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**Lessons from the Life of Abu Dharr (may Allah be pleased with him) – Sayyid Muhammad Baqir**
**05 – D. The Responsibility of Wealth**
Every blessing carries with it a responsibility. Every coin added to a person’s wealth is a new burden placed upon his shoulders. He must carry the trust of this burden throughout his journey along the dark, winding, and fearful path of life—until he meets Allah.
But the human back is too weak to bear the weight of wealth and riches in the face of powerful desires and passions. One must strike a balance between the heaviness of the load and the weakness of the back. A person should not carry more than he is able. He must know his capacity to endure and to bear responsibility.
Earn whatever lawful wealth you wish—but on the condition that you do not burn your Hereafter because of it.
Have you heard the advice of Imam Ali (peace be upon him) to his son, Imam al‑Husayn (peace be upon him)? It says:
“Do not place upon your back more than you can bear, lest it become a burden against you. And if you find among the needy and poor someone who can carry your provisions and your burden to the Day of Resurrection and deliver it back to you then, seize the opportunity. Give to him generously and provide him well, for you may seek him on the Day of Resurrection and not find him.”
The glitter of wealth deprives many people of the ability to understand life and prepare for their ultimate destiny. It drags them into loss amid competitions and rivalries. They wander among the lines of dinar and dirham until they fall into degradation.
The worship of material things confines a person to narrow spaces and prevents him from seeing life and reality except through the small openings of personal interest.
To prevent wealth from dominating a person, he must spend it in the path of Allah and for the needy—and he must not seek unlawful wealth, for in that lies the destruction of faith.
Nothing prevented Abu Dharr from acquiring wealth. He was a companion of the Messenger of Allah, among the earliest Muslims, and at the forefront of the fighters alongside the Prophet throughout his life. Yet faith restrained him.
In the era in which Abu Dharr lived, when people were suffering from extreme poverty and deprivation, the entourage of the caliph were devouring the wealth of Allah “like camels devouring the spring vegetation,” as Imam Ali (peace be upon him) described.
Al‑Ahnaf ibn Qays said:
“I was among a group of Quraysh when Abu Dharr (may Allah be pleased with him) passed by saying: ‘Give glad tidings to the hoarders of wealth of branding marks upon their backs that will emerge from their sides, and branding marks from their necks that will come out of their foreheads.’
He then moved aside and sat by a pillar. I asked, ‘Who is this?’
They said, ‘This is Abu Dharr.’
So I went to him and said, ‘What was that statement I heard you say?’
He replied, ‘I said nothing except what I heard from their Prophet.’
I asked, ‘What do you say about this stipend?’
He said, ‘Take it, for today it is assistance. But if it becomes the price of your religion, then leave it.’”
(*Al‑Ghadir*, p. 320)
Now you know the stance a sincere believer should take toward wealth:
– Seek it from what is lawful.
– Spend it in the path of Allah and for the people.
– If it becomes the price of your faith—then abandon it.
“For my beloved (the Prophet) entrusted to me that any gold or silver that is hoarded and not spent in the path of Allah will be burning coals upon its owner until he empties it in the way of Allah.”
