Among people are those who, were Allah to enrich them, wealth would ruin them; and among them are others who, were Allah to keep them poor, poverty would ruin them. Allah grants each soul only what divine wisdom decrees: “We test you with evil and with good as a trial, and to Us you will be returned” (Al-Anbiyāʾ 35).

When Allah entrusts someone with money, such individuals fall into two categories.

1. The first: one to whom Allah gives wealth but who acquires it through unlawful avenues—like the usurer, the liar, the cheat in buying and selling, or anyone who devours people’s property unjustly. His riches do him no good, for he is affluent in this world yet—Allah’s refuge is sought—destitute in both this life and the next. Everything that reaches him in this manner will be a cause of punishment on the Day of Resurrection, the gravest example being usury. Allah says:
   “Those who consume usury will not stand [on that Day] except as one stands whom Satan has driven to madness by his touch. That is because they say, ‘Trade is only like usury,’ while Allah has permitted trade and forbidden usury. So whoever receives admonition from his Lord and desists may keep what is past, and his affair is with Allah. But whoever reverts—those are the inhabitants of the Fire; they will abide therein.” (Al-Baqarah 275)
   And He says:
   “O you who believe, fear Allah and forgo what remains of usury, if you are true believers. But if you do not, then be informed of a war from Allah and His Messenger. Yet if you repent, you may have your principal; you will neither wrong nor be wronged.” (Al-Baqarah 278-279)

2. The second category of the wealthy comprises those whom Allah enriches by lawful means: he buys and sells with full disclosure, sincere counsel, and honesty, never earning except what is permissible. Such a man’s wealth truly benefits him, for one who conducts himself in this manner is, more often than not, someone whom Allah