Peaking whilst in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

, the religion of Islam has a tenuous relationship with the idea of

voluntary poverty Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little

income

.Sabra, Adam Abdelhamid. "Poverty and Charity in Medieval Islam" While Sufism has encouraged the renunciation of material wealth, Sunni and

Shi'ite Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most ...

scholars have traditionally held that self-denial is inconsistent with the Quran's admonition against those who would forbid the good that God has put in this world for his people to enjoy. Some scholars have suggested that Islam began with the message of "sharing with the poor and...the necessity of sacrificing worldly possessions", but following the

Hijra Hijra, Hijrah, Hegira, Hejira, Hijrat or Hijri may refer to: Islam * Hijrah (often written as ''Hejira'' in older texts), the migration of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE * Migration to Abyssinia or First Hegira, of Muhammad's followers ...

flight from Mecca, morphed into a political character extolling conquest. As scholars began to venerate those who abandoned material wealth in order to pursue full-time worship of God, the idealization of poverty grew to such a point that it began to colour Islamic ideas about the nature of poverty.

Early Muslims

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mo ...

's wife Aisha was noted to have adopted voluntary poverty. Some traditions relate her actions to a

hadith Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approva ...

which claims Muhammad told her "A'isha if you want to be joined with me, take of this world as little as a rider's provisions, beware of associating with the rich, and do not deem a garment worn out until you have patched it".

Ibn Sa'd Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Sa‘d ibn Manī‘ al-Baṣrī al-Hāshimī or simply Ibn Sa'd ( ar, ابن سعد) and nicknamed ''Scribe of Waqidi'' (''Katib al-Waqidi''), was a scholar and Arabian biographer. Ibn Sa'd was born in 784/785 C ...

, ''Nisa, p. 53 & 78 & 81 Likewise, his wife

Zaynab bint Jahsh Zaynab bint Jaḥsh ( ar, زينب بنت جحش; 590–641 CE), was a first cousin and wife of Muhammad and therefore considered by Muslims to be a Mother of the Believers. Abdulmalik ibn Hisham. ''Notes to Ibn Ishaq's "Life of the Prophet"' ...

was said to have viewed wealth as '' fitna'', a temptation, and gave away all her possessions and took Umar's 12,000 Dirham annual money given to her, and distributed it among the poor. The first two successors to Muhammad,

Abu Bakr Abu Bakr Abdallah ibn Uthman Abi Quhafa (; – 23 August 634) was the senior companion and was, through his daughter Aisha, a father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, as well as the first caliph of Islam. He is known with the honor ...

and

Umar ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb ( ar, عمر بن الخطاب, also spelled Omar, ) was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr () as the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate ...

, were noted for their voluntary poverty. Abu Bakr was a rich merchant but after he became the companion of Muhammed he became poor because of the Quraish tribe's opposition. At the time of Abu Bakr's daughter marriage, Ayisha had only threadbare clothing which she mended herself. Umar was noted for wearing a frequently patched cloak, rather than a new one. When 'Umar arranged for 1,000 dinars to be sent, he is said to have wept because he had heard Muhammad say that the poor would enter

Jannah In Islam, Jannah ( ar, جَنّة, janna, pl. ''jannāt'',lit. "paradise, garden", is the final abode of the righteous. According to one count, the word appears 147 times in the Quran. Belief in the afterlife is one of the six articles of f ...

500 years before the rest of the Muslims. There is a story that claims that a Muslim saw in a dream

Malik Bin Deenar Malik Dinar ( ar-at, مالك دينار, Mālik b. Dīnār, Malayalam: മാലിക് ദീനാര്‍) (died 748 CE)Al-Hujwiri, "Kashf al-Mahjoob", 89 was a Muslim scholar and traveller. He was one of the first known Muslims to have co ...

and Muhammad Ibn Wasi' being led into

, and noticed that Malik was more honored and allowed to enter first. When he inquired, noting that he believed Ibn Wasi' was the nobler, he was told that it was true, "but Mohammed ibn Wasi possessed two shirts, and Malik only one. That is the reason why Malik is preferred".

Sufi scholars

Sufis referred to the voluntary abstinence of food as "the white death", the refusal to new clothes as "the green death" and the purposeful burdening of oneself with trouble as "the black death". The saint Rabia al-Adawiyya was said to have spent her life preaching voluntary poverty and complete reliance upon Allah for all needs. Dawud al-Tai, a scholar of Sharia and Hadith who died in 777, was said to own nothing except a mat of bullrushes, a leather water vessel used for

wudu Wuḍūʾ ( ar, الوضوء ' ) is the Islamic procedure for cleansing parts of the body, a type of ritual purification, or ablution. The 4 Fardh (Mandatory) acts of ''Wudu'' consists of washing the face, arms, then wiping the head and the fe ...

and drinking, and a brick which he tucked beneath his head to sleep. One apocryphal story claims that a novice and a Sheikh were walking in the woods, and the novice was carrying money. When they came to a dark valley with two roads, the novice asked the Sheikh which path should be taken, and was told "Throw away the

oney Oney may refer to: * Oney, France, a subsidiary of French Auchan Holding and Banque Accord * Oney, Oklahoma, an unincorporated community in Oklahoma * "Oney" (song), a song written by Jerry Chesnut and sung by Johnny Cash, 1972 * Oney Judge, a ...

then you'll be free to take any road you wish". The story teaching that those who own material wealth are ruled by the fear of losing it. The Sufi

Ali Hujwiri Abu 'l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. ʿUthmān b. ʿAlī al-Ghaznawī al-Jullābī al-Hujwīrī (c. 1009-1072/77), known as ʿAlī al-Hujwīrī or al-Hujwīrī (also spelt Hajweri, Hajveri, or Hajvery) for short, or reverentially as Shaykh Syed ʿAlī al- ...

wrote a prayer asking God to "first bestow on me goods that I may give thanks for them, and then help me to abstain from them for Your sake...that my poverty may be voluntary, not compulsory".

al-Ghazzali Al-Ghazali ( – 19 December 1111; ), full name (), and known in Persian-speaking countries as Imam Muhammad-i Ghazali (Persian: امام محمد غزالی) or in Medieval Europe by the Latinized as Algazelus or Algazel, was a Persian polymat ...

's book "Revival of the Religious Sciences" (''Ihya 'ulum al-din'') contained a section entitled "The virtue of poverty", (''Fadilat al-faqr'') which contains a number of stories, such as

Ibrahim Bin Adham Ibrahim ibn Adham also called Ibrahim Balkhi (); c. 718 – c. 782 / AH c. 100 – c. 165 is one of the most prominent of the early ascetic Sufi saints. The story of his conversion is one of the most celebrated in Sufi legend, as that of a p ...

sending away a sizable monetary donation, noting "I don't want to strike my name from the list of the poor for 60,000 dirhams".Ritter, Hellmut. "The Ocean of the Soul", Part 1, Volume 69. p. 232 Some Sufi ascetics rely solely on charity for their sustenance, and the

Chishti The Chishtī Order ( fa, ''chishtī'') is a tariqa, an order or school within the mystic Sufi tradition of Sunni Islam. The Chishti Order is known for its emphasis on love, tolerance, and openness. It began with Abu Ishaq Shami in Chisht, a ...

sect forbids them to keep any gift for longer than a day without distributing it to the needy.Singh, David Emmanuel. "Sainthood and Revelatory Discourse", p. 149

References

External links

Relative Poverty; A Shia Perspective
{{Islamic studies Poverty and religion Poverty