5/543 – Al-Miqdām ibn Maʿdīkarib (may Allah be pleased with him) related that the Prophet ﷺ said, “No one has ever eaten food better than what he eats from the work of his own hands; and indeed the Prophet of Allah David—peace be upon him—used to live on what his own hands produced.” Reported by al-Bukhārī.

Explanation
The author, may Allah have mercy on him, entitles this section: Accepting what a person is given when he had no prior desire for it. This is the purport of the heading.

In other words, one should not fasten his heart to money, yearning for it or asking for it, for that would make this world his sole concern, whereas man has been placed in this world for the sake of the Hereafter. The Exalted says, “I did not create jinn and humankind except to worship Me” (al-Dhāriyāt 51:56), and He says, “But you prefer the life of this world, while the Hereafter is better and longer-lasting” (al-Aʿlā 87:16–17).

Therefore a person ought not attach himself to wealth or be preoccupied with it. If something comes to him without toil, petition, or inward longing, he may accept it; otherwise, he should leave it.

The compiler afterward cited the hadith of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him): the Prophet ﷺ would give him something and he would say, “Give it to someone poorer than I,” whereupon the Messenger ﷺ replied, “Take it. If something from this wealth reaches you while you neither anticipate it nor ask for it, then accept it; treat it as your property. Should you wish, consume it, and should you wish, give it in charity. But for what does not reach you, do not let your heart pursue it.”

Consequently, Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both) would never ask anyone for anything, and whenever something came to him from