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| Faqr and Ghina (Poverty
& Richness) Fethullah Gülen Poverty in the language of Sufism means
that an initiate claims possession of nothing and is freed from all kinds
of attachment toward worldly things, feeling utmost neediness and
destitution before God in his relationship with Him, based on servanthood
on his side and the Sole Object of Worship on God’s. It is not
‘poverty’ as understood by people, nor does it mean begging from
people by displaying one’s privations. Poverty consists in cutting relationship
with all else other than the Eternally Besought-of-All and depending on
Him in meeting all of one’s necessities. For this reason, the more in
detachment one is from whatever is worldly and temporary and the more
annihilated in dependence on Divine Attributes and Essence, the more one
has attained Poverty and is right to repeat the saying of the Prophet,
upon him be peace and blessings, Poverty is my pride. As it is stated in a blessed saying, when
poverty becomes a dimension of faith and submission, a man no longer
depends on the help, will and power of anyone else save God. Even if such
a man had so much wealth as to fill the whole world, since it is subject
to decay and exhaustion, he never thinks of depending on it and turns to
God with all his strength and feelings, conscious of his essential poverty
and helplessness. How beautiful is the following couplet of Nabi, a 17th
century Ottoman poet: Do not despise poverty, O Nabi! Another fine observation about poverty was
made by Mawlana Jalal al-Din al-Rumi: Poverty is the essence and all else is
form; Even if man cannot discern his essential
weakness and poverty with the light of belief, it is a reality that he is
weak, poor and needy. God Almighty declares: O mankind! You are poor in
your relation with God, while God is He Who is the All Wealthy and Worthy
of Praise Who returns abundantly whatever is done for Him (35.15). As man
absolutely needs His act of choice, will and decree to come into
existence, whereas otherwise it is equally probable whether he comes into
existence or not, he also needs His Self-subsistent and All-subsisting
Existence at every moment to survive. Man’s poverty and neediness before the
Almighty is never a means of humiliation for him. Rather, the more
conscious of his poverty he is, the more dignified he is. For being
conscious of one’s poverty and neediness before the Absolutely Wealthy
One is richness itself. He becomes aware of his being not dependent on
others and acquires the consciousness of independence to the extent that
he feels in his conscience that God is the sole source of power and wealth
to rely on and asks for help and turns to Him accordingly. Even if such a
one is materially poor, he feels need for nothing and no one. He is also
convinced of the fact that whatever or whoever is in existence, including
himself, essentially belongs to the Almighty, being a shadow of the shadow
of His absolutely independent existence. This degree of conviction of
God’s Unity is called annihilation in God, two steps ahead of which is
subsistence with God. Concerning this, Hayali says: Poverty is the goal of saints, the
(natural) state of purified scholars, and the most manifest sign of love
of God. Poverty is something the Almighty has
placed in the hearts of His friends so that those hearts may prosper
through it. Poverty is a key of light to open the eye
of the heart to the inexhaustible treasuries of God. One who has this key
is the richest in the world. Poverty is the door to Richness. Those who
can enter through this door reach in their conscience the infinite
treasuries of the Owner of All Property. They reach them and find that
poverty is identical with richness. For this reason, we can say as Junayd
al-Bagdhdadi did: Richness is no more than the final, perfect degree of
poverty. When one is perfectly conscious of one’s
essential poverty before God and one’s absolute dependence on Him, one
is absolutely rich. For such a one no longer feels any need. It must be
this, which is meant by the famous saying in circulation among people,
‘The real richness is the richness of the heart.’ When a man has attained this degree of
richness, he is as if he had obtained a credit card that has validity
everywhere. One who has such a mysterious capital can be regarded as
neither poor nor powerless. This is what is described in the following
lines: His is Power, by which we are powerful. Source: http://www.fethullahgulen.org |