WEALTH

58. Wealth ~ 175 ~ This indeed is a much more worthy goal than the simple acquisition of wealth. But the attainment of this goal is possible only when man devotes the greater part of his energies towards reaching it. The activities of earning money have to be kept within a certain limit and only then will he find time to attain this nobler goal. Money may fulfill the physical or material needs of man. But it is not sufficient to fulfill his spiritual and intellectual needs. One who makes the acquisition of wealth his life’s goal, will of course, continue to receive bodily nourishment, but his soul will all the while have been starving. The intellectual part of his mind, remaining continuously in an under-nourished state, will finally cease to exist. That is why wealth is called fitna (source of trial, that is, it is given to man as a test). The proper use of money leads man to all kinds of progress, whereas the wrong use of it casts man headlong into the pit of destruction.