The eighth door of sustenance : As-Sadaqaat (non-obligatory charity) :
Charitable donations, and nafaqaath (regular spending) – you spend on yourself, on your wife, on your children, on your father and your mother, on your uncles and aunts, on your righteous neighbours, on sons and daughters, relatives, widows and orphans – this type of charity, the affair of this is great with Allaah. This is a means of accumulation of provision, a door from the doors of sustenance.
It was narrated from Abu Hurayrah (may Allaah be pleased with him) that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said:
“There is no day on which the people get up but two angels come down and one of them says, ‘O Allaah, give in compensation to the one who spends (in charity),’ and the other says, ‘O Allaah, destroy the one who withholds.’”
[Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 1374; Muslim, 1010.]
So try and not make a day pass from you from the days of Allaah except that you stretch your hand as much as it is in your ability to do, even if it is a little.
The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said : ‘Fear Allaah even if it is with half a date.’ [Muttafaqun alai – agreed upon]
And Allaah (subhana wa ta’ala) says: ‘fa mai ya’mal misqaala zarrathin kharrai yara. Wamai ya’mal misqaala zarrathin sharrai yara’ — ‘that whoever does an atoms worth of good he will see it.
And Allaah (subhana wa ta’ala) also says, ‘Whatever you spend in the way of Allaah, He will replace it and He is the best of the Providers.’
What is the meaning of ‘He will replace it?’ i.e He will give you what is better than it. Don’t think that is the end & that it has gone from you. It will return to you with that which is better, insha-Allaah.
The Sheikh says again : Whatever you have spent, then Allaah will replace it for you and He is the Best of Providers. And he says again that : O Allaah give the person that spends a replacement that is replaced for him with good, O Lord of the worlds.
And in the hadith of Abu Huraira (radiallaahu anhu) that Msulim related that the Messenger of Allaah said : that there was people from people that were from before you a man who had a garden. And another man heard a cry from the sky, an angel from the clouds who said, ‘give water to the garden of so and so.’ So he poured into it some water into one of the irrigation holes and then the water ran into that garden. So the person who owned the garden, he had a shovel in his hand and he was fixing the water and fixing the dirt and this man said to the man who owned the garden, ‘may Allaah have mercy upon you. What is your name?’
He said: I am so and so, the son of so and so. Then he said: ‘Why do you ask?’
He said: ” I heard a voice from the clouds saying, ‘give water to the garden of so and so. May Allaah have mercy on you. What do you do with this?’
So the owner of the garden says : ‘When I plant and then I harvest, I take one-third for me and my family and I put one-third to roll it back into my garden and I give one-third in charity.
Look at this. What is required from him is only a one-10th of the farm that is if it comes from natural torrential streams and the like (without any artificial irrigation or water). And a half of the 10th if it is water with sprinklers and irrigation.
So rather than giving 1/10th or half of 1/10th, he gave 1/3rd. Meaning he put aside more for charity. So see how Allaah singled him out with rain especially for his garden. Rain specific for him over his neighbors. What did he do to deserve this? He gave sadaqa. Therefore Sadaqaa doesn’t decrease wealth.
Once we were in a certain area giving dawah and alhamdulillaah we always go out calling the people to the Book and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allaah and remind them of Allaah and the Last Day and righteous deeds and we saw that the mountains were green and the trees were green maasha’Allaah and what a beautiful sight. And they had good agriculture. There must have been a reason because their neighbour’s lands were dusty and barren and their land was green. We saw the reason on the way. There if you walk from a distance to a distance you could have the coolness of water i.e from place to place except that we saw a water cooler.
The Sheikh said : Because of the water cooler, Allaah sent down rain because of this cooler. If they are generous people, then Allaah is more generous than them. He is generous and loves the generous people and if they are merciful, then Allaah is more merciful than them. Allaah is Merciful and He loves the merciful people.
A sadaqa that they did, Allaah did not lose it for them. On the contrary, He gave them the reward for it in this world and the Hereafter. Therefore Sadaqa is a reason for the increase in provision and it is a door from the doors of sustenance and a door from the doors of relief & distress. And also az-Zakaat, it is a door from the doors of relief & distress and all of what you have heard are doors from the doors of relief from distress –- a door of provision and a reason for provision. Even if some of the people only see the material means. As for these other legislated means then these are not in the minds of most people these days, except those on whom Allaah has mercy on. Eventhough they read the Qur’aan however, without pondering, except whom Allaah has protected from that.
From : Means of Sustenance : Shaykh Muhammad Ibn ‘Abdul-Wahhaab al-Wassaabee. May Allaah reward the sister who Transcribed from the Audio
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