Seven Ways to Increase Wealth and Win Allah`s Love

Transcription

Seven Ways to Increase Wealth and Win Allah’s Love
You’re either a master of money or you become its slave
Have you ever missed out an important family gathering or community event because
you had to work? Or because you were short on money?
How many times have you made a decision – a decision to move away from your family
and friends, or a decision to dedicate weeks, months or years of your life to study
something, so you could get a job? For the sake of money?
Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could get money to serve you and make your life better
rather than you using up your life to get money?
What if you could use money to do whatever you want whenever you want, rather than
have money dictate what you can and can’t do? As if money is a master over you.
Telling you what to do, where to go and how to spend your time.
But then how do you do that? You would need to be very wealthy, right?
But… is it ok to pursue dunya like that?
Wouldn’t having so much in the dunya put our deen in danger? Isn’t there a conflict
between wealth and religion?
In this short e-book, I’m going to show you that not only is there no conflict, but there
are ways to increase wealth and win the love of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. Straight
from the Qur’an and Sunnah.
You don’t need to choose between success in this world and the hereafter. You can
have both.
In this book, in sha Allah ta’ala, I’m going to show you how.
What’s your Number One goal?
To begin, I want to tell you the story about a brother I know.
I was doing this goal-setting workshop, where I would ask people, “What’s your number
one goal?”
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There was this brother who was always going around telling people, “I want to get
married; could you help find me a wife?”
He came up to me after the lecture and he winks at me and goes, "Hey Muhammad...”
I go, “What?”
“Do you know what's number one on my list?" He winks at me again.
And then I go, "What? Is Jannah number one on your list?"
Then his face went a little red as he said, “No…”
And then he was embarrassed to say that marriage was number one on his list.
An interesting lesson I learned from there, whether we’re talking about the topic of
money or the topic of marriage or whatever you’re involved in, is that your number one
goal must always be Jannah. It must always be paradise.
Your number one goal must always be pleasing Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala.
Because, for example, if your number one goal is Jannah and your number two goal is
buying a house, then you are not going to buy a house with interest or a riba mortgage.
Why?
Because your number one goal is Jannah. So you’re not going to compromise that with
a number two goal because you care more about paradise than about getting in this
house with interest.
If Jannah was your number one goal and your number two goal was getting married,
then you’re obviously going to look for a spouse that helps you and guides you to
paradise.
Now let’s look at the topic of money. What if seeking money was not your number one
goal, it was your number two goal and your number one goal was Paradise? Can you
see how, for example, it would lead you to reading a book like this? And how you can
bring the two together in sha Allah?
So let me get started right off the bat and get right into the topic…
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Ways to increase your wealth and win Allah’s love
Technique #1: Asking Allah for forgiveness
The first technique is asking Allah for forgiveness and coming back to Allah.
Prophet Nuh, ‘alayhi salam called his people to Allah for 950 years. He did it publicly,
he did it privately, he did it openly---he used all different techniques. He did it for all
these years, and his da’wah was:
“And (Nuh) said, 'Ask forgiveness of your Lord. Indeed, He is ever a Perpetual Forgiver.”
- Qur’an 71:10
Nuh’s people asked, “What do we get if we ask for forgiveness? What do we get if we
turn back to Allah?”
Then Nuh ‘alayhi salam says
“He will send [rain from] the sky upon you in [continuing] showers and give you increase
in wealth and children and provide for you gardens and provide for you rivers.” - Qur’an
71:11-12
He made this promise to them:
He said, if you repent to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, if you turn back to Allah,
"He will send down the rains from the Heavens.”
In other words, their livestock, their agriculture would benefit from the water coming
down.
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“And He would give you increase of wealth.”
Now, I want to pause here for a moment and make a point right here.
For all those people out there, who think there is a contradiction between Islam and
money, I want to ask:
How could Prophet Nuh tell the people that if they ask for forgiveness, Allah would give
them increase in their wealth, if there was a contradiction between wealth and religion?
Think about it.
So the first way to increase your wealth and win Allah’s love is through asking Allah
subhanahu wa ta’ala for forgiveness. Basically turning back to Allah ‘azza wa jal.
Technique # 2: Fulfilling ties of kinship
The second technique is a way to make more money in a way that is actually going to
make Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala love you more.
And that is by fulfilling ties of kinship.
Call your mom and say, “How are you doing mom?” “I love you.”
Or visit your relatives back home or going to your cousin who you haven’t seen for a
long time and saying “Hey, let’s go out for tea.”
When you fulfill ties of kinship, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala blesses you in your wealth.
The Prophet salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said, as reported by Anas radhi Allahu ‘anhu,
in Bukhari and Muslim:
"Whoever wants to have increase in his provision and to live long, should honour
his ties with his blood relatives.”
The Prophet salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam is saying that whoever wishes that Allah
subhanahu wa ta’ala blesses them with provisions and blesses them with long life,
should fulfill the ties of kinship.
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So for example, let’s say you’re about to get into a business deal or you’re about to go
to a job interview, what do you do pre-interview?
Now, no non-Muslim would tell you this, but I’m telling you, before you go into the job
interview, call your mom or go visit some relatives and be kind to them.
Be kind to them and ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, "Oh Allah, because of my kindness
to my relatives, increase me in my rizq or sustenance."
So that’s Technique #2, fulfilling ties of kinship or extending out and maintaining and
honouring ties of kinship.
Technique # 3: Business
Technique #3 is to start your own business.
Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala has forbidden riba and has made it haram.
A lot of people, when they think of making money they think of putting their money in a
savings account at the bank where they can collect interest. Or they think of mutual
funds where they’re dealing with companies who deal in interest.
There’s a whole bunch of riba involved in that.
But I’m telling you, why don’t you start your own business?
Because Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala says,
"Allah has made bay’ (business transactions, i.e. buying and selling) halal, and made
riba (interest) haram.” - Qur’an 2:275
If you look at the list of the wealthiest people in the world, you’ll see that 90-95% of
them are business owners.
Because Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala says wealth is here. It’s in the business.
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There was somebody who was asking me once about how their parents were
encouraging them to buy a house on interest otherwise they’ll be poor.
So I said, and I’m going to swear by Allah here, Allah will never put the secret of
success in something that He forbade or has made haram.
That’s a gem right there. You can write it in gold.
So if anybody ever tells you that you’ll only become wealthy if you deal in riba, if you
deal in interest, then they have lied to you. They have lied to you out of ignorance or
whatever it is because Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala will never put success in something
that He has made haram.
If you do see some people being successful with it, they’re being set up and you’re
being set up. It’s a test from Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala.
It’s just like the people of the Sabbath whom Allah forbade from fishing on Saturday.
They did it anyway because all the fish were coming on Saturday. It was a test from
Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. Because of their transgression, because of their sin, Allah
made the fish come on Saturday.
In other words, you might see other people who got a mortgage and paid it off. Or other
people who put their money in the bank and their interest is paying dividends. It’s a test
from Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala for you and for them to never ever be misguided by
that.
Allah will never put the secret to success in something that He forbade.
Now, what finance class would tell you that? What non-Muslim would ever tell you to
stay away from these things?
But I'm your Muslim brother and we know that this is haram and we know that Allah
subhanahu wa ta’ala has provided alternatives.
Technique # 4: Qardh Hasan
Technique #4 on how to increase your wealth by coming close to Allah subhanahu wa
ta’ala is called qardh hasan.
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Now that term might be new to you. Qardh hasan is a goodly loan. This is a loan given
with no expectation of anything except the principal back.
So if I were to give $1000 to somebody and a year or so later, the person gives me back
$1000 without increasing anything, that is qardh hasan. There is no riba involved. That
is why it is called the goodly loan.
Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala says:
“Who is it that would loan Allah a goodly loan so He may multiply it for him many times
over? And it is Allah who withholds and grants abundance, and to Him you will be
returned.” - Qur’an 2:245
Here, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala is asking who will give Allah the loan and then Allah
will increase it manifold.
Now hold on a second here.
If wealth were condemned in Islam, like some people say, then why is Allah promising
that if you give this loan He will increase it manifold? In other words, He is going to give
you even more money?
Back in the day, I was investing in the stock market (and I don’t like the stock market
now and would never do it again) – but during that time I was looking for companies
who had good potential, good promise. And many of the companies I was finding were
flopping, and they weren’t doing so well (you know how the stock market is).
Then a brother comes to me one day while I was in the middle of researching stocks,
and he said, “Muhammad, can I borrow some money?”
And I got so excited!
You know why I was excited?
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Because right here, this brother asking for money was like a stock, a Jannah stock that I
could invest in. And the One who is promising the return is Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala,
the Lord of all humanity — is promising compounded return.
So I told the brother, “Here you go, here’s the money.” And I gave him the money.
At the time when I gave him that goodly loan, I was actually in a difficult financial
position myself. I gave him that money and I put myself in a very difficult financial
situation.
Alhamdulillah when I trace back my financial success, I believe it goes back to that day.
The day that I lent that brother that money, alhamdulillah, I was able to pull myself out of
the financial gutters. Alhamdulillah, I’ve never been happier of a loan that I’ve given.
Now here’s an opportunity for you.
Wherever you live, you’ll find students that have student loans or they need to be able
to go to university without getting involved in riba. I would encourage you to find local
students and tell them, “Hey, you know what? I’d like to lend you $1000 or $5000, to
help you study in sha Allah ta’ala. You know, you can pay me back in two years (or
when you graduate).” And seek the reward from Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala.
The Prophet salla Allah ‘alayhi wa sallam said:
"Allah is in the service of His slave so long as His slave is in the service of his
brother."
In other words, if you help somebody else, Allah will help you. And that’s a promise from
Allah ‘azza wa jal.
The Prophet salla Allah ‘alayhi wa sallam said:
“And whoever fulfils the needs of his brother, Allah will fulfill his needs.”
So that’s #4, qardh hassan, which is a goodly loan.
Technique # 5: Zakah
The fifth technique on how to increase your wealth, while coming closer to Allah
subhanahu wa ta’ala and winning Allah’s love, is aiming to pay more Zakah
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Obviously, zakah is one of the pillars of Islam that deals with money.
Here is the interesting thing about zakah -- if you’re familiar with income, expenses,
assets and liabilities, you’ll remember that income is money coming in. For example, if
you have a job, you have money coming in, that’s income.
Expenses is money going out. Usually we have a good 100 different expenses every
month, such as food, clothing, taxes, medical bills, school fees, etc.
Now an asset is something that, by virtue of you owning it, you’ll make money. An
example of that is a farm. If you have a farm and each year this farm produces crops,
that farm is an asset.
A liability is something that, by nature of you owning it, it will take money away from you
-- just because you own it and you’re responsible for it. An example of that is a pet cat.
If you have a pet cat, every month you would have to pay for cat food, kitty litter, etc.
Because of these expenses, the cat is a liability.
Some other examples of real world liabilities are loans. If you’ve taken a loan -- and
may Allah forgive us if it’s a riba-based loan, which is not only a liability, but it’s a haram
liability, i.e. it’s a major sin liability on top of that -- you’ve got to make the loan
payments. These might be student loan payments, house payments, car payments,
etc.
Now, where does zakah come from?
Does it come from income? No.
Does it come from expenses? No.
Does it come from liabilities? No.
It comes from assets. We pay zakah from assets such as the farm.
The interesting thing about assets is that most people living in the West don't even have
assets. 99% of their focus is on income, i.e. getting a job, and getting one source
income but they don’t focus on assets. And because of that, most people don't have to
pay zakah. Because they don't have any assets.
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If you only studied zakah a little bit more, you’d realize that zakah is only 2.5% from the
assets — in other words, the more zakah you pay, the wealthier you will become
because an asset by its nature will increase your money.
For example, if you have a farm, every year you pay zakah coming from the crops. If
you’re aiming to pay more zakah, you’ll need to focus on increasing your crops,
improving your farm or expanding it.
Same with if you have gold bars, if you want to pay more zakah, you’ll have to have
more gold bars. And as you get more or their value increases, you’ll pay more zakah
and you’ll become wealthier.
So if you aim to pay more zakah, you need to focus on increasing your assets. This will
make you wealthier and wealthier as the years go by.
That’s #5, zakah.
Technique # 6: Taqwa
# 6 is the taqwa or being conscious of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala.
We started this list with fulfilling ties of kinship and asking for forgiveness, but
specifically about taqwa, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala says:
“Whoever has taqwa of Allah, He will make a way out for them and will provide for them
from a direction that they would have never imagined.” Qur’an 65:2-3
So, what are we talking about here? What does it mean to have taqwa of Allah when it
comes to wealth?
Let’s suppose you start a new job and your employer says, “You can’t go to jum’ah.
We’re not going to allow you. We’re too busy.”
Or what if there’s something haram being sold at the business? What if you have a
restaurant and people tell you, “You know if you don’t sell alcohol, you’re not going to
make money.”
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These are the types of conflicts that come into play.
Now, if you decide to find another job that does allow you to go to jum’ah or decide not
to sell alcohol because you have taqwa of Allah, even though have a fear that you may
lose some sort of provision, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala says that He will find you a way
out and provide for you from a direction that you never would have imagined.
There was a brother, and I was introducing him once and I said that he sells cars. The
brother was kind of embarrassed and he said to me, “Muhammad, I don’t sell cars
anymore.”
He used to be a car dealer at a really big car dealership and was making really good
money. Now, at this car dealership, every time someone came to purchase a car with
and interest-based loan, he had to be the one signing it because of his position in the
company. And it was eating away at him.
So he decided to just quit his job. He didn’t even have another job waiting for him. He
just got fed up with signing these contracts and he left.
This was a six-figure type of business and he just left it. Even his mom, who’s a
religious woman was saying, “What are you doing? You’re crazy for leaving this job.”
He left it for the sake of Allah.
That was in the early 90s. In the early ‘90s he got involved with computers and software
and he started becoming a Microsoft distributor for their software. And, alhamdulillah,
he did really well and at the time he was talking to me, he was telling me that he might
retire in a year or two.
As Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala says, “Whoever fears Allah, Allah will find a way out for
them and provide for them from a direction that they could have never imagined.”
The interesting thing is, if a person doesn't fear Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala in their
income, Allah might humiliate and disgrace them with that job that they have. It might
even get worse and worse and worse.
If only they just had the courage to fear Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, and not get involved
with that haram wealth, they might find a better way. It might be difficult, there might be
a little dip as Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala is testing that person, but they might find that
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on the other side of that dip is another place that they never could have logically thought
about. But it would only come about once they turn to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala.
Technique # 7: Du’a
The 7th technique on how to increase your wealth while pleasing Allah subhanahu wa
ta’ala is du’a -- making du’a to Allah ‘azza wa jal.
You might think, is it permissible to simply ask Allah for more money?
Do you just say, "Oh Allah, give me money! Give me money!"
No, that is not how you make the du’a.
This is the du’a that Allah encourages us to make and puts it on our tongue and reveals
it in the Qur’an. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala says:
"Oh Allah give us good in this world and good in the hereafter, and safety from the
hellfire.” - Qur’an 2:201
For anybody I’ve ever spoken to who had a problem with wealth -- who had a problem
with money, or thought Islam discourages it, I would quote for them that ayah because
Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala encourages us to ask for the goodness of this life and the
goodness of the next and to seek protection from the hellfire.
So it’s not all about just focusing on the money and that’s it. And it’s not all about just
focusing on the hereafter and that’s it.
Islam is the natural way. Islam is the solution for humanity. Humanity loves to have a
good life and humanity would love to have a good hereafter. In other words Islam brings
the goodness of both worlds.
As Rabi’ ibn ‘Aamir said when he was asked by the Persian general, what is the mission
of Islam, “We came to emancipate them from the constrictiveness of dunya, to the
expansiveness of the dunya and aakhirah”.
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Because if somebody just focused on the dunya, what a small thing to focus on! Islam
tells us to focus on both.
It’s not that we’re coming to people and saying, hey, you know what, forget about the
world and just focus on the hereafter. No. The focus is, and Islam commands, that a
person aim for excellence in this dunya and in the hereafter -- to aim high in both.
The Middle Path Between Two Extremes
We have two extremes in our community.
We have people that say that poverty is the ideal.
You’ve probably noticed that we don’t appreciate the topic of money. Hence, in the
masjid, how many times is the topic of money brought up? Sure in fundraisers the topic
comes up, but other than that, it's a taboo topic. Nobody should be talking about it. If
somebody dares to bring up the issue, we shut them down.
So we’ve got one side of the group that’s saying that poverty is the ideal—thinking that
people should aim to be poor. A lot of times people who bring up this extreme will bring
up the fact that there were poor people in history who were great people—which is no
problem. There’s no problem with that.
But I want you to focus on those people who financially may not have had money in
their hands. I ask you, did they have low standards?
No they did not.
They reached for the highest possible level.
People, in this topic of “poverty is the ideal”, will cite Umar radhi Allahu ‘anhu and they’ll
say that ‘Umar was poor.
Now, anytime someone says that, I get really irritated. Because ‘Umar radhi Allahu
‘anhu was one of the greatest leaders of humanity. And you are telling me he was
poor?
This is coming from a misconception that people think that if you have money, you must
be extravagant with it.
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Umar had all the riches that he needed, yet he didn't spend it on himself. He took care
of people. And that is what you want to aim for.
You want to aim to have the wealth but not spend it extravagantly on yourself and then
just ending it there.
The whole purpose of making this wealth and following the path of wealth is to cultivate
the land in the process. People will have jobs. Life will become better, and that is what
Allah wants: cultivation and civilization.
This is for the benefit of the people, the benefit of your Islam, all of these things, but it
doesn’t necessarily mean that someone is going to spend extravagantly on themselves.
Then there is the other extreme, where some people only focus on money regardless of
where it comes from, whether it's haram or halal. They might even forget entirely about
building a home in paradise. It’s all just about money, money, money.
We’ve seen examples like that – of people who spend like crazy and get media
attention. Or maybe they have lots of money but they own a casino or they sell alcohol
in their stores.
Obviously that’s a bad example and this is not representative of that middle path that
Islam encourages: to seek goodness in this life, seek goodness in the hereafter, and
ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala to protect us from hellfire.
Mastering money or becoming its slave
Once somebody came to me and asked “Why do you keep focusing on money? Why
not instead, focus on something worthy, like some Islamic topic?”
Now, I decided to focus on money to master it.
After I mastered it, I realized a couple of lessons:
Number 1: Mastering money is not that difficult.
Money is actually a lot easier to understand than most things that people study in
university. Money is way easier to understand than engineering or med school or
computer science. It’s a lot easier than all those topics.
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Yet how much time do people spend trying to figure money out? Not much.
Even though ultimately they’re going to be enslaved to money until they figure it out.
Number 2: Once you master money, then money becomes a servant.
Now you don’t have to make money your excuse. You can actually address some other
problems in your life that were overshadowed by money before.
I even had a theory that Shaytan keeps people in debt, keeps people in poverty, keeps
them chasing after money to distract them from more important things. Because once
you achieve money, once you get the money you need, then you realize that this was
never the goal.
You know, I saw an interesting comment once.
Someone was asking, “Why is it that all the people who are saying that money isn’t a
big deal are people with a lot of money?”
You see, you can only realize that money isn’t a big deal once you have the money that
you need. And once you have the money that you need, you realize that it’s just a
mirage. It’s just a symbol. It’s not the real goal in life.
If more people could achieve their financial independence earlier and earlier, we’d
actually have a lot more people focused on helping civilization, working for the hereafter
in sha Allahu ta’ala.
That’s what I want for you and for our ummah.
So what’s next?
If you want to master the money game in a way that doesn’t compromise your deen,
you’ll want to check out a whole new series of videos I recorded for a program called
The Millionaire Who Went To Jannah.
In this program, we’ll start by dispelling the Muslim money misconceptions one by one.
Then, we’re going to start going deep and personal to understand how you really view
money. What emotions do you have associated with money? What does the voice in
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your mind keep telling you about money and is it actually correct? Or is that voice
holding you back and sabotaging your success?
Once you have a firm understanding of where you are, we are going to define exactly
where you want to go. You’re going to see very clearly what financial independence
and success looks like to you – and you’ll see what numbers you’ll need to get there.
And then, once we know where you are and know where you need to be, I’m going to
show you how to get there.
I’ve spent hundreds of hours studying the money issue and even more time
implementing and experimenting with what I learned so that I could master money.
I didn't have someone who had been down the path that could mentor me. And I don't
want you to have to do it alone like I had to.
I want to help you cut down your learning curve – so that in just a few weeks, in sha
Allah ta’ala you’ll learn the best of what took me years to learn and understand.
To get started, go to muslimmoneymaster.com to get my free series of videos.
These free videos will remove your Muslim money misconceptions and show you simple
and powerful ways to change your attitude towards money and dunya success.
Then, you’ll get an opportunity to join my complete money mastery training program.
The Millionaire Who Went To Jannah.
And in sha Allah, when you understand the money issue, and implement the
techniques I teach you, you can stop being a slave of money and start becoming its
master.
With best wishes to see you succeed at the highest level,
-Muhammad Alshareef
p.s. If you haven’t seen my free video series already, go to MuslimMoneyMaster.com
so you don’t miss out.
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Seven Ways to Increase Wealth and Win Allah`s Love

Transcription

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