FRUGALITY IN ISLAM
The Nineteenth Flash

This treatise concerns frugality and contentment, wastefulness and extravagance.

بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحٖيمِIn the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate

كُلُوا وَ اشْرَبُوا وَ لَا تُسْرِفُواEat and drink, but do not be wasteful. — The Quran 7:31

This verse teaches a wise lesson by clearly commanding frugality and emphasizing the condemnation of wastefulness. This matter consists of seven points.

The First Point

The Merciful Creator calls His servants to gratitude for the blessings He has bestowed upon humanity. Wastefulness, however, stands in direct opposition to gratitude and shows a harmful disregard for a blessing. Frugality, on the other hand, demonstrates appreciation for the true value of a blessing.

Indeed, frugality is both a form of gratitude and an expression of respect for the Divine mercy contained within a blessing. It is also a clear source of blessing and a foundation for bodily health, much like a diet. It grants dignity, enabling people to escape the humiliation of begging, and it allows them to appreciate the taste of blessings that may appear simple. Wastefulness, however, contradicts these wisdoms and leads to serious consequences.

The Second Point

The All-Wise Creator has created the human body as an excellent palace and a well-ordered city. The faculty of taste in the mouth functions as a doorkeeper. The nerves and veins, like telephone and telegraph wires, serve as channels of communication between the faculty of taste and the stomach, which is located at the centre of the body. The food that enters the mouth is communicated through those channels. If the body or the stomach has no need for that food, it is rejected and expelled. And if the food is not only useless for the body but also harmful and bitter, it is immediately spat out.

Since the faculty of taste in the mouth functions as a doorkeeper, the stomach, in relation to the care and management of the body, is like a master and ruler. If a gift worth one hundred euros were sent to this palace or city and presented to its ruler, it would be reasonable to give the doorkeeper a tip of five euros. Anything more would be inappropriate, for it could corrupt the doorkeeper and make him arrogant, causing him to forget his duty and open the gates of the palace to rebels who wave generous tips before him.

Keeping this subtle truth in mind, let us now imagine two portions of food. One consists of nourishing food such as cheese and eggs worth three euros. The other consists of the finest baklava worth fifteen euros. Before these two portions enter the mouth, they are equal in relation to the body. After they pass down the throat, they remain equally valuable. Sometimes, in fact, a piece of cheese worth three euros may be even more nourishing. The only difference is a half-minute of pleasure for the faculty of taste. This shows how meaningless and harmful it is to spend fifteen euros instead of three merely for half a minute of taste.