The challenge of materialism

Men more than women are challenged with the task of balancing two often contradictory priorities, deen and dunya. The spiritual and the material. Because we are obligated to provide for our wives and children, we don't have the luxury of pure asceticism. We can't turn our backs on the dunya and live an exclusively spiritual life. Money has to matter to us.

We just have to be able to figure out how to not let it matter too much. This, I would argue, is the greatest challenge and perhaps currently the greatest failure of masculinity in the modern Materialism poses the gravest threat to our dean, and it has been the source of a great deal of the fitna that we now face. Materialism is a major element in both feminism and red pill theory. Theory. Both overemphasize the value of economic achievement and its importance in measuring the worth of a human being.

Notice in the ayah when Allah said, Allah is indicating here that the pursuit of provision may lead man to follow the footsteps of Shaitan, presumably believing that those footsteps lead to greater provision and sustenance, more resources. And I'm afraid, frankly, that we are often not careful enough in this regard. Love for dunya, love for wealth is the source of weakness and humiliation that warned us against repeatedly more than anything else, not against any particular ideology because if you dissect any deviant or destructive belief system that is threatening us today, you will find dunya centric competition at its core, and it usually entirely overlooks the akhirah. And here's the thing, success in the dunya does not require morality. That's not to say that material success is impossible to achieve righteously.

It just means that morality is not required for success in the dunya. And in fact, there are many, many more ways to get rich immorally than morally. I mean, look again at the Muslim social media influencers. Why do they take the approach they take? They want to appeal to the lowest common denominator so that they can build a large following to attract sponsorships and generate ad revenue.

So they sacrifice their Islamic morals and ethics. And the same goes for a lot of the alarmists in the Muslim manosphere. They exaggerate the problems in the Muslim community between men and women so that they can frighten you and build a large following of people who want answers and solutions so they can sell you ebooks, courses, solicit donations, and also generate ad revenue. Everything becomes business. Is Shaitan, the footsteps of Shaitan.

And step by step, it leads you down a path to dunya prosperity and spiritual bankruptcy. Look, Allah knows that this is a tremendous challenge for man because the temptation to earn a living unethically, immorally is often indistinguishable for us from our sincere desire to provide for our families. That's why he revealed this crucial piece of information about our existence that's tantamount to something from a cheat sheet on the test of life when he told us that our risk, that our sustenance was written for us before we were even born. He told us that not a single crumb of bread can reach us that was not written for us, and not a single crumb that was written for us can be withheld from us. Allah gave us this information so that we would not obsess and worry about our provision to the extent that we would pursue immoral means of obtaining it.

And when the thought comes to you, but thinking this way will make you lazy, you have just heard a whisper from Shaitan calling you to follow his footsteps. Footsteps. We cannot forget that the most important job of a is seeking and securing the blessings of Allah upon his family, establishing his home on Haqq and doing his best to preserve the righteousness of his family, not just putting food in their mouths. We have to do better for ourselves and our families in this regard, balancing din and dunya. Remember that when your wives and children become enemies to you because they cause you to sacrifice your din for their sake, it also automatically makes you an enemy to them.

They need you to be righteous more than they need you to be rich.