Poverty is one of the worldwide problems. According to Habitat for Humanity, one-quarter of the world's population lives in conditions that harm their health and safety.
If there is a God, then why some people are rich and some people are poor?
The answer is that God provides more than sufficient food for all and you cannot see any shortage of His sustenance across the globe. The sufficient sustenance is available even for a tiny creature . As He says:
“How many an animal there is that does not carry its own provision. Allah provides for it, as (He provides) for you. He is the All-hearing, the All-Knowingâ€. (Quran, Chapter-29, Verse-60)
He says: “ there is no animal on the earth, but that its sustenance leis with God, and He knows its [enduring] abode and its temporary place of lodging. Everything is in a manifest book†(Quran, Chapter11, Verse-6)
And He says:
“Man should have a look on his food, We pour down plenteous water[ from the sky], then split the earth, sowed the seeds in it and made the vines and vegetables and olive and date palms grow from it. We created densely-planted gardens and fresh fruits and pastures, as a sustenance for you and for your livestockâ€. (Quran, Chapter-80, Verses-24-31)
The poverty comes from lack of social justice in one hand and from indolence, laziness and weakness of some individuals in other hand. According to Qur’anic statement, the wealth in the society is like the blood in the body (59:7). As the blood must flow throughout the body, so the wealth must flow throughout the society. Communal property is a distinguishing mark of Islam, and therefore communal wealth "cannot be restricted to individuals, a wealth of which the Messenger of God enumerated three aspects, water, herbage, and fire." (Qutb, 1953, p. 109) One honest way of gaining money is through work. Therefore, Islam is against monopoly, usury, corruption, wastefulness, and dishonest commercial practices. Above all Islam stands against luxury-loving people. Luxury is considered as a social disease for both an individual as well as a society.
How to get rid of the poverty?
Imam Ali says: The day in which everything married with one another, “indolence†and “weakness†mingled with each other, and their child was called “poverty and indigenceâ€
Everything is earned through effort and endeavours and this is the reality that Islam has taught us. Indolence, debility, weakness and escaping from hard work and difficult challenges are never compatible with the spirit of belief. They will produce nothing but poverty in all aspects, including economic, moral and spiritual poverty. The striving believers on the other hand shall be self-sufficient and contented in all respects.
Islam strongly, demands from rich people to give the rights of poor people. In fact, there is no religion better than Islam which addresses to rich people for charity, generosity, fairness and being helpful towards poor people and at the same time commands poor people to put all necessity efforts to regain their sustenance. We therefore, believe that if rich and poor both follow the Islamic laws, there will be no significant gap between poor and rich.
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