Sharḥ Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn - Ibn al-'Uthaymin - (3/434)

Sharḥ Riyāḍ al-ṢāliḥīnIbn al-'Uthaymin

Explanation
The author—may Allah have mercy on him—has cited several hadiths that highlight the merit of those who spend their wealth generously in the path of Allah. In the narrations of ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd and ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar (Allah be pleased with them) it is stated that true envy (ghibṭah) is warranted only toward two kinds of people; in other words, no one deserves to be admired with genuine envy except these two categories.

The first is the person to whom Allah has granted knowledge, namely wisdom, who acts upon it and teaches it to others. Such a person is the one who should be envied, for when you compare his state with that of an ignorant man, the difference becomes clear: the ignorant worships Allah without knowledge and knows of Allah’s law only what he sees people doing. As a result, he follows the crowd in what is right and in what is wrong, a serious shortcoming in one’s worship. When a person worships Allah without insight, his worship is inevitably deficient.

Likewise, if you compare a man whom Allah has endowed with knowledge but who fails to act on it, with another whom Allah has endowed with knowledge and who both implements it and teaches it to the people, you will notice a great gulf between the two. The one who truly deserves envy is the latter—the one who received knowledge from Allah, practiced it, and conveyed it to others.

The second category is a man to whom Allah has granted wealth, and he spends it in the cause of Allah—on everything that pleases Him, night and day. This is the one who is to be envied. As for a person who has been given wealth but does not spend it in ways that earn Allah’s pleasure, he is not to be envied, nor should anyone desire what he has, because whatever benefit he gains from that money is confined to this world; he neither spends it for Allah’s sake nor in His path.

A third person—a poor man who possesses no wealth—likewise is not to be envied. From among the wealthy, envy is appropriate only for the one to whom Allah has given riches and enabled him to exhaust them for the truth, in that which pleases

[الشَّرْحُ] ذكر المؤلف ﵀ أحاديث في بيان الذين ينفقون أموالهم ويجودون بها في سبيل الله، ففي حديث عبد الله بن مسعود وعبد الله بن عمر ﵄ بيان أنه لا حسد إلا في اثنين، يعني: لا أحد يُغبط غبطة حقيقية إلا هذان الصنفان: الأول: من آتاه الله العلم وهو الحكمة، فكان يعمل بها ويعلمها الناس، فهذا هو الذي يغبط؛ لأنك إذا قارنت بين حال هذا الرجل وحال الجاهل عرفت الفرق بينهما؛ الجاهل يعبد الله على جهل، ولا يعرف من شريعة الله إلا ما فعله الناس، فتجده يتبع الناس على الصواب والخطأ، وهذا نقص كبير في عبادة الرجل؛ لأن الإنسان إذا عبد الله على غير بصيرة؛ صارت عبادته ناقصة. كذلك إذا قارنت بين رجل آتاه الله العلم ولكنه لم يعمل به، ورجل آتاه الله العلم فعمل به وعلمه الناس، تجد الفرق العظيم بين هذا وهذا، فالذي يغبط حقيقة هو الذي آتاه الله العلم فعمل به وعلمه الناس. والثاني: رجل آتاه الله مالاً فهو ينفقه في سبيل الله، في كل ما يرضي الله ليلاً ونهاراً، فهذا هو الذي يغبط، أما من آتاه الله المال ولكنه لم ينفقه في مرضاة الله؛ فلا غبطة فيه، ولا يغبط على ما أوتي؛ لأن هذا المال إن انتفع به؛ انتفع به في الدنيا فقط؛ لأنه لا ينفقه لله ولا في سبيل الله. والرجل الثالث: رجلٌ فقيرٌ لم يؤت مالاً فهو أيضاً لا يغبط، فلا يغبط من ذوي المال إلا من آتاه الله مالاً فسلطه على هلكته في الحق، فيما يرضي