with his greatest concern being to pamper a body whose final fate is worms and decay. That is the real affliction, the very thing that is harming people today. Hardly anyone can be found who is not asking, “How big is our mansion? What is our car? How fine are our furnishings? What food do we eat?” Even among those who read and teach the Islamic sciences, some study only to attain a title or position that will grant them worldly comfort. It is as though man were not created for a lofty purpose, whereas this world and its pleasures are nothing but a means. We ask Allah to let it—and us together with you—remain only a means.

Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him, said in effect: “A person ought to employ money the way he employs a donkey for riding or a latrine for relieving himself.” Such people truly understand wealth and its value. Do not make money your greatest concern; ride money—if you do not ride money, money will ride you, and your sole worry will become this world.

For that reason we say: every time the world opens its doors to people and they set their sights upon it, they lose from the Hereafter in proportion to what they gain from this world. The Prophet ﷺ said, “By Allah, it is not poverty that I fear for you”—meaning he did not fear poverty for them, for the world would be opened up—“but I fear that the world will be spread out for you as it was spread out for those before you. You will compete for it as they competed for it, and it will destroy you as it destroyed them.” The Messenger spoke the truth.