Sunday, March 22, 2009

Notes from Sacred Learning General Talk. Wisdom in Wealth. Delivered on the 20th of January 2008

Peace be upon you,

Here are some notes from a lecture I went to by Shaykh Hussain Sattar. Please note any errors in the notes are from my own shortcomings. Please listen to the actual audio lecture for a better understanding. You can find it at www.sacredlearning.org , under the General Talks tab.

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Notes from Sacred Learning General Talk.
Wisdom in Wealth
Delivered on the 20th of January 2008


As Muslims we are thought to spend moderately. We should be neither excessive nor miserly.
An example of excessive spending would be constantly feeding your nafs (Base, animalistic desires).
An example of miserly spending would be when nothing is getting done.

The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said …
"Be in this world as though you were a stranger or a traveler/wayfarer."
(On the authority of Ibn 'Umar, may Allah be pleased with them both, narrated by Al- Bukhari).

This statement instructs us to meet our needs but do not indulge in desires. We need to remember that we checked into this world and soon we will check out of this world.

When we are fulfill our needs such as food, shelter, and clothing we need to always stay within our limits. Never overstretch our means. An example of this would be that when buying a home we should…
First- find a sharia compliant bank
Second- We research and are told we can afford a house which will cost
$3,000/month.
Third- We should buy a house which will cost us $2,000 / month.
Lastly- We should donate the extra money to a charity.

We should realize that Allah, the Mighty, is a protector and a guardian over us and our family. In reality we do not take care of our children. It is Allah who takes care of our children. He is fact the true care taker.

Two other points to carefully consider are consistency and diversity. Any financial advisor will tell you that you should invest consistently even if it is a small amount. Also, they will tell you that you should diversify your investment portfolio.

Also, there are many different types of virtuous acts, which will be rewarded in so many ways. We should try to do a little bit of everything because we never know which small deed will tip our balance into Jannah. This way we get all sorts of returns on the Day of Judgement.

All of this is summarized by the concise and precise words of the Noble Messenger, peace be upon him, who said “Moderation in spending is half of livelihood…”

(On the authority of Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him, narrated by Al Bukhari.)

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~ Peace till next time...MoCo

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

7 Ideas to keep $ in your bank!

Peace be upon you,

I just read a amazing article on Yahoo! Finance about saving money in these though times. I thought it was very simple and effective so I thought I would share some of the ideas with you all. If you would like to read the whole thing read it here.

Idea # 1: Use an automatic debit program to make credit card payments. These can easily be set up online or by calling up your bank. Hopefully you'll never be late again and this will reduce your late fees, which can sometimes be as high $40 each month.

So... if your late 6 times a year that's $240 your throwing away. Just imagine having an extra $240 every year, which is the equivalent of a $0.12 raise. Good job! you just got a raise for paying your bills on time!!!




~ Peace till next time...MoCo