whatever good you do, Allah surely is Knower of it.”

[ Cow 215 ]

1- Relationship Criterion.

Relatives deserve the favour most is a rule, the close relatives, close to poverty, and close to belief. You have three criteria. The close in belief is worthier than the disbeliever. The straight believer is worthier than the disbeliever. The straight elaborate believer is worthier than the one of less belief. The most poor deserves more than the poor. . The close relative deserves more than the far relative. The relatives deserves the favour most.