How to become wealthy, and the end of the misers

سوى من غدا والبخل ملء إهابه	بلوت بني الدنيا فلم أر فـيهــم
قطعت رجائي منهـم بـذبـابـه	فجردت من غمد القناعة صارمـا
ولا ذا يراني قاعدا عند بـابــه	فلا ذا يراني واقفا في طريقــه
وليس الغني إلا عن الشيء لا به	غني بلا مال عن النــاس كلهـم
ولج عتوا في قبيح اكتســابـه	إذا ما الظالم استحسن الظلم مذهبا
ستدعي له ما لم يكن في حسابـه	فكِلهإلى صرف الليالي فإنهـــا
يرى النجم تحت ظـل ركـابــه	فـكم رأينا ظالمـــا متمــردا
أناخت صروف الحادثات ببـابـه	فعـما قليل وهو في غفـلاتــه
ولا حسنات تلتقى في كتــابــه	فأصبح لا مال ولا جــاه يرتجى
وصب عليه الله سوط عــذابـه	وجوزي بالأمر الذي كان فاعـلا

I tested mankind and did not see in them,

except those with skin full’s of miserliness.

So I drew from my sheath the sword of contentment,

And cut my requests to them with the tip of my blade.

And he does not see me standing in his street,

And he does not see me sitting at his door.

Richer than all of society, without money,

And wealth is only by not requiring things.

If a wrongdoer decides upon wrongdoing as his belief,

And arrogantly persists upon his evil actions.

Then leave him to the passing of the nights,

For verily, they will bring him what he had not reckoned for.

And how many rebellious wrongdoers have we seen,

That arrogantly view the star as below the shade of their riding beast.

So after a short while he will, because of his ignorance,

Have lowered onto his door many adversities.

And he has become one who doesn’t desire money or life,

And no good deeds are there in his book.

And he allows (others) all the actions that he used to do,

And Allah poured upon him the scourge of his punishment.

The poem is talking about what our approach to wealth should be. The first part of the poem is aimed at the poorer person who may require monetary assistance. The second part is aimed at the one who has wealth and is stingy, and the poem describes what his end will be.

The poem states that for those who are poor (or even rich), man will never ever be happy with what he has and will want more. Thus the real wealth or “lack of need” as it is literally translated in Arabic, is to not desire things and be happy with what you have.

There are also two kinds of sustenance. One that is positive in that Allah gives you wealth, the other is the negative where Allah turns away a trial from you - and this is the greater sustenance. So once again, the message for the poor person is to be happy with your lot, as you don’t know how much sustenance you’ve really been getting.

As for the one who has money and does not give, then Allah can take from him as quickly as he gave to him. That is not an issue for him. This person will also have the misery of the afterlife to deal with too.